The major concern who wants breast augmentation surgery
may be 'what kind of implant do I have to use?'.
Let's check about the current available breast implants.
Anatomical shaped implant and round implant.
1) The types of the breast implants
2006, U.S. FDA approved the use of cohesive gel silicone implants for esthetic purpose at last which had not been permitted in US and Korea for so long time.
After that, the saline bag implants were rapidly replaced by the cohesive gel silicone bags.
But the FDA approved silicone gel bag products line was just the round shape implants, not the anatomic shaped implants.
In Korea, Feb 2012 the shaped implants (Polytech, German made) were approved by KFDA.
And in U.S.A. Silimed (Sientra) silicone gel bags of every commercial line (including anatomic shaped implants) were approved by FDA in the same year.
It was ridiculous because, the safety of the anatomic/round type silicone gel bag implants were already established before 1999 through the vast amount of works by numerous scientists and medical doctors worldwide.
Many European and latin american surgeons were performing the operation with the anatomical shaped implants for long time.
I have seen the anatomical breast implants in Hongkong at the first time. - because it could not be imported into Korea.. - and have been performing the augmentation surgery in the Ulaanbaatar branch of KIES-U plastic surgery clinic, Mongolia.
But i'm happy I can use any kind, many brands of the shaped implants in Korea now.
2) Who needs the shaped implants?
The answer to this question is not that simple.
- The shaped implants are commonly recommended for whom has the drooping breasts.
It is much more effective for the shaped implants to fill the upper volume of the drooping breasts contrary to the common sense!
- Another cases for the anatomic implants are constricted breasts.
These cases have short distance from the nipple to the under breast fold line. (IMF)
The bottom part of anatomic implant have more volume than the top part.
So they can expand the bottom part of the breast envelopes with more power.
The constricted breasts has short nipple - fold line distance so the anatomic implants are effective for correcting their original shapes.
- And for the people who has very tight skin envelope and hypoplastic breasts, the anatomic implants can make more natural look, and beautiful breast contour.
The round shape implants could make the breast contour unnatural and make 'upper overfullness' for these women.
I always recommend the shaped implants for these 3 kind of cases, drooping breast, constricted breast, tight breast envelope but in fact, except them the decision-making is not that crystal clear but is case by case.
If your breast is not small and the shape is good enough but you want to get the surgery anyway, your result would be fine no matter what kind of implant we use.
3) What is the difference for the operation technique with the shaped implants?
It is not very different.
But shaped implants can rotate in the pocket unlike the round ones.
If that happen, the breast could be deformed.
So generally I recommend under fold line approach for the shaped implants.
The surgeon can control the pocket - implant relationship very precisely and can minimize the probability of deformation with the IMF approach technique.
Every shaped implants has textured surfaces.
Because the texturing can prevent the rotation by the friction force and the adhesion with the surrounding tissue.
The point is ; the operation technique is not different from that of the round implant insertion, but it must be more precise and delicate.
That's all for today's posting. Have a nice day.
From Dr. Lee Joo Hyuck, plastic surgery specialist, breast surgeon, Seoul, Korea,
