Breast Enlargement - Cosmetic Surgery for Breast Enlargement

Cosmetic surgery for breast enlargement is one of those procedures that has made plastic surgery branch off into a specialization of cosmetic surgery. Breast implantation has come a long way since the early part of the last century that used fatty tissue from a woman’s own body, to the current standard of using silicone implants. It is curious to note that among some cosmetic surgeons, there is an increasing movement to return to the use of the body’s own fat stores to increase the size of the breast. This would make perfect sense as well because the human breast is made up mostly of adipose tissue and some muscle and fascia.

The human breast fundamentally serves one purpose and that is of breastfeeding. Immediately after delivery of a child, hormones stimulate the breasts to start production of milk and since pregnancy has already caused the increase of the breast tissue, the size of a woman’s breast increases substantially to accommodate its future use. Note that no matter what the size of the breast before pregnancy, it will increase to just the right amount to facilitate its new function. As milk production commences, the rest of the body fat starts to dissipate and is used up for production of milk. This is the reason why mother’s must breastfeed for at least six months before their bodies come back to the normal shape. After breastfeeding and the drying up of the stores of fat, the breast returns to its normal state though there can still be an increase in size. Breast enlargement has been recorded as usually being a requirement of women who have had children, have some kind of low self esteem issues, and are generally not very happy with their appearance. Curiously, these very factors tend to manifest and feed the urge to continue with implants even after their failure – and all breast implants will rupture or fail at some point.

The surgery to place an implant is performed by either making an incision at the bottom of the breast, at the areola, from the armpits, and sometimes also from the umbilical region, and abdomen. The implants themselves are placed just before the start of the fascia, under the fascia, but above the muscle, or under the muscle. The biggest problem comes from the rupture of the implant and the leakage of the silicone into the surrounding tissue that can cause granulomas.