If you’ve ever considered getting breast implants, you should know there is an increasingly popular alternative to traditional breast augmentation surgery that doesn’t use a saline or a silicone implant to enlarge the breasts. Yes, your fantasy of re-contouring your body using your own unwanted fat is now a reality: it’s called fat grafting to the breast.
According to New York City plastic surgeon Sharon Giese, M.D., cosmetic procedures involving fat grafting for the breasts were on the rise in 2014. Here’s what you need to know about this cutting edge procedure.
What is Fat Grafting to the Breast?
Simply put, it’s a transplant of unwanted fat from the abdomen, hips, and/or thighs to the breast. The process is quite complicated because the unwanted fat cells must be extracted via ultrasonic assisted liposuction, then specially treated and prepared, and finally returned into the breast in a series of extremely fine injections.
Fat Grafting vs. Breast Implants
Why is fat grafting becoming more popular? While traditional breast implants provide much greater volume, some women are content with more subtle, natural-looking results and like the idea of using the body’s own fat rather than a synthetic implant. You might be interested in the fat grafting procedure if:
- You don’t mind increasing your breast size by a maximum ½ cup to ¾ of a cup size
- You want to camouflage certain ‘obvious’ areas of your existing breast implants, like rippling or sharp projections, with added softness
- You already have some excess fat to get rid of
- You have an irregularity in one breast due to a lumpectomy or genetic factors
Benefits and Risks of Fat Grafts
If the surgery sounds too good to be true, remember that every cosmetic procedure has its risks and benefits. Fat grafting surgery can be a great way to increase breast size using your own fat. There is also less pain and downtime than with a traditional surgery.
There are, however, potential drawbacks: in order to create a space for the harvested fat to reside, women may have to wear a tissue-expanding suction device for up to six weeks before the procedure. Like any other transplant, there is a risk of rejection which can lead to gradually lost volume in the breast or, more seriously, infection. Repeat procedures may be necessary for optimum results. And if you are choosing the fat graft as a reconstruction technique and it doesn’t work, you may have used up too much tissue to try again.
Are you Interested in Breast Augmentation?
Breast augmentation results in larger, fuller and shapely breasts. It is one of the most popular cosmetic surgical procedures. At The Royal Centre of Plastic Surgery, we understand that people who choose to undergo this cosmetic enhancement are self-conscious about the appearance of their breasts, whether they lack fullness, firmness or size. This is the reason that we provide many different breast augmentation options for our patients resulting in long-term, positive results. For more information, please contact us today to schedule a consultation.