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UCI Plastic Surgery
UCI Plastic Surgery 
Breast Augmentation
Breast Augmentation in Orange County
Breast augmentation is a cosmetic breast surgery that increases the size of your breasts and improves their shape with the surgical insertion of implants. There are many reasons to consider breast augmentation. Your breasts may have lost volume with age or as a result of childbearing and breastfeeding. You may want to improve the symmetry of your breasts if they do not match in size. Perhaps you wish to change your proportions to improve your body’s aesthetic balance. Whatever your reasons, the improvement to your figure with breast augmentation can boost your confidence in your appearance and your self-esteem.
While breast augmentation is one of the most sought-after plastic surgery procedures among women, it can also be part of the process for people assigned male at birth who are transitioning to a female identity (MTF top surgery).
To learn more about how a breast augmentation can improve your appearance, contact UCI Plastic Surgery to schedule a consultation at one of our five Orange County area locations: in Orange, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Yorba Linda and Newport Beach, CA.
What Can Breast Augmentation Do for You?
Breast augmentation can make you proud of your body and your feminine contours. The change can free you to wear the clothes you like — without padding or embarrassing gaps where your breasts don’t fill your outfit. It can give you confidence when out and about in a bikini, low-cut or evening wear, or a form-fitting sundress.
Breast augmentation is a relatively simple procedure that can have dramatic effects on your quality of your life — which is why it continues to be one of the most popular cosmetic surgeries.
Breast augmentation with implants can:
- Increase your breasts’ size and volume
- Improve your breasts’ shape
- Enhance your proportions by bringing your features into better balance
- Correct mismatched breasts to make them symmetrical
- Restore lost breast volume resulting from aging or childbirth
What Are My Breast Implant Options?
Breast augmentation is a highly customized procedure with a wide range of options available to tailor the outcome to your needs and wishes. These include the type of implants, their size and shape, their placement, and the method used to insert them. Your surgeon at UCI Plastic Surgery will explain the many options as part of the consultation and planning process and work closely with you to make choices you are comfortable with.
Breast Implant Types
Breast augmentations are performed with one of two types of implants: silicone or saline. While both are safe and effective options for your enhancement surgery, each has pros and cons.
SILICONE
SALINE
SIZE & SHAPE
PLACEMENT
INCISIONS
SILICONE
Silicone breast implants are a gel encased in a sterile outer shell. Because silicone implants give the breasts such a natural look and feel, they are the most popular implant type.
When a silicone implant shell ruptures, the gel is thick enough that it usually stays in place. When this happens, a routine mammogram typically detects the rupture, and you and your doctor make plans to surgically remove the implant. “Gummy bear” implants are a special type of silicone implants made with a “form-stable” silicone gel that holds its shape even if the shell ruptures.
SALINE
Saline breast implants also have a sterile silicone outer shell, but the filling is saltwater. Your surgeon inserts saline implants as empty shells, then fills them with the saline solution to the desired level of fullness and firmness once they’re in position. Saline implants give your surgeon excellent control over breast size and shape during the procedure and allows for the use of a smaller incision to minimize visible scarring.
Some women find saline implants don’t look and feel as natural as silicone implants, as they are slightly firmer to the touch than the surrounding breast tissue. But saline implants don’t have the risk of silicone leakage if they rupture. If a saline implant leaks or ruptures, there is a cosmetic effect as the implant deflates, but the body absorbs the saline solution. The Ideal, or “structured,” saline implant reduces the risk of visible deflation by containing the saline solution within internal cells or chambers.
SIZE & SHAPE
Breast implants come in different sizes and shapes. Your surgeon will help you choose the implant size that will look most attractive with your body size and proportions. The choice of shapes is between round and “teardrop” implants.
PLACEMENT
Breast implant placement is another crucial choice. You’ll make your decision based on your anatomy and your lifestyle. A plastic surgeon can place breast implants either above (subglandular) or below (subpectoral) the chest muscles. The choice will factor in your breasts’ size and shape, your chest width, and the types of activities you enjoy. The surgeon will carefully reposition your natural breast tissue, creating a breast pocket to place the implant in the optimal spot.
INCISIONS
Breast implant incision locations will depend on your anatomy and the type and size of your implants. Plastic surgeons make every effort to create small incisions and to place them where the resulting scars will not be noticeable. The most common options are the inframammary fold incision (in the crease below the breast) and the periareolar incision (a half-circle incision along the lower edge of the areola). In some cases, your surgeon can place the implants through an incision in your armpit.
World-Class Surgeons, Outstanding Results
Whether you’d like to restore a younger look regain your ideal figure, the surgeons at UCI Plastic Surgery have the experience and skill to produce beautiful and natural-looking results.
