Breast Restoration After Implant Removal in the San Francisco Bay Area
Many women are very concerned about the look of their breasts after the implants are removed and rightly so. The results depend on the situation. Dr. D’Amore can perform several techniques that help make the breasts look better.
Dr. Tancredi D’Amore performs breast implant removal for patients in the San Francisco Bay Area. Dr. D’Amore offers many breast enhancement options after implant removal to ensure that your breasts look as good as possible. Contact his office at 415-927-7660 to learn more.
Breast Enhancement Techniques After Implant Removal
While breast restoration techniques after implant removal vary by patient. At the time of your initial consultation, Dr. D’Amore will assess which options will be optimal in your situation.
Inframammary Fold Reconstruction
The inframammary fold is often forgotten during breast revisions, despite being essential to the breast shape. Dr. D’Amore performs fold reconstructions after virtually all implant removals.
What Happens to the Inframammary Fold?
The inframammary fold is the sharp crease separating the breasts’ lower pole from the top of the ribcage. This is an important anatomical landmark, as there would be no breast shape without this fold.
Unfortunately, the natural attachments along this fold are often disrupted when implants are placed. Also the weight of the implants over the next several years will disrupt the fold. The breasts implants will then form the fold; however, this fold usually ends up being several centimeters below the original fold. When the implants are removed the breasts will revert to the original fold and the incision becomes visible below it. Alternatively, if your breasts do not regain the inframammary fold, everything is loose, and there is no longer resemblance to a breast.
Either way, the inframammary fold must be addressed for natural-looking results.
Dr. D’Amore’s Fold Reconstruction
Following implant removal, Dr. D’Amore works to reconstruct the fold exactly where the incision was made. That way, the resulting scar will be neatly tucked beneath the breast, making it less noticeable.
After the breast implants have been removed, Dr. D’Amore uses an adjustable operating table to sit the patients upright. This allows him and his team to see what gravity will do and restore a breast appearance that will remain natural. From here, Dr. D’Amore uses a tailor-tack technique to mark the stretched out skin of the lower pole of the breast and remove what is possible. This technique allows him to see his adjustments before the actual incisions are made.
Dr. D’Amore does not stop making adjustments until he gets to the point where results are as good as possible in the current situation.
Stretched-out skin is removed from the lower pole of the breast. Dr. D’Amore only removes the superficial layer of skin during an inframammary crease reconstruction. He then folds the subcutaneous tissue (an auto augmentation flap) under the breast to give more roundness to the lower pole of the breasts. This not only helps to conceal the scar but also helps to improve volume and projection.
Additional Breast Enhancement Options
Breast Lift (Mastopexy)
When breast implants have been present for many years, particularly when they are large, or after pregnancies it is common to experience moderate to significant breast ptosis (sagging). Sagging breasts can be addressed with a mastopexy (breast lift).
Breast lift surgery helps to tighten the skin envelope and make the breasts perkier.
Breast lift surgery is also performed to raise and possibly reduce the size of the nipple-areolar complex (NAC). Implants often stretch the areolas; these can be reduced during a breast lift while they are repositioned to a more central area on the breast.
Like fold reconstruction, breast lift surgery is planned and marked while the patient is in a seated position and with a tailor-tack technique initially to ensure the most accurate results.
Additional incisions are required for a breast lift. Most often, a technique will be used that includes incisions around the areola and one vertical toward the lower pole of the breast.
Fat Grafting
Fat grafting can be performed following an en bloc capsulectomy to restore some breast volume, particularly in the upper pole and medial area of the breast toward the cleavage area.
Fat grafting after implant removal is also an excellent technique to restore symmetry for patients with native breast asymmetry.
Dr. D’Amore has been performing fat grafting to the breast, or natural breast augmentation, for over a decade. This procedure takes fat from your body using gentle liposuction. Fat can be removed from nearly anywhere and is commonly removed from the abdomen, hips, flanks, and back.
Once the fat has been removed, it is left to decant to separate from the rest of the fluids. Once ready, the fat cells are injected into the breasts using a continuously moving micro-cannula that deposits the fat cells into different layers of the breast tissue. Because fat grafting uses living cells, this approach allows more fat to maintain blood supply and survive the transfer.
It is expected that a portion of the transferred fat cells will not survive and be absorbed by the body. The average take rate is 60%. Once the fat takes it will be there for a very long period of time and will behave like normal fat anywhere in the body. The amount transferred will depend on two factors.
- The amount of fat a patient has: Some patients have very little body fat, so transferring a significant amount is difficult.
- The amount of natural breast tissue a patient has: Natural breast tissue and subcutaneous tissue is needed to accept the fat. If a patient has minimal breast tissue and subcutaneous tissue, less fat can be transferred because it will saturate the native tissues. While a second session of fat grafting can be performed to accept more fat,
Fat grafting allows for safe and lasting volume enhancement without breast implants.
In terms of the timing of fat grafting Dr. D’Amore prefers to accomplish everything in one surgical procedure if possible.
Breast Lift + Fat Grafting
A breast lift and fat grafting can be performed together for women who desire tighter, more elevated breasts and additional volume.
What About Implants?
Due to the complications and safety concerns posed by breast implants, Dr. D’Amore has not offered these for several years. He uses fat grafting exclusively when augmenting and adding volume to the breasts.
This level of experience with fat grafting has allowed him to achieve significant, natural, and lasting results.
Interested in Breast Restoration After Implant Removal in the San Francisco Bay Area?
If you are considering breast implant removal, contact Dr. Tancredi D’Amore and his expert team. Schedule a consultation today to discuss your options and learn how this procedure can benefit you. Call us today at 415-927-7660 or fill out our online contact form.