They are initially developed by Dr. Cronin in 1962. First prothesis were round; two years later, Dow Corning introduced drop-shaped prothesis, together with the former round ones.

BEFORE

AFTER

It should be noticed that breasts are the most changing part of the body; they change along with puberty, with weight gain or loss, with hormonal balance,  gestation, lactation, menopause, or as years go by. 

Through history, cultural patterns of all societies give a very distinctive treatment to breasts,  mostly by dress accessories and characteristics. Each different age, race or culture establish a different, noticeable trend.  

Plastic Surgeons always rely on several patterns to determine “a perfect breast”, considering  both shape, texture and volume. However they always have to face many variables that contribute to different breast shapes, like posture, position of the arms,  skin types, ligaments that fix breasts and clothing.

Anyway, the only decisive item to measure the success of a breast aesthetic surgery is patient’s satisfaction, regarding her own self-esteem, once surgery and recovery times are over.

ANTES

DESPUÉS

It is essential that surgeons adjust both desired options and attainable results, after considering patient’s actual measures and body shape.  Surgeons must advice patients about the most adequate  sizes and shapes, bearing in mind that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”,  starting from the patient herself. 

The ever increasing number of breast augmentation surgeries,  responds to what is “IN”, in current fashion trends.  It provides high self-satisfaction and aesthetic results that are also valued by people in general. 

The principal goal consists on getting strengthened, natural breasts. Nature is always hard to imitate, but the last generations of implants achieve very good results in that sense. 

The most recent implants have evolved very much both in shape and contents.

There are many shape options: The most common one are the round shape, the drop shape. There are even” asymmetric implants”, which are designed in different ways, one for the left breast, and one for the right breast.  About contents, principal substances are currently silicone and saline solution.  Silicone has changed its density, from very fluid prothesis  to those extremely cohesive, in such a way that they could even be cut without any contents spill.  

Final outcome is conditioned by several factors like thoracic shape, existing mammary tissues,  and type of prothesis  used.  There are several choices, regarding the place the implants are located in. It  could be under the gland or under the muscle. The routes to place implants may also differ: The most commonly used are done through the inferior part of the areola, through the axilla, or through the sub-mammary fold. 

Patients MUST  be permanently checked, to evaluate prothesis conditions  and factors that influence final surgery results.

This type of prothesis was introduced later than mammary prothesis; they have  also evolved, to get more natural results. Round, oval and lengthened shapes are available. Gluteal prothesis must be much more resistant and consistent, due to the bigger weight they must support, in comparison to other kinds of prothesis.

Silicone is also the basic substance, but implant locations have changed, from sub-cutaneous  to sub-muscular positions and, later on, to intra-muscular or sub-facial positions. 

It should be noticed that there is another option to add volume to the gluteal zone: Injecting fat  from the same patient. This fat  is extracted from other body areas, by liposuction.  This way, there is no need of prothesis, and results are permanent and very natural.

These prothesis are an excellent complement of nose surgery, with very successful results.  The combined  procedure produces a proportioned facial balance.

Prothesis are very easily located through a small incision between the lip and the inferior gum, inside the mouth. There is also an external way, through the inferior chin. This prothesis   works  as   a   true   perfect

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DESPUÉS

substitute,  in most cases,  of a bigger surgery, that consists on  sliding an osseous fragment of the jaw, and requires a longer and harder recovery.

There has been some small demand of this type of prothesis. They increase volume in the back part of the leg (calf). Shape has not changed much from their introduction,  there are size options, that depend on the patient’s calf size.

As years go by, aging process includes a progressive osseous and fat re-absorption of face tissues, specially at  cheeks (malar zone). As cheek volume decreases,  skin always forms folds and wrinkles. Malar prothesis help restore the original, natural cheek volume, getting this way a juvenile face look, as folds and wrinkles are also reduced.  Fat from the same patient can also be injected, to regain lost volume.

Their demand has grown very much, since recently. Men are increasingly requesting  this type of prothesis,  that is implanted over the mayor pectoral muscle,  in order to get a muscular, voluminous look that resembles an athletic body, as the one got after hard gym sessions.

There are more types of prothesis or filling substances, for different medical purposes. Some of them are:

Government Health Agencies have not granted an approval for the use of many different filling substances (directly injected into the body) like bio-polymers, paraffin, resins, shark cartilage, oils, etc.