Can I Get Silicone Implants Placed Under the Muscle Via Areola Incision?

Yes, the areolar incision can be used for breast augmentation and still have the implants placed beneath the muscle. The size of the areola determines if this can be done. The circumference of the lower half of the areola (distance around the lower border) should probably be at least 6 cms for a modest high profile implant.

Silicone implants can certainly be placed trough an areolar incision.  However, it becomes more difficult if your areolae are small, in which case your surgeon may advise the inframammary Incision instead.  And that's okay, because the inframammary incision heals quite nicely.  I use it frequently, with almost no complaints.

You absolutely can have silicone implants placed through the areolar incision.  There are three acceptable incisions for placing silicone implants.  The transaxillary, the periareolar, and the inframammary.  In my opinion, the least favorable one is the transaxillary approach.  Firstly, all surgeons if they operate, have some patients that require revisions.  It is usually impossible to perform revisions through the transaxillary approach.  These patients now  require a second incision.  Also, some breast augmentation patients require a particular surgery in order to optimize the result called a dual plane dissection.  This, too, is not possible through the axillary approach. Lastly, in the transaxillary approach, the surgeon has no tactile input to develop an optimal breast pocket. The surgeon relies purely on long instruments and a camera.  The surgeon gets no feed back from his fingertips, a most sensitive tool.  For some surgeons to claim that the transaxillary approach is" the best" is misleading and a bit arrogant.

Hello,

To restate what the other surgeons have said, it is commonly done, and more than likely you would be able to have it performed that way.  Some individuals have a large enough areola that allow easy access via this route.  Those that don't may be better served with either an inframammary incision or an armpit incision.  On the other hand, certain individual with poorly defined inframammary folds might do better with the periareolar or armpit incisions.

From a complication standpoint, the lowest risk incision (specifically capsular contracture, the most common complication) is the inframammary incision.  This is because there is minimal breast tissue or milk ducts that are violated, minimizing bacterial contamination that typically causes capsular contracture.

Best of luck!

Thank you for your question. This is my preferred aproach to submuscular breast augmentation. I go through the areola down to the muscle and than I dissect laterally to pick up the muscle edge. I do not divide the muscle as some surgeons do, but incise the fascia to enter the sub muscular plane. You state that you want to look natural and have good amount of adipose tissue. If that is the case, I prefer to place the implants under the subfascial muscle plane (the tough tissue covering the muscle) instead of submuscular placement. With submuscular placement you will have some degree of breast distortion with muscle flexing. Good luck.