Breast enlargement (Breast Augmentation)
Breast enlargement (breast augmentation), technically known as augmentation mammaplasty, is a surgical procedure to enhance the size and shape of a woman’s breast for a number or reasons:
- To enhance the body contour of a woman who feels that her breasts are too small
- to correct a reduction in breast volume after a pregnancy or
- to correct a discrepancy between the two breasts in cases of breast asymmetry
Breast reduction
The size of the female breast depends on many factors including heredity, hormonal changes and body weight. A lot of women develop problems early on in adolescence due to heredity, while others develop problems later on, in mid age, due to hormonal changes. Regardless of the aetiology the problems caused by heavy, large breasts are the same: neck, back or shoulder pain, bra strap indentations in the shoulders, skin irritation beneath the breasts, restriction of physical activity, difficulties in fitting clothes and self-consciousness that leads to psychological problems.
Other women may find that their breasts are asymmetric, with one being much larger that the other.
Breast reduction aims at reducing the size of the breasts by removing excess fat, breast tissue and skin, making the breasts smaller and firmer. The areola (the pigmented skin surrounding the nipple) may also be reduced and repositioned.
Breast enlargement with fat (Autologous fat grafting to the breast)
Correction of congenital breast disorders
Breast lift (Mastopexy)
Loss of skin elasticity, gravity and other factors such as weight loss, pregnancy and breast-feeding ultimately affect the shape and firmness of the female breast.
Breast lift or mastopexy is a procedure designed to restore the shape and firmness of the breasts and raise them to their initial position, without changing their volume. Mastopexy can also reduce the size of the areola (the darker skin around the nipple).
In certain cases, with mild ptosis (sagging), the appearance of the breasts can be enhanced just by enlarging the breast with a breast implant, without actually performing a mastopexy. In other cases, where sagging is combined with loss of volume (as is often observed following pregnancy and breast-feeding) a combination of breast augmentation and mastopexy is required to achieve the desired result.
Male breast reduction (Gynecomastia correction)
Gynecomastia is a medical term that comes from the Greek words for “women-like breasts”. Although this condition is rarely talked about, it is quite common. Forty to 60% of men are affected by gynecomastia at some point in their life. It may affect one breast or both, and although some drugs and medical conditions have been linked with male breast overdevelopment, for the majority of cases the cause if unknown.
For men who are self-conscious about the appearance of their breast, breast reduction surgery or gynecomastia correction can help.
Breast Reconstruction
Safety of Silicone Breast Implants
A breast implant is a medical prosthesis used to augment, reconstruct, or create the physical form of a breast. Applications include correcting the size, form, and feel of a woman’s breasts in post–mastectomy breast reconstruction; for correcting congenital defects and deformities of the chest wall; for aesthetic breast augmentation; and for creating breasts in the male-to-female transsexual patient.
It is important to understand that the outer shell or envelope of all breast implants is made of silicone. The actual filling substance can vary and it usually consists of silicone gel or saline. Silicone gel implants are currently the commonest type of implants used in Europe due to their superior cosmetic results.
