Palo Alto Breast Implants doctors

As an 18 year old, your breast implant choice is limited to saline.  Those are the rules based on the FDA approving breast implants.  At 22 years of age, one can chose between saline and silicone.  Saline implants don't look or feel very good on top of the muscle.  They often show ripples and wrinkles.  I strongly recommend submuscular implants for you.

Care Credit is a great financing program and has helped dozens of my patients have surgery that would otherwise been unable to afford it if they had to pay the full cost up front.  The interest rate is currently about 14.9%, not cheap, but fairly standard for consumer finance compared to credit cards. You have to have a reasonably high credit score to qualify, but if you do you can finance the procedure over 2-5 years with monthly payments. 

Breast augmentation recovery with return to normal activity including driving takes about four days or less for 95% of my patients and three days or less for 85%.  I recommend that patients keep their heart rate under 100 for two weeks.  This keeps their blood pressure down and lessens the chance that they could have bleeding into the pocket after surgery. This seems to work since the incidence of bleeding or hematoma has been about 1/10th of one percent in the last 23 years. Sixty-five percent of patients have no bruising at all and another thirty percent have minimal or slight bruising.

Normal activity is defined as the ability to lift normal weight objects, raise your hands above your head sufficiently to wash your hair, and to drive. If you are a physical education teacher requiring aerobic activity you could certainly return to work, but I would advise against running around so much that your heart rate exceeds the rate of 100. You could have a period of brisk walking or similar activity, but followed by a rest so you stay at or under the 100 limit. This does not mean you would have a problem if you exceeded the limit, but as an arbitrary guideline, it seems to work.  Patients with office-type jobs usually go back to work in three or four days, as soon as they feel comfortable. For example, with surgery on Friday, patients would go back to work on Monday or Tuesday. Patients who have to use their arms a lot, like restaurant servers, usually take five to eight days off, sometimes longer.

After surgery, my patients are advised to lift their arms overhead five times an hour. We start them in the recovery room. This helps hasten recovery by stretching out the pectoralis muscle. They don't wear any special bras or have drains. Specific details of recovery can be found on my website. You should consult your own plastic surgeon for specific guidelines on when to return to work and return to any specific activity.