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Procedure guide
Breast surgery changes the size, shape or position of the breasts: augmentation with implants or fat, the lift (mastopexy), reduction and implant removal. ASPS member surgeons performed 306,196 breast augmentations and 153,616 breast lifts in 2024, the second and fourth most common cosmetic operations.
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The operation
Breast augmentation, also called augmentation mammaplasty, enlarges the breasts with implants or with fat moved from another part of the body. Every FDA-approved implant has a silicone shell, filled with saline (salt water) or silicone gel.
A breast lift, or mastopexy, raises the breasts by removing excess skin and tightening the tissue around them, and can make an enlarged areola smaller. A breast reduction removes skin and breast tissue, then lifts and shapes what remains. A lift can be done in the same operation as an augmentation.
Implant removal, or explant surgery, takes out the implants and may also take out the scar capsule around them, in part or in full. Removal with the capsule is sometimes called en bloc resection.
Breast implants are not lifetime devices. Since 27 October 2021 the labeling of every breast implant sold in the US includes a boxed warning and a patient decision checklist that the provider reviews with the patient before surgery.
What it changes
What it does not change
The guide
Saline, silicone and fat, incisions, implant pockets, lift and reduction patterns, and implant removal.
OpenThe layers from skin to chest wall and where each implant pocket sits.
OpenFrom the first silicone implant in 1962 to the 1992 moratorium, the 2006 return and the 2021 boxed warning.
OpenDay by day after surgery, the risks in numbers and how long implants last.
OpenAnswers to the questions patients ask most, with sources.
OpenFlorida breast surgery surgeons ranked, with their dossiers.
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