If I Remove my Implants, Will I Have Extra Loose Saggy Skin?

The amount of loose, saggy skin from breast implant removal is difficult to determine without an in-office consultation with a board-certified plastic surgeon.  Sometimes patients undergoing breast revision surgery choose to have their implants removed and replaced with smaller implants to be more proportionate with their overall physique. A breast lift may be performed in conjunction with breast implant removal to return the breast to a higher, more aesthetically appealing position.  It’s best to first seek an in-person cosmetic consultation to gauge if additional procedures will be required to remedy the excess skin you’re referencing.

In instances like this it is often more beneficial to proceed slowly if possible.  There are some revisional cases in which it is very straightforward to complete everything in one stage, yet there are some in which you wind up with better results in the end if you can afford to stage things.  It will be next to impossible to predict accurately prior to the surgery what your breasts will look like after simple explantation, or removal of your breast implants.  On the good side, you are a young girl, and if you have not had any babies, that is even better.  On the not so good side are the facts that you have had relatively large implants in for several years, and it sounds like you have developed some permanent skin and breast tissue changes, i.e., "wrinkly skin" and stretch marks.  Thus, it is possible that after removing your implants your breasts may contract back to a reasonable size and shape that you would be satisfied with, yet it is also very likely that they will not.  How much they will contract and shrink back is the question, and that in turn will determine what, if anything, you will need to have done in order to meet your goals.  Usually in cases like this a young lady can expect to undergo some type of lifting procedure in addition to replacement of her breast implants to a smaller size in order to get rid of looseness and sagging of her breasts.  If you can afford the time, and potential slight increase in expense, to stage your procedures into more than one procedure, it is quite possible that you will either not need a lifting procedure once the breasts have been allowed to fully stabilize, or if you do it may not be as extensive as the one that you might need if you were to proceed right away in one stage.  This is especially important in young girls who may wish to breast feed in the future, as any lifting procedure may disrupt the ability of the breast to produce milk.  I always try to do everything I can to avoid doing breast lifts in young girls if possible.  If it's not possible, then it's not, but if there is any chance that we can avoid it, then we should.  Thus, following this logic, my best advice, if you can handle it, would be to remove your implants and give your breasts several months, perhaps 4 or 6, to contract and stabilize maximally before revisiting the issue and deciding what if anything you wish to do later.  It is entirely possible that your breasts will still be a bit saggy and you will want something further done, but chances are that you will need less done than you would have if you went ahead in one stage.  The only other option to this staged approach is to have a lifting procedure performed right away at the same time that you are having your current implants replaced; that is just more like shooting at a moving target, and again, because the laxity of the breasts will be maximal at this point, the lifting that will be required to achieve the result will be maximal also.  I'm not saying I never do that; I'm just saying that accuracy and possibly safety are enhanced if you can tolerate a period of time with your breasts looking less than perfect.  I hope that thought process helps.  Good luck.