Various modern breast augmentation surgery techniques offer safe, convenient methods for enhancing the breasts by making them larger, shapelier, and more symmetrical. With more options, however, can come more confusion. Which approach is best? Silicone and saline implants have helped women to achieve the breast size and shape they want for decades, but implant-free breast augmentation by fat transfer is another option to consider. Fat transfer results tend to be more modest, but the implant-free option is attractive to some people. Depending on their unique characteristics and expectations from surgery, women in Nashville may find breast augmentation fat transfer, or a combination of fat transfer and implants, to be their procedure of choice.
Each method accomplishes different goals and has its own advantages and disadvantages. Dr. Jacob Unger or Dr. Amaka Nwubah will examine you during a consultation to help you decide which option will work better.
Breast Implants
Silicone and saline implants are the traditional method of breast enlargement. There are two main materials used to fill the implant: sterile saline solution and silicone gel. Both options have a silicone shell. With this method, there are more size options available, and implants may have a longer lifespan when compared to transferred fat cells, because the body can gradually metabolize and re-absorb the cells over time.
That said, implants are not lifetime devices, as they can rupture or need to be replaced with time, due to various reasons.
Breast Fat Grafting
If you’re not ready for implants or have had yours removed, transferring your own body fat may be a preferable choice. This procedure is generally less invasive than breast augmentation with implants. Some women feel that breast fat transfer also produces more natural-looking results, because the increase appears “softer.” Fat grafting usually can only increase your breasts by up to one cup size in a session, though you can go back for additional fat grafting at a second, and in some cases, a third session. Fat transfer can also correct depressions, dimples, and asymmetry.
Fat transfer is an ideal choice for women who are healthy, who already have a fairly ample amount of breast tissue that can hold more fat, and who have enough spare fat on other areas of the body—such as the abdomen, or thighs—for harvesting. The technique may not be ideal if you have a very thin frame.
As an added benefit, fat transfer improves overall body contours by reducing excess fat on other areas at the same time.
When put together, implants and fat transfer can give you the best of both worlds, with the devices adding significant volume, and the patient’s own fat cells refining the result for a more natural look.
For more details on plastic surgery for the breasts—such as breast augmentation with implants or by fat transfer at our practice in Nashville—talk to the Nashville Plastic Surgery Institute team by calling 615.932.7700 or reaching out online by submitting a contact form.