Patients with smooth surface implants often find that their implants sit in a high position soon after surgery. It takes time for the soft tissues to stretch and for the swelling to dissipate after surgery. In the early days after the procedure, the soft tissue swelling can make the skin and breast tissue stiff and this will improve over the first weeks after the procedure. In my experience, the tighter the skin, the longer it takes for implants to drop. Dense breast tissue also tends to slow implant drop. In many cases, implant drop tends to uplift the nipple a bit as well, often a good effect as long as the implant was not placed too low to start. Smooth surface implants which do not drop or which appear to move upwards compared to the opposite breast may have scar tissue issues, and a patient should see their plastic surgeon for follow-up to avoid this problem whenever possible.
Thank you for the question.Generally speaking, breast implants will "drop" into the pocket that was created during surgery. The rate of breast implant "settling" may depend on factors such as size of breast implant pocket dissected, tightness of the overlying skin/muscle layers, and size of breast implant utilized. Normally, it takes about 3-6 months (for some patients longer) to see the final result. Similarly, it takes a few months for the breasts to "soften" in most cases. Most of my patients tell me that their breast implants feel "part of them" somewhere between 3 to 6 months after surgery was performed.Many of my patients report that as the swelling around the breast implants (for example, in the sternal area) decreases, they feel that their breasts appear more projecting. Also, in my opinion, the "drop and fluff” phenomenon does hold some validity; as breast implants “settle”, many patients feel that their breasts actually look larger. There is definitely a physiologic and "psychological" (body image) adaptation process that occurs, at differing rates for every patient, for patients who undergo any type of aesthetic surgery, including breast augmentation surgery. Best wishes.
