Saline vs. Silicone
The best kind of breast augmentation patient is an educated one. It’s important to have a general understanding of what will be presented, so you can be an informed patient. One of the first big decisions will be choosing either a saline or a silicone implant. It’s one of the first items that Dr. Haws discusses with her new patients. “When I see a patient for breast augmentation one of my first questions is, ‘What kind of implant are you going to select’ and they usually have to think about that.”
A saline breast implant has a silicone shell and is then filled with a saline solution – salt water. Experts say it takes on more of a round shape than it’s silicone counterpart, and feels less like the real thing. Haws says that many patients aren’t familiar with the difference between the two – even though some parts of the country have phased out saline.
Silicone breast implants are silicone shells filled with silicone gel. Haws says they are more natural looking and provide patients with a lot of great options. “I tell all my patients that implants are better now than they have ever been because of advances in the last two years.”
Even though demand for saline has fallen off, there are still a few requests. And while many great breast surgeons still utilize saline implants (and some of the style’s recent technological innovations), it’s not an implant she recommends. “All I have to do is let a patient feel a saline implant, which is like a ziplock bag full of water, or let them feel a silicone – and then they say I want something that feels more like breast tissue verses feeling like one of those bags that you get a fairgrounds, that had a gold fish in it.” Haws says most will opt for the silicone.
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Sizing It Up
Once these decision have been made, it’s time for one of the most important – size. “Many of my colleagues, they use 3D imaging, but my partner and I use sizers and a bra because we spend about 80 percent of our lives in clothing,” says Haws. Dr. Haws says it’s important to try on different sizes to see what looks good on the body. “I start with sizing with implants and get an idea in a bra what volume looks good on the patient and what they feel looks good.”
Haws says she makes sure the size is a good fit for a patient’s lifestyle by asking a lot of questions. “Are they a runner, do they workout a lot, are they someone who is a Mom, and wears a lot of sweatshirts and doesn’t want everyone at the PTA meeting to know they’ve have had breast augmentation, verses someone who really wants everybody to know?”
Haws says it’s important to make sure a woman’s measurements match her expectations or the look will be off. “The profile affects how wide the breast is more than anything else, and if you have a wide base width and use a narrow implant, then you look like you have a baseball in your breast, which is not the look we are going for.”
Overall, Haws says it’s important that she be at the patient’s best advocate, especially when it comes to unrealistic expectations. “I have women come in who have very droopy or sagging breasts who bring me pictures of a 19-year old who has never had children, who has tight skin and big round implants and they want that look,” she explains. “That’s very difficult to achieve.”
What is in reach is a natural-looking, pleasing result for women of all ages. Coupled with improved surgical techniques, there has never been a better time to get a better result with breast augmentation surgery.
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