Breast Implant, Breast Lift, Breast Fat Transfer: What Option Is Right for You? (2024)

Are you considering breast enhancement surgery for bigger, fuller, or perkier breasts? The procedure you choose makes a difference. If you’re dissatisfied with your breasts, you are far from alone. In fact, a survey of nearly 19,000 women across 40 nations found that 70% were unhappy with their breast size.

Many factors can change the appearance of your breasts, including weight changes, pregnancy, health conditions, and aging. If these changes are a concern for you, surgical breast enhancement can be an option for addressing them.

Multiple breast enhancement procedures are available. The right procedure for you will depend on your specific goals, so it’s helpful to understand your options. Here, we’ll provide an overview of some of the most common procedures.

Breast implants are used both for cosmetic surgery and for reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy.

During a breast implant procedure, you’ll receive anesthesia, so you’ll be asleep or sedated. The surgeon will make a small incision under your breast, under your arm, or around your areola to insert the implant. They may place the implants either on top of or underneath your chest muscle.

Breast implant surgery is generally an outpatient procedure, meaning you’ll go home the same day. Full recovery can take 4 to 6 weeks, but you may be able to resume lighter activities within a week.

Implants come in various sizes, shapes, and materials, providing many options for getting your desired look in terms of cup size, volume, and symmetry. Your surgeon will work with you to choose an implant that meets your needs, and the results of breast implant augmentation are relatively predictable.

Though breast implants are considered durable, they don’t last forever. Most implants need to be replaced after 10 to 20 years Trusted Source PubMed Central Highly respected database from the National Institutes of Health Go to source, but they can rupture sooner.

Breast implants alone may not be enough to address significant breast drooping.

Serious complications are rare, but there are some risks associated with breast implants, including:

• a risk of certain cancers, such as anaplastic large cell lymphoma
• breast implant illness, which causes systemic symptoms such as fatigue and joint pain
• capsular contracture, a tightening of the scar tissue around the implant that may be painful and affect its appearance

A breast lift is an outpatient surgical procedure to address drooping breasts. The surgeon will reshape your breasts by removing excess skin, tightening your breast tissue, and lifting your nipple and areola. They may also reduce the size of your areola if necessary.

As with breast implant augmentation, you’ll need to take it easy for a few days after the procedure but can expect to return to work and engage in light activities within a week. Full recovery takes a few months.

A breast lift can restore a youthful, perky appearance to breasts that have been stretched out over time. It may be a good option if you’re happy with the size of your breasts but want to improve their shape.

There are several techniques for performing a breast lift, so your surgeon has options to provide the amount of lifting and reshaping you want.

A breast lift will not increase the size or volume of your breasts.

Depending on the technique used, you may have visible scarring after the surgery, though scars often fade with time. You may also experience changes in the sensation in your breasts.

As the name implies, this procedure involves transferring fat from another part of your body to your breasts. The surgeon uses liposuction to remove excess fat from an area, such as your hips, stomach, or thighs, and then purifies the fat and re-injects it into the tissues of your breasts.

Fat transfer breast augmentation may be an option if you want to add a small amount of volume to your breasts while also getting some body contouring via liposuction.

Since the procedure uses fat harvested from your body, your breasts will tend to look and feel natural. There is little to no scarring, and this procedure may have a shorter recovery time than other breast-enhancing procedures.

Fat transfer augmentation can increase your breast size by only about one cup size. If you’re looking for a larger size increase, breast implants would be more appropriate.

Not all the fat that’s injected “takes.” Your body may reabsorb some of the fat over time, so the results may not be as reliable as those of other procedures. Injected fat behaves the same way as other fat in your body, so changes in your weight can cause changes in your breasts.

In some cases, the injected fat can calcify and form small cysts. These may be visible on breast screenings such as mammograms.

It depends. If your breasts have only a small amount of sagging, a breast augmentation may help raise them to a level you’re more comfortable with. However, if your breasts droop more significantly, have lost skin elasticity, or have downward-pointing nipples, a breast lift may be necessary to get the results you’re looking for.

While both procedures are considered safe, fat transfer may be safer since it does not require the use of an artificial prosthetic implant. This eliminates the potential for implant rupture or implant-associated problems in the future.

Fat transfer can add some volume to your breasts, but it won’t change the overall shape. To lift drooping breasts, a breast lift would be necessary in addition to fat transfer.

Breast implant augmentation, fat transfer augmentation, and breast lift are surgical options to address any concerns you may have about the size and shape of your breasts. One type of surgery is not better than the others, and a combination of procedures may sometimes be necessary to reach your desired outcome.

A consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon will provide you with an opportunity to talk about your aesthetic goals and make an informed decision on which procedure is best for you.