Breast Augmentation Offers Four Methods to Meet Patient Needs

Breastaugmentation is consistently one of the top surgical procedures requested bywomen who want to enhance or balance the form of their bodies.  Using breast implants to enlarge or reshapebreasts to become more attractive or to improve self-confidence and self-imageis far from taboo or uncommon in today’s society.

Reasons forchoosing breast augmentation are very personal but may help if you:

• feel your breast size is too small for your body
• need to reconstruct your breasts after surgery for cancer
• have breasts of unequal sizes and seek to balance them
• want to adjust your breasts after pregnancy

Idealcandidates for breast augmentation are woman who want to enhance and improvetheir look, not those seeking unattainable perfection.

Make the Cut

As breastenhancement has evolved through the years, the methods of doing the surgeryhave, as well. One of the greatest changes to this procedure is where theincision will be made for inserting the implant. The Mayo Clinic illustratesthree of the four most common breast implant incisionlocations:

• Around the areola (periareolar)
• Under the breast (inframammary)
• In the armpit (transaxillary),
• And in the navel (TUBA).

The first twoare traditional surgical methods. The latter are endoscopic surgeries thatplace incisions further away from the breast.

Being Traditional

The areolaincision is among the most widely used incisions. All implant types can beplaced or removed using this incision. One advantage of this incision is thatthe surgeon is working close to the breast and can easily evaluate andmanipulate the results.

Theinframammary incision (commonly known as the crease) is done under the breast.If the placed properly, a scar should not be visible. The surgeon usually triesto place the incision so that it will fall just above the new crease. Thegreatest advantage of this choice is that virtually all revisions can beperformed via this incision.

How Endoscopic Surgery Works

Endoscopicsurgery involves an endoscope, a long, narrow tube that allows small surgical instrumentsto be inserted far from the actual location of the surgery. A doctor performsthe surgery with the help of a video camera on the endoscope. This allows thesurgeon to remotely maneuver the surgical tools. It also allows for very smallincisions with precise work that does not damage nearby tissue.

While it mayaccount for less obvious scarring from the surgery, one problem with incisionsthat are done further from the breast with endoscopic surgery is that it can beharder for doctors to obtain symmetry in the breast implants.