I'm Worried My Implants are Dropping Too Far But My Dr. Doesn't Recommend a Bra For a Year, Should I Listen?

While your own surgeon has vested interest in your results (and his/her own advice as to how to best achieve them), it is always wise to follow your surgeon's recommendations. But in following this "No bra for a year" advice, have you asked your surgeon what his/her policy is on re-do surgery to raise the pockets in patients who drop too low? And who pays for what?

Certainly after 3 weeks you are not risking "damage" to your scars, and if position is good now (and starting to drop too low), it is certainly reasonable to wear a bra to try to assist your scar's tensile strength in maintaining position and reducing further stretch and drop.

This just makes good sense to reduce the likelihood of re-do surgery. Blindly following advice that you feel is wrong may not be enough to shift the burden of responsibility for costs of re-do surgery to your surgeon, so this is why it IS a very reasonable set of questions to explore with your surgeon. NOW! Make that call, and ask those questions. Good luck and best wishes! Dr. Tholen

You can certainly wear a sports bra or other soft bra now, and an underwire or push-up bra is fine after 4 weeks.  While it may not stop your tissue from stretching or your implant from dropping, it certainly can't hurt!

I recommend wearing  a bra once the implant is where you want it. If your breasts look just like you want them at only 4 weeks after surgery I would suggest wearing a good support bra with an elastic (not wire) underwire. On the other hand this is just my opinion and in general I would recommend listening to your own surgeon. 

Every surgeon is a bit different regarding his or her position on bras. I suggest follow your doctor's advice as he/she is the one treating you.

Once the Breast implants have come down to the point where the nipples sit exactly atop the center of the implants there is no point in making it easier for the impants to continue to sag. Doing so will result in sagging breasts. By 3 weeks after surgery you should be able to wear a bra. 

Feel free to wear a bra. It won't hurt. All of myatients wear soft bras without underwires post op. with or without a bra, your breasts will naturally droop over the years.

Wearing a bra at this point will not hurt. I'm not sure the bra will prevent further descent of the implants. This is likely more dependent on how the pocket was dissected and how much the inframammary fold was lowered. If the implants end up to low, or bottomed out, you may need to have surgery to reconstruct the inframammary fold higher.

Thank you for the question.

Since you are pleased with the current position of your breast implants,  common sense dictates that it should do no harm to wear a bra  at this time ( for support).  Since your plastic surgeon is ultimately responsible for your care, I would suggest that you address the question with him/her and asked for his/her rationale behind  any recommendations he/she has.  If you find that the explanation has merit  and seems logical then you may want to listen to your plastic surgeon. If not, I would suggest that you use common sense.

I hope this helps.