Significant symmastia following breast augmentations

ladies who are considering a breast augmentation or revision & not sure who to choose, please read this lengthy review! i had my primary augmentation done by dr michael horn in 2023. after surgery, i never saw or heard from him again. however, i had no issues during recovery, so i didn’t think anything of it. after a year went by, i started feeling underwhelmed by what i THOUGHT was the size of my implants; they always appeared very flat & i had minimal cleavage. because of this, i decided to go back for an exchange to increase the volume, hoping to have more of that round, augmented look. i met with dr michael horn for a total of 5 minutes. he told me i needed to increase the volume by 150-200cc to see a difference, said the recovery for an exchange was simple & straight forward & that was that. at no point did he make a comment about my current implants, or any possible complications aside from the usual capsular contracture. immediately after taking off the ace bandage after my exchange surgery, i knew i made a mistake. my implants looked the exact same (flat, no cleavage, just bigger) i expressed the concerns of going way too large & was told im swollen & once the swelling goes down, ill be happy. okay fair enough. weeks go by, they start dropping & the swelling goes away, yet they still have that same flat appearance. i requested an in person follow up with dr horn & he said if i still feel i went too large, we can absolutely downsize after my 6 month follow up. i felt relieved as he had a very kind demeanor & made the process seem simple. again, no comments about anything wrong with my current implants. more time goes by & i have my 6 week post op (that was actually an 8 week follow up due to the holidays) & his demeanor completely changed. he was dismissive & cold, & told me that he does not like to keep re operating if there are no complications (yet was okay with re operating after my first BA, & reassured me that girls change the size of their implants way more than one would think). i decided to consult with another surgeon for a second opinion. as soon as this surgeon entered the room & greeted me, his face completely dropped & he informed me that i have symmastia. he started explaining what symmastia was, & asked if i had this issue with my previous set. i showed him some pre op photos & he said it was very clear that i had it with my smaller set, & that i needed symmastia repair & to downsize to a higher profile implant. He also requested post operative reports & said going this large in volume likely made the problem worse, & that I should follow up with my primary surgeon on getting them removed & replaced as soon as possible. He said in cases where complications arise, such as symmastia, I do not have to wait 6 months post op for a revision as dr horn stated. I then decided to consult with a few other surgeons. After meeting with them, they ALL said the same thing! Significant symmastia, prior symmastia that could NOT have been missed, especially on the operating room table. At the end of it all, a total of SIX surgeons told me that the symmastia is significant, i WILL need a repair, & i DID have it prior to the exchange. All want upwards of 15k to downsize, add mesh reinforcement, & repair. The symmastia repair recovery is pretty brutal too, thong bra 24/7, no lifting more than 10lbs for 3 months, & symmastia repair with implants has a higher failure rate compared to other breast revisions due to the implants putting constant tension on the sutures. All advised the easiest way to repair symmastia if i want to successfully have breast implants is to remove them, let my body heal, & re implant in the future if I choose to do so. Guess how much this costs? Almost 10k. & I still have to spend 8-12 weeks in a thong bra with heavy compression & limited movement so the internal sutures to my sternum don't fail. Both of my options cost almost double to triple what I originally paid for a breast augmentation. One surgeon said “I’m sorry, but this is terrible. I don’t know how anybody could look at this and find this acceptable” another said “Unless you were going for the XL look, there’s no reason an implant over the size of 400cc should have been used on you” Every surgeon I met with spent 45m-1h with me, explaining what went wrong, what my options were, & the staff always followed up with me afterwards.

I always wondered why such a big name doctor in chicago was so affordable compared to the ‘smaller’ names; after meeting with several, I understand why. I would compare my experience with this center as those ‘chop shops’ you always hear about in plastic surgery, especially after meeting with several other doctors & getting to experience how one who just paid thousands for a surgery should be treated. Can you get a nice result? Yes of course, hundreds of woman have. But what happens when you’re one of the unlucky ones? You get brushed off, dismissed, & all accountability is avoided. I reached out to dr horns team over a week ago explaining my problems, reasoning for requesting a refund for the second botched surgery so that i could then put it towards the 10k surgery I have to have because of him, & haven’t heard back since. I was first offered to come in & talk about having a revision from the doctor; why would that ever be an option? I am not saying i deserve a refund for the first surgery, mistakes happen, but moving forward with placing a larger implant and NOT explaining or revising what was actually wrong with me is out right negligent. Could they say Dr Horn was unaware that i had symmastia? Sure, maybe if I didn’t do my due diligence of following up with SIX other board certified plastic surgeons that had no problem identifying, educating, & offering a whole treatment plan. I don’t know what’s scarier, dr horn purposefully avoiding speaking up about my obvious symmastia, or dr horn ACTUALLY being unaware of what symmastia is & worsening what’s already one of the most difficult breast revisions out there.

Aside from this MAJORLY expensive & life altering issue, I had problems during my recovery with communication as well. At my 1 week, I was told the compression bra i chose was not good enough, and that they would send over a list of ones that work better. I followed up twice on that & never received the list. Additionally, i had a stitch get stuck and turn into an abcess around my 4 week post op mark. I had to go in to get the suture removed, & one of the nurses told me the pus coming from my incision had a bad smell so she would order antibiotics as prevention & it was never ordered.

So to conclude this review, if you’re searching for a surgeon to perform your BA, yes dr horn is going to be one of the top search results & the cost is going to be significantly lower than what you would pay by going to another local plastic surgeon. But unless you want to roll the dice with being botched & left to pay 2-3x more at a later time to revise with no solution from him, being made to feel as if you’re a nuisance or annoying because you’re rightfully angry about something that could have EASILY been avoided, i would suggest scheduling 1 or 2 more consults before making a decision, just in case. I wish I would have met with the doctors I’ve recently met with BEFORE my second surgery; I would have saved myself a lot of trouble, money, and headache. They all truly cared to listen to my concerns, educate me as much as possible, & didn’t just tell me I was swollen and to come back in 6 months if i’m still unhappy.