Planning Your Breast Augmentation
In a personal consultation at UCI Plastic Surgery, your surgeon will ask about your goals for the procedure, examine your breast and body proportions, and explain which of the options will be most appropriate for the results you want to achieve. The objective of this careful consultation and planning is to give you beautifully balanced body contours with safe and long-lasting results.
The many options can seem overwhelming at first, but we will help guide you through the process to ensure that you feel comfortable in making informed decisions. You may feel more comfortable making some choices than others. For example, if you have your heart set on silicone breast implants, you may feel unsure about implant placement. As some of the best breast augmentation surgeons in Orange County, our staff of highly trained plastic surgeons will help to provide you with recommendations that will best achieve your ideal look.
What Happens During Breast Augmentation Procedures?
Breast augmentation surgery takes place while you’re under general anesthesia. While you are unconscious, the surgeon will make the incision as discussed in your consultation (in the crease under your breast, around the lower edge of your areola, or in your armpit). Your plastic surgeon will then create a pocket in which the implant will sit — either above or beneath your pectoral muscle. After placing your implants, the surgeon uses fine sutures when closing the incisions to make scars as invisible as possible.
The breast augmentation procedure typically takes about one hour. It will take another hour or two to wake up from the anesthesia or sedation, after which you can go home, with a friend or family member to drive you.
What Can I Expect in Breast Augmentation Recovery?
In the first days after surgery, you’ll experience some bruising and swelling. Most women can return to light-duty or office-type work after about 48 hours. While you can take brief walks to stimulate your circulation, you’ll need to refrain from exercise for two weeks after surgery. After that, you can gradually get back to your exercise routine, resuming more strenuous activities after four to six weeks.
We will provide detailed recovery instructions, including how to contact us with questions or concerns and a plan for follow-up appointments.
Orange County Breast Augmentation FAQs
There is no fixed time limit for breast implants, but they aren’t permanent. Implants typically last for 10 to 15 years. Some breast augmentation patients need to have them removed or replaced (breast revision surgery) earlier if they rupture or if another problem occurs.
Breast augmentation will not affect your ability to breastfeed, nor will the implants affect the quality of your breast milk. If this is a concern for you, be sure to bring it up in your consultation with the surgeon.
Yes. Breast augmentation may reduce minor sagging, but if you have more significant sagging or downward-pointing nipples, you may want to combine the procedure with a breast lift.
Profile, style and implant size is based on expectations, shape of the breast, along with the width of the breast.
Usually a sports bra is what we recommend post-surgery. Avoid bras with any underwire.
Most of the time, yes.
While not absolutely necessary, it is not a bad idea to have someone with you.
Yes, at some point. Implants last an average of 7-10 years
Nipple sensitivity is typically temporary, if it occurs at all.
No, unless there is something unusual and it is a redo operation.
No, all sutures will be absorbable.
No, but you can change the position of the implant. This is why we recommend no heavy lifting for 3-4 weeks.
This depends on the type of work one does. You will need to avoid heavy lifting for 3-4 weeks. Normally, people are out of work for about 1-2 weeks.
We would not see any use in this for normal augmentation. We would not use Galaflex because there are many products out there that can be used to help support the implant position.
Yes, but with time, things will change, and the space in between the breasts may be wider due to implants.
This will depend on nipple position, your skin, and the surgeon’s experience to know when to do a lift.
Recovery usually takes about 1-2 weeks, with 3-4 weeks before exercising.
The most common complications are capsular contracture, malposition, bleeding, and infection.
You will need to discuss this with your surgeon and convey your desired size to them.
There will always be a scar, but the location we place the scar in will help with making it less noticeable.
With saline implants, the implant will collapse as the saline leaks out. With Silicone implants you may notice more scarring. MRI would be used to determine any leak.
It really is a technical benefit as opposed to any patient benefit. It potentially helps to get the implant into the pocket and may allow for a no-touch implant insertion technique. However, not everyone uses the Keller funnel.
The cost of your breast augmentation surgery will depend on numerous factors, including the duration of the operation, implant type, surgery fees, and more. Thus, the only way to get a personalized estimate is to meet with one of our plastic surgeons in a friendly and informative consultation.
Schedule a Consultation in Orange County
Contact us today to schedule a consultation and find out whether breast augmentation may be right for you. We’ll answer your questions and explain what you can expect from the procedure. We have five offices serving Orange County and the Los Angeles area: in Orange, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Newport, and Yorba Linda, CA.
The doctors at UCI Plastic Surgery are recognized as leaders in the field of cosmetic surgery, specializing in surgeries of the breast, body, and face. Through their teaching and lecturing roles at UCI, they stay current with state-of-the-art techniques and technology. With their advanced technical skills, they consistently produce better, more natural-looking results for their patients.