You’ve decided you want to do a breast augmentation. You’re going to see a doctor for a consultation. You want to ask him or her three important questions.

The first question you want to ask is, “Are you going to put the implant over or under the muscle?” That’s an important one. Most doctors put the implant under the muscle. By putting the implant under the pectoralis major muscle, you’re able to camouflage a bit of the implant so it doesn’t look as round or as unnatural. It also has a protective effect to prevent scarring over the implant which is an important consideration later on.

The second question you want to ask your doctor is “What kind of incision are you going to use?” Generally, there are three widely used incisions. One goes under the arm, that’s called a trans axillary approach and the benefits of that are that it’s not on the breast, so you don’t have a scar on the breast. However, if you’re going out to the beach a lot and playing volleyball or doing something like that where you raise your arm up, you might see the scar. The second place the scar can be placed is around the nipple areolar complex which is just on the bottom edge of the pigmented part of the nipple that really heals very nicely. Most times you can’t even see a scar, but every once in a while, that scar will be like a line that’s visible so that’s something to consider. The other thing is when you’re going through the nipple portion of the ducts that go to the nipple which might affect breastfeeding later on. The third approach is under the breasts itself. It’s called an infra memory fold incision. It’s kind of in that fold area so the only way you could really see it as if you kind of look up from underneath. That generally heals real well. The advantage of using that incision is it’s hidden, number one, second, it allows the surgeon to really shape the pocket for the breast implant in the best way possible to give the best results possible.

The third question you want to ask you surgeon, and it’s something you’ve already probably don some research on, is “What kind of implant are you going to use?”

There are basically two types of implants. There’s saline and silicone. What we’re referring to specifically is what makes up the implant and what’s on the inside of the shell. Saline is saltwater. It’s a very safe natural material, if it leaks, it gets absorbed by the body so a lot of people like that as part of the safety factor of having an augmentation. With saline implants, it doesn’t quite feel as natural as silicone implants do because it is saltwater which has a different texture of density compared to breast tissue, but it is a very popular implant.

Silicone implants have silicone gel. Silicone gel has a much more natural feel to it. It feels like breast tissue so when the implant is inside and you feel the breast, it actually feels real. It’s hard to tell that the implants are even in there. This is really good for patients that don’t have a lot of breast tissue covering the implant. If they just have a little bit of skin, just a little bit of breast tissue, silicones definitely are the preferred implants because it feels more natural.