Pain, Swelling, Nipple Sensitivity After Breast Augmentation Surgery

Do you know how painful and hypersensitive your leg is when it "falls asleep" and then wakes up? That pins and needles type of feeling? It's even painful to walk on. Sometimes, do you have to stamp your foot to get it to feel normal?
That is one type of dysesthesia that is due to compression of the nerve in your thigh.
Similar problems occur with nerves in your breast that travel to your nipple. When the implant stretches and rests on them, the nerves can be painful and tingling and burning. Generally this is worse for the first 10 days to 3 weeks and then gets better.
When this happens in hypersensitive fingertips after hand surgery, we send patients to physical therapists to perform scar massage.
For you, I would advise moving the implants around to promote softening of the tissues around the implant as well as massaging of the nipples to desensitize them. Of course, please consult with your surgeon.

Great question. Any time we make incisions on the breast, especially around the areola, it can cause some sensation changes to the nipple and areola. For some patients, this manifests as slightly diminished sensation at first, for others as a hypersensitivity that is more sensitive than usual. the burning sensation you are feeling are likely the nerves that are starting to wake up or regrow after surgery, and may cause those symptoms. Over time, in a period of months, this will all get better and almost always completely go away or become unnoticeable.
-David Mattos, Harvard-trained plastic surgeon

Hello and thank you for this great question. It is not unusual to have pain, burning or an electrical shock type feeling following a breast augmentation. Luckily, these symptoms are typically short lived, and are almost never permanent. Oftentimes, the surgery creates trauma, swelling, and inflammation, all of which can have an impact on the surrounding nerves. You can try anti-inflammatory medications, ice packs, and there is also a nerve medication that can relieve nerve pain. Please speak with your plastic surgeon to see if any of these are right for you.