Breast augmentation is a popular procedure these days. Plastic surgeons have developed many ways to enhance the breasts with implants, but breast augmentation surgery is not for everyone. Breast enhancement without silicone are an excellent alternative for those who need larger breasts but don’t want the scarring and other health risks associated with implants.

In this guide, we review the aspects of Breast Augmentation Without Silicone, natural alternative to breast implants, alternatives to breast implants after mastectomy, and brava breast enhancement and shaping system.

Breast Augmentation Without Silicone

If you love the look of silicone breast implants, you’re in luck: there are alternatives to silicone and saline that can be used in a breast augmentation procedure. If you’d rather avoid an implant completely, fat grafting can give your breasts the boost they need—and it’s a much safer option than implants. Learn more about these alternatives below!

An exam with your doctor is necessary.

It’s important to have your breasts examined by a doctor before you undergo breast augmentation surgery. Your doctor will be able to tell you if the procedure is right for you, and what type of implant would best suit your needs.

There are several factors that may disqualify a person from having plastic surgery on their breasts:

• If a woman has had cancer in one or both breasts, it’s not advisable for her to have breast augmentation surgery until after she has finished all treatments for this condition. The reason behind this rule is that radiation treatments can cause changes in breast tissue that make it more difficult for an implant to stay stable in place over time—and silicone implants can’t be safely used by women who’ve had radiation therapy within the last five years (according to FDA regulations). Doctors will also want to wait until any infection from prior surgeries has completely cleared up before proceeding with any kind of cosmetic procedure involving the breasts.* A woman should get an MRI scan if she plans on having silicone gel implanted into her chest wall because it helps determine whether there are any abnormalities present beneath her skin; these issues could negatively impact how well an artificial implant would fit within its intended space.* Women who have dense tissue should also consider getting an MRI done beforehand because they tend not be able to see through regular mammograms very well without contrast agents being applied first.* If they do opt out of getting either procedure done beforehand though then they’ll need at least two weeks’ worth

Breast Implant Alternatives

There are alternative options to silicone implants. Silicone is the most commonly used implant, but there are other materials available. Your doctor will help you decide which one is best for you.

Breast augmentation with saline implants

Saline breast augmentation involves placing a saline implant into your breast tissue (saline is a salt solution). Saline implants do not need to be removed if there is a leak — they will simply dissolve over time.

The major drawback of saline implants is that they can cause some women to have an allergic reaction or irritation called contact dermatitis around where their skin touches the implant. This usually happens within the first few weeks after surgery and typically goes away on its own after six months or so of healing time. However, if this reaction gets severe enough, it may require removal of both your saline and silicone implants in order for your body to fully recover from any damage caused by an allergic reaction or contact dermatitis from having both types of implants in place at once (your surgeon will advise you on when this might happen).

Fat Grafting for Breast Augmentation

Fat grafting for breast augmentation is a procedure that uses fat cells to increase breast size. Fat cells are taken from areas of your body where you want smaller breasts, and then injected into the breasts to give them lift and volume. The fat acts just like silicone or saline implants would, since it fills out the skin tissues to make them appear fuller.

Fat grafting may be an alternative for women who have been told by their surgeon that they do not have enough tissue in their breasts for traditional implants. This is especially true if you’ve had previous surgery on your breasts or if you have sagging skin after pregnancy and breastfeeding (which can stretch the tissue).

The procedure is typically done under local anesthesia so you don’t need general anesthesia like other types of plastic surgery; this means there’s less risk involved with this kind of surgery than with other procedures like liposuction or tummy tucks (abdominoplasty). It also requires minimal recovery time, which makes it a good option if you’re looking at getting some work done quickly but don’t want any downtime afterward—just think about how long it takes before going back-to-back weekends at Coachella!

Fat Transfer for the Breasts

Fat transfer breast augmentation is a procedure that women who are overweight or obese can benefit from. It’s an alternative to silicone and saline breast implants, and it gives you the option of having your breasts enlarged without undergoing surgery.

In this procedure, fat is removed from one area of your body and then injected into your breasts. This technique can also be used to augment the hips if you have enough fat to spare.

The fat transfer procedure is fairly new; however, it has been shown to give women good results with minimal complications such as scarring or infection at the site where the tummy tuck was performed (the donor site).

There are alternatives to silicone and saline that can be used in a breast augmentation procedure.

