Dr. Babak Dadvand Discusses Rippling With Breast Implants

Posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2012 by Dr. Babak Dadvand

Breast implants can greatly enhance a woman’s figure as well as her confidence. Breast augmentation surgery is the most commonly performed cosmetic surgery in the US. However, there are some less than satisfying effects of breast implants and in this post I will be discussing one of them: Rippling.

Basically it is what it sounds like. Rippling is either palpable or visible implant edges and can cause great distress to women, affecting not only how they feel about their breasts but also what clothes they coud wear. Rippling tends to occur more often with saline implants than with silicone implants. In implants placed under the muscle, rippling may still occur on the outer aspect of the breast or on the bottom, or inferior, portion of the breast. This is because there is less soft tissue covering the breast implant in these areas. In implants placed over the muscle, rippling may occur in the upper portion of the breast, especially over time because the implants tend to thin out the breast tissue with time.

The treatment of rippling can be challenging. If a woman has saline implants, switching to silicone implants may help but typically does not correct the rippling completely. In most cases of rippling on the outer or inferior portion of the breasts, the addition of a product like Strattice (please see my blog entry on Strattice) is important to add another layer over the implant and correct the rippling.

If the rippling is due to the implants being over the muscle, I recommend removing the implants and placing impants under the muscle. This will correct the rippling most women have in the upper part of the breast.

The photos below show a patient who presented with rippling in her upper and lower part of the breasts. She had saline implants placed over the muscle. I performed a revision breast surgery, placing new silicone implants under the muscle to correct the upper breast rippling while using Alloderm to cover the bottom of the implant, thus correcting the rippling in the lower part of the breast.

To learn more about breast implants and revision breast surgery  and to view before and after pictures visit my website at drdadvandplasticsurgery.com.

This entry was posted in Breast Implants, Plastic Surgeon, Plastic Surgery. Bookmark the permalink.