Introduction
Fat transfer to the breast seems to be a more natural alternative than breast augmentation without silicone implants. Plastic surgeons all over the world agree on the fact that this method presents fewer risks compared to the classic silicone implants. The risks of the silicone implants are related to the incisions, the body’s reaction to the foreign objects as well as the fact that it requires a longer recovery period. These are all eliminated if you go for the fat transfer to the breasts because the procedure is performed with the patient’s own fat tissue. Furthermore, the incisions are much smaller and the recovery period is shorter.
On the other hand, the projection we can achieve with silicone implants is rather impossible to get with fat transfer to the breasts, especially if the patient has small breasts and desire a visible augmentation. Thus, it is all a matter of what aspect you value more when it comes to a breast augmentation procedure.
Fat is extracted from the abdomen or the thighs
While this procedure is more recent than the other plastic surgery methods, plastic surgeons say that the number of patients requesting fat transfer to the breasts is on the rise year after year. However, there is an eligibility criteria for the fat transfer: the patient needs to have a donor area and an area on the body with excess fat from where the doctor can harvest the fat for the transfer.
This also means that the intervention requires two stages:
- During the first stage, the fat will be harvested from areas of the body where there is an adipose tissue. Once the fat is harvested from the donor area, it will be treated and purified. Only the best fat cells will be eligible for transfer.
- Afterwards, the fat is transferred to the breasts through several injections of fat.
According to most surgeons, the fat is usually extracted from the abdominal area or from the thigh area through liposuction. Having said that, we can’t inject more than 200 ml of fat per session in order to avoid fat tissue necrosis. This means that if a patient desires a more impressive augmentation of their breasts, she will need to go through several fat transfers and have more than one session.
No visible scars at the level of the bust
The breast augmentation method via fat transfer is usually performed under general anesthetic. The great thing about fat transfer to the breasts is that it leaves no visible scars on your breasts. Hence, it is less traumatizing for the patient. The incisions required are approximately 4 to 5 mm and can be found in the donor areas where fat was extracted.
What happens if you lose weight?
The plastic surgeon should let you know what can happen if you lose weight after the fat transfer to the breasts. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that the bust will decrease, just like the rest of your body. Also, this method does not provide permanent results. The size of your breasts is likely to decrease by approximately 30 to 50% within the first two years after the fat transfer. This is caused by the fact that some fat will be reabsorbed by the body after the procedure.
As a result, there are plastic surgeons that believe that this is not a suitable method for breast augmentation. This is also because they consider fat as a hormone deposit. They feel that once these hormones are transferred to the breasts, it may stimulate the formation of mammary tumors. Nonetheless, there are no researches/studies to prove this, so until then, this is purely speculation.
On the other hand, one of the main advantages of the fat transfer to the breasts is using live cells from the patient’s body, meaning no foreign substances will be injected into the body. There is no risk for the body to reject the substance, making breast augmentation very natural and discrete.
Conclusion
Nowadays, we have more plastic surgery options for breast augmentation and some of them don’t require the use of silicone or saline solution implants. Breast enhancement through the use of your own fat is possible and has experienced high demand these days. It is now a procedure performed frequently all over the world. What’s great is that the breast augmentation via fat transfer requires a shorter recovery period as well as less visible incisions on the breasts.
However, before you consider breast augmentation intervention without silicone implants, it is important to keep in mind that you will need to have a donor area with extra adipose tissue from where the plastic surgeon will harvest the fat to be transferred to the breasts.