You should know that there are alternatives to silicone and saline that can be used in a breast augmentation procedure. These alternatives include fat grafting and fat transfer.

natural alternative to breast implants

Are There Alternatives to Breast Implants? (& More Breast Augmentation FAQs)

When you’re thinking about getting breast implants, you likely have a lot of questions. Beyond basic info about cost and recovery time, there’s a long list of things to think about, including long-term implications, achieving the most natural-looking results possible, and much more.

In this blog post, I’m answering a few questions I often hear from women interested in breast augmentation. I hope you’ll find the info you need to feel informed and empowered as you take your next steps on your journey.

Are There Natural Alternatives to Breast Implants?

The most viable alternative to breast implants is breast augmentation via fat transfer or fat grafting. This technique uses fat harvested from elsewhere in your body (often the abdomen, thighs, or hips) to add volume to your breasts.

While this approach can provide a very modest size increase, it’s typically best used as a complement to breast implants rather than a replacement for them. You can learn more about this option and who it may be right for in this blog post.

Is It True That You Have To Replace Breast Implants Every 10 Years?

There’s a common understanding that breast implants need to be replaced every 10 to 15 years. While this is often the case, it’s not a hard-and-fast rule.

It is true that breast implants are not lifetime devices and that you will likely need to exchange them for new models at some point in the future. However, this only has to happen if/when:

While these events often do happen along a timeline of 10 to 15 years, everyone’s personal timing is unique.

Will I Still Be Able To Breastfeed After Getting Breast Implants?

In most cases, yes, you can breastfeed with implants in place. If you plan on having children in the future, it’s a good idea to let your surgeon know during your consultation. Certain incisions (inframammary) are better for preserving milk duct function than others (periareolar), and your surgeon will account for this while creating your treatment plan.

Which Type of Breast Implant Looks & Feels the Most Natural?

Silicone implants are generally believed to look and feel more like natural breast tissue than saline implants. You can learn more about how these options compare in this blog post.

However, achieving natural-looking results is about more than which implant type you choose. It’s also up to your surgeon to help you select a proportional size that flatters your body. They’ll focus on placing the implants in a way that disguises the implant edges and creating an overall result that doesn’t convey any obvious signs you’ve had “work done.” That’s why looking through a surgeon’s breast augmentation before-and-after photo gallery should always be an essential step in your surgeon selection process.

alternatives to breast implants after mastectomy

After breast cancer, many women can choose to have reconstructive surgery in order to look and feel like themselves again. While breast implants are a safe and popular choice, free-flap reconstruction has emerged at advanced breast centers like UT Southwestern as a more natural, longer-lasting option.

Free-flap reconstruction involves the transfer of tissues and blood vessels from a patient’s lower abdomen, lower back, or thighs to sculpt a new breast. This intricate procedure requires microsurgical reconstructive and plastic surgery skills, blood vessel surgery expertise, and a specialized care team to support streamlined recovery.

“In North Texas, we are among a handful of medical centers that offer free-flap breast reconstruction. We operate as a two-physician surgical team, so we are able to provide more women with reconstructions and ensure optimal results. Our flap success rate is around 99 percent, based on having performed approximately 1,500 flap reconstructions since 2012.”

In North Texas, we are among a handful of medical centers that offer free-flap breast reconstruction. We operate as a two-physician surgical team, so we are able to provide more women with reconstructions and ensure optimal results. Our flap success rate is around 99 percent, based on having performed approximately 1,500 flap reconstructions since 2012.

Admittedly, it sounds a bit visually dramatic to move a patient’s own tissues from one part of the body to another. However, many women prefer the option to use their own natural tissue instead of having a prosthetic implant placed in their breast. Our patients can choose from five types or categories of free-flap procedures; every woman’s anatomy is unique, and every breast reconstruction procedure is personalized to her needs and goals.

5 types of free-flap surgery

The procedures we offer are classified by the donor tissue site, or the area of the body from which we remove healthy tissue and blood vessels to craft the new breast:

High-volume, streamlined centers benefit patients

UT Southwestern is among the highest-volume centers in the U.S. for free-flap breast reconstruction. Success requires experience and continual refinement of processes and techniques.

As such, we are fortunate to have helped build an efficient, one-of-a-kind team and stringent processes to ensure optimal patient outcomes. Our core team includes anesthesiologists, pain control experts, breast cancer nurses, and core surgical team members who understand the intricacies of microsurgery and plastic surgery. All patients recover in the intensive care unit, where specialized nurses monitor their progress.

