Posted on April 4, 2012
Implants can move over time. They don’t tend to go far (so it wont end up at your belly button), but they do shift. Some women shift more than others. You will hear this referred to as “implant migration,” “implant shift,” “my implants are out in my armpits,” and if it only shifts going lower, “implant bottoming out.”
What causes this shift? There is no single cause. Factors which can affect it:
- Thin skin. Makes sense. The thinner the skin, the easier it is for the implant to stretch the skin and move.
- Bigger implants. More weight usually = more change. Plain old gravity.
- Your ribcage shape. Lie down. Look at your ribcage. Is it flat? Does it dip in the center? Does it peak in the center? This can affect how your implant sits over time.
- Under the muscle. This may be affected by the degree of muscle release, the strength of your muscle, etc. I hear women who were advised not to go under the muscle with their implants or to avoid any chest exercises after implants to help prevent this outward migration. For this reason and others, I tend to do minimal lateral dissection. I want that tissue as thick as possible. When you go under the muscle, the lateral breast is the weak spot- there is no muscle there and tissue is thinner there, hence the lateral migration.
- Smooth surface implants. The textured implants “stick” where you put them more than smooth surfaced breast implants do. But there are issues to textured implants, so it is not a cut and dry thing.
- ?Saline implants. I have an older colleague whom I respect who is convinced saline implants have more movement with time.
- Tummy sleeping. Look how you sleep. If you sleep on your breasts for 8 hours every night, it puts pressure on your chest, usually pushing your implants down and out. Beware of this, particularly if you always sleep with one side down.
- Poor support. Many women who seek breast implants started with small breasts. You may have been able to do things without much support. When you get implants, you need to support your breasts. This will help take some of the pressure off your skin. Once skin stretches, you can’t “shrink” it back again.
- Thin capsule. Your body forms a capsule around foreign objects placed in the body, in this case your breast implant. When you form a thin capsule it is good in many ways- it is soft, you can’t feel it, it allows for more breast implant movement. But for women who have had capsular contracture and a tight breast, there is a lift you get from that capsule, and the tight capsule tends to prevent you from having implant migration or bottoming out.
What can you do about it?
Aaaah. The stuff for another blog. As I alluded to before, this is tough. There are pros and cons to most of the choices. Every patient is different.