More than a month since having breast implant removal surgery, model and social media aficionado Chrissy Teigen has continued to share candid photos and thoughts on the experience with her social media following. In one recent clip posted to her Instagram Story, she says, “A few of my friends keep having to tell people that I really got my implants out, ’cause no one believes it. These are the scars.”
According to plastic surgeons (who did not treat Teigen), the vertical markings Teigen showed underneath her areolas are standard breast lift scars and could mean that Teigen’s surgeon performed a breast lift along with breast implant removal—though the celebrity didn’t share this specifically.
What do breast lift scars look like?
“These [vertical scars] are mastopexy scars,” says Dr. Melissa Doft, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City (not Teigen’s doctor), and she notes that doing a breast lift with implant removal is not at all unusual. Having implants placed stretches the skin around the breasts, so when they are removed, the skin is naturally left more saggy. “If you have very small implants and were small-breasted to start with, and you didn’t go through any life changes, like pregnancy or massive weight loss, then you can sometimes just take out the implants. You may have a little bit of sagginess, but it will look pretty natural,” Dr. Doft explains.
“But for people who have bigger breasts to begin with or have bigger implants, you’ve essentially created this stretch on the breast tissue, so then the breast tissue is left with a lot of what we call ptosis, or sagginess.” With that in mind, many patients, particularly those who no longer have young breast tissue, have their implants removed and opt for a breast lift at the same time, to address some of the redundant skin and create a nicer shape. “A lift not only takes out the extra skin but also gives the surgeon an opportunity to really reshape the breasts so they have a pretty curve,” adds Dr. Doft.
Adding a breast lift makes the surgery longer, but there’s no added pain or recovery time. “It’s actually more painful to have your implant placed because most surgeons in the United States will place them underneath the muscle—and by doing that, you’re basically creating this cavity that didn’t exist before, and you’re stretching that and causing a lot of pressure,” Dr. Doft explains. “But taking them out is a pretty painless operation, and even doing the breast lift is not very painful, so most people will take pain medicine for two to three days and stay home for five days or so.”
What do breast implant removal scars look like?
Just as the implants can be placed through a number of ways—through the belly button, through the armpits, and most commonly, from underneath the breasts or from the areola—they are typically removed in the same way.
“Probably the most common [way to remove implants] is to do it underneath the breast. It’s usually a four- to four-and-a-half-centimeter incision underneath the breast, creating a smaller scar and not a vertical scar,” says Dr. Doft. “It would be pretty unusual to make that vertical scar to just put in or take out an implant. You only make that scar if you’re also doing some sort of lift or taking out some of the laxity of the skin.” The surgeon does note, however, that during a breast lift, implants can be removed through the vertical incision.
