Am I A Good Candidate For Breast Augmentation?

Breast Augmentation

Breast augmentation can create physical balance, boost your confidence and help you feel better about the way you look. During these procedures, saline, silicone or alternative composite implants are placed under the breast tissue or chest muscles to enhance the shape, size and fullness of the breasts. In order to determine whether or not you’re a good candidate for breast augmentation, there are several factors that you should consider.

How to Know If Breast Augmentation Is Right for You

If the size or shape of your breasts make you feel uncomfortable, breast augmentation may be an effective way to alter this aspect of your physique for increased confidence. This procedure is also used to achieve balance between the breasts when one breast is notably smaller or larger than the other. Patients, however, must have realist expectations for these procedures. Consulting with your surgeon will give you the opportunity to learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of different implant materials and to choose an augmented breast size that is best in line with your goals.

General Health

Before any cosmetic procedure is performed, doctors check to ensure that patients are in good general health. Certain lifestyle factors and health issues can make recovery unnecessarily difficult and may increase the risks of this procedure. Problems like untreated hypertension, diabetes and obesity often make people undesirable candidates due to the additional risks that they create.

Women who are pregnant, lactating or living with untreated cancer or pre-cancer are not considered viable candidates for breast augmentation. Untreated infections and smoking can temporarily affect a person’s candidacy, however, prospective patients always have the option to complete smoking cessation programs and receive proper treatment for their existing illnesses. After these steps have been taken, doctors can again review general health in order to determine candidacy.

Bleeding Tendencies and Prior Surgeries

There are other factors that your doctor will want to review before proceeding with a breast augmentation. For instance, if you’ve had prior surgeries on your breasts, whether to remove cancer or for aesthetic enhancement, your provider will want to know more about these. Some patients have bleeding tendencies that their impact clotting abilities, which may complicate these procedures. For these and other reasons, your doctor will conduct a full review of both your medical history and your current, general health before scheduling your surgery.

What to Expect

After candidacy has been determined, you will have the opportunity to view and touch different implant materials in order to gauge their firmness and weight. You may even be encouraged to wear prosthetic devices for several hours or days in order to see how this additional weight feels on your body. The goal is to help you choose an implant that feels comfortable and that you’ll be satisfied with over the long-term. You will even learn the different benefits that can be gained by opting for either under-the-muscle or over-the-muscle implants.

Breast augmentation has become far less invasive in recent years and thus, this is an outpatient procedure with minimal recovery time. The procedure will last between one and two hours and can be performed under general anesthesia or with local anesthesia. Before going home, you’ll be given instructions on how to care for the treated area throughout each phase of the recovery process. To find out more about breast augmentation procedures, contact Steven Warnock MD today. We’ll work with you to review your candidacy.