Additionally, our co-surgery model of two faculty board-certified microsurgeons is patient-centric and highly efficient in an academic setting. We consult with patients together and perform every free-flap procedure in tandem. This process allows us to provide innovative solutions for every patient’s unique anatomy and needs.

Under this model, we perform approximately 250 to 300 free-flap reconstructions each year between two surgeons.

Should a woman choose implants or flap reconstruction?

As with any surgery, both options have benefits and risks to consider. In either case, family and social support is key to successful recovery. Breast cancer and reconstructive surgeries can be emotionally and physically taxing – it is essential for patients to understand what to expect during recovery and to prepare for potential challenges.

Implants

Breast implants are a safe and popular choice for breast reconstruction. The main disadvantage of implants compared to free-flap surgery is that implants must be replaced at certain points in life due to age-related body changes, failure of the implant, or age of the implant. If a woman has reconstructive surgery in her 20s or 30s, she might require more than one replacement procedure in her lifetime.

Women who choose implants typically can go home the day of surgery. The majority of patients tolerate the surgery well and recover without complications. Risks can include infection at the surgical site and loss of the implant, the latter of which requires additional surgery.

One note of caution: Women who have radiation therapy as part of their cancer treatment tend to have an increased lifetime risk of complications with implants. We counsel these patients to consider free-flap reconstruction, though it is ultimately the patient’s choice and implants can still be accommodated.

Free-flap reconstruction

Free-flap reconstruction is considered more soft-tissue restorative than implants – the breast lasts forever without the worry of a foreign body, such as an implant. Straightforward procedures typically take four to six hours; more complex reconstructions take more time. Most women stay in the hospital for two days under the care of specialized nurses. Because of this refined and repetitive process, our patients have better outcomes and experience less pain than could be expected in a typical hospital setting.

Recovery is based more on the healing of the donor site than the breast itself. After surgery, we recommend that our patients restrict significant movement for 4 to 6 weeks to allow the donor site to fully heal. Some women experience scabbing, minor delayed healing, or infection at the donor site.

Our free-flap procedures are successful 99 percent of the time; however, there is about 1 percent risk of flap failure. If a blood vessel in the new breast tissue becomes blocked, the flap tissue can die, requiring emergency surgery.

Women with significant medical problems who are unhealthy might not be able to safely undergo free-flap reconstruction. Additionally, women who have clotting issues, diabetes, or morbid obesity, as well as women who smoke, are at greater risk for complications. These women might be able to have the procedure under unique situations.

brava breast enhancement and shaping system

Unless they have undergone breast enhancement or augmentation surgery, few women are 100% happy with their breasts. If you wish your breasts were one-half to one cup size fuller, without the expense and recovery time associated with surgery, then you’ll want to speak with Dr. Vanek in his Cleveland office regarding BRAVA—the first clinically proven approach to breast enlargement that actually grows a woman’s natural breast tissue without surgery.

How does BRAVA Breast Augmentation work?

Our bodies have a natural mechanism for growth and healing. When body tissue is placed under sustained tension it will grow. This principle is known as “tissue expansion” and has been used for over 30 years by physicians in various reconstructive procedures. The BRAVA system is an external tissue expander.

The BRAVA system applies a gentle three-dimensional pull, which places the breast under tension. This very gentle, sustained tension causes the cells to respond by replicating. The outcome of proper usage is new breast tissue, resulting in larger, fuller breasts.

How well does BRAVA Breast Augmentation work?

Women who used the BRAVA system report an increase of 1/2 to 2-cup sizes of lasting growth. Results vary due to individual biological factors plus frequency and duration of use. Clinical studies showed that all participants felt more comfortable with their body image and believed their breasts had not only increased in volume, but had also been lifted.

Is the system safe?

The BRAVA Breast Augmentation and shaping system is a well-researched, clinically tested medical device that provides a new option to grow your own natural breast tissue without surgery or non-medically proven alternative medications (pills or creams). BRAVA fat transfer is safe, effective and the results are long-lasting.

Most healthy women can wear the BRAVA system. Women who should not use the system include those who are pregnant, those who are lactating (must have completed breastfeeding for at least 3 to 6 months prior to use), those who have had a mastectomy, and those under the age of 18 years (or those whose natural breast development is not complete).