There’s no question that breast augmentation has been the most popular cosmetic surgical procedure for a number of years. Furthermore, it shows no sign of giving up its top position any time in the near future. With the continuing advent of new implant materials and techniques, the number of women who are interested in increasing the shape and size of their breasts is growing.

However, Dr. Paul Pin patients may be happy with their decision to undergo breast augmentation, but they are looking to undergo a revision to switch out larger implants for smaller ones. What are some of the reasons why women choose to change out larger breast implants for smaller ones, and how is this reduction surgically performed?

Reasons for Requesting Smaller Breast Implants

Lifestyle change is often one of the main reasons that Dr. Pin’s patients request implants of a smaller size. They may have initially gotten larger implants when they were in their 20s. Now that they have settled down, gotten married, and had children, they may feel as though large breasts are no longer compatible with their current image of themselves.

Other women may not be happy with how their larger augmented breasts look following one or more pregnancies and periods of breastfeeding. Both pregnancy and lactation will cause the breasts to swell in size, and then shrink again once any children are no longer breastfeeding. This can lead to sagging and drooping, which is more noticeable in larger breasts.

In other cases, women who started out with large implants may find that they wished they had chosen smaller ones due to the amount of unwanted attention they receive. Most women already feel uncomfortable by stares or comments regarding their appearance. Women with large breasts get a higher proportion of this unwanted attention. Those women who have larger breasts implants may not want to go back to their pre-augmentation size, but simply want to place less emphasis on their breast size.

Finally, some of Dr. Pin’s patients may also be looking to change their implant material, shape or profile (the height of the implant in comparison to its width) in addition to the size. Saline, silicone, and the new cohesive gel implants (sometimes called gummy bear implants) all look and feel different from each other.

Changing the implant profile can also affect how the breasts look. For example, high-profile implants have greater height than width, so a patient could select a smaller size implant with a higher profile and possibly still get the same fullness as with a larger implant, but without some of the drawbacks.

Breast Implant Revision Procedure

The procedure to replace larger breast implants with smaller ones is relatively straightforward. However, it may require a breast lift in addition to implant replacement, as the smaller implants require less breast tissue for coverage, so may require lifting to account for the smaller size.

This procedure works similarly to a standard lift procedure. Dr. Pin will first make an incision around the nipple structure, a second incision from the bottom of the nipple to the inframammary crease (where the underside of the breast meets the chest wall), and a third incision following that crease. He will then remove excess breast tissue to help move the breast into a higher position on the chest wall.

If you are unhappy with your larger breast implants, this does not mean that you must go back to the size of your breasts prior to your augmentation. You may find that a smaller size implant is a better option.