Breast Augmentation

Dr. Maman usually performs breast augmentation surgeries at an in-office, AAAASF-certified facility or an outpatient ambulatory surgery center (ASC). He also has operating privileges at Mount Sinai Hospital, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York Eye & Ear Infirmary, and Englewood Hospital. We work with you to select the best facility for your needs.

Breast augmentation surgery usually takes about two hours, including prep and recovery time. If you’re combining breast augmentation with other procedures, your total time in the operating room may be longer.

Choosing an incision site depends on various factors, including the value you place on nipple sensation, your anatomy, and the type/size of your implant.

Regardless of where your incisions are, they’ll be small, usually 1.25–1.5” long, and produce minimal scarring that’s easily hidden. Carefully following our standard scar treatment protocols also lessens scarring.

Because it’s the least visible site and provides the best surgical visualization, most of Dr. Maman’s breast augmentations are done through a breast crease incision under your natural breast fold.

For smaller-breasted patients with a well-defined areolar border and no naturally occurring breast fold, incisions can be made along the areola’s bottom edge. This approach allows for excellent implant positioning but does affect nipple sensation for a minority of patients.

Armpit incisions, while not a first choice, are most commonly used for placing saline implants. Because saline implants are filled after placement and come deflated, they can be inserted through smaller remote incisions before being tunneled into the breast pocket. We don’t recommend placing silicone implants using this method, as accurate placement is difficult and the incision results in a scar that may be visible in short-sleeved shirts.

While above-muscle implant placement is easier and causes less pain, the result looks and feels significantly less natural than below-muscle placement. By contrast, subpectoral implants (implants placed beneath your chest muscles), result in natural-looking breasts and a realistic slope down to your nipple. Additionally, subpectoral implants result in less internal scar tissue, are less likely to drop with time, are less likely to produce a rippling effect, and are less likely to impact mammography.

Dr. Maman almost exclusively uses a dual-plane approach, placing the top 80-90% of your implant below your pectoral muscle and the bottom 10-20% directly below your breast tissue. This technique delivers the benefits of subpectoral implant placement and allows your implants to drop slightly over time for a more natural-looking result.

Most of our breast augmentation patients find recovery easier than they expected. As long as you adhere to your activity restrictions and manage your pain medication well, you can return to work within a few days and resume lower body exercising (spinning, walking, etc.) in one to two weeks.

Workouts that require significant upper body involvement (yoga, weight lifting, core training) should be avoided for four to six weeks after surgery, and you shouldn’t lift anything heavier than 10 lbs for a full six weeks.

It’s important to remember that feeling better is not the same as being fully healed. Even if you aren’t in pain, observing the total recommended recovery time of four to six weeks will reduce your risk of bleeding and ensure your implants do not shift.

To ensure our patients have the best possible recovery, we provide custom-ordered post-surgical bras at no extra cost. Most patients also prefer to wear loose-fitting, button-down
tops for the first week or so, as taking clothes off overhead will be difficult at first.

Possibly. The idea that breast implants need to be replaced every 10 years is based on a common misunderstanding of FDA implant recommendations. While it’s true that the risk of implant failure slightly increases after 10 years, implants can last as long as 25 years.

Typically, revisional surgeries are indicated either by a change in breast aesthetic because of aging, pregnancy/breastfeeding or implant failure. If your breast augmentation needs to be amended for aesthetic reasons, Dr. Maman works closely with you to determine optimal timing. In the event of an implant rupture, Dr. Maman and his team work with the implant manufacturer to determine warranty coverage.