If you’ve had breast augmentation surgery, experiencing some pain and discomfort for a little over a week after the procedure is common. Feeling tired and sore following your surgery for a few days, along with experiencing burning sensations in the nipples, is part of the healing process Any invasive surgery will typically produce some degree of pain as tissues heal.
But while the burning sensations in the nipples will dissipate shortly after bruising to the tissue fades, pain that lasts longer than a few weeks and shows no signs of subsiding can signify something serious that needs the attention of your New York plastic surgeon.
What Are Causes of Breast Implant Pain?
Certain factors affect how much pain and what kinds of pain a patient will experience. Variables that are particular to your physical make up and the kind of breast augmentation surgery you have will play significant roles in how much pain you’re likely to experience. Here’s a list of some top reasons why breast implants cause pain:
- Implant Size. You will experience more pain depending on the size of your implants. The larger the implant, the greater your pain will be. Smaller sized implants typically cause less pain.
- Implant Position. When implants are positioned underneath the pectorals or chest, the tissue experiences more trauma which affects the muscles. If there’s less trauma and bleeding from the tissues, your post-op pain level will also be less intense.
- Muscle Strain. Even though both silicone and saline breast implants are relatively light, a breast augmentation procedure is essentially adding more weight to your chest. This can affect the chest area muscles by causing strain on them. Plus, breast implants will take up more space in the chest cavity, and this can cause complications to your musculoskeletal system, resulting in pain that’s concentrated mainly towards the nipples.
- Excessive Coughing. An illness that produces a steady stream of coughing can explain unexpected pain from breast implants. The propensity to cough is one of the primary reasons why patients are prohibited from smoking in the weeks before and after a breast augmentation procedure.
Coughing can cause chest pain for breast augmentation patients through a condition caused “Costochondritis”, an inflammation of the rib joints that connect the cartilage to the bone. If you’re ill and cough frequently, the expansion and contraction of the lungs causes mechanical friction between where the breast implants are positioned and the chest area. The friction intensifies the inflammation which causes the pain.
- Pectoral Exercises. Natural muscle soreness brought on by the physical stress of chest exercise can be misinterpreted as pain from breast implants. But even though the implants may add to the feeling of pain because of the strain on sensory nerves, the exercise-related soreness isn’t necessarily dangerous unless it’s caused by extreme workouts and exertion. Active exercise is still encouraged to train your chest muscles to adjust your new implants.
- Physical and Outdoor Activity. The implants may slightly raise nerve sensitivity in the chest area. Just as exercise can cause breast implant pain, introducing a new physical routine could be a culprit that puts strain on your chest muscles and irritates your sensory nerves. Activities like playing with your children or pets can put some unexpected strain on the muscles in your chest, as can strenuous outdoor activities like hiking, mountain cycling, and rock climbing.
- Chores and Hobbies. Even ordinary things you do around the house like cleaning, gardening, lifting, or moving heavy objects can be physically demanding and cause pain by repetitive movements that irritate the chest area.
- Pain from Incisions. The sites where your breast augmentation implants were inserted could be sore or painful from your procedure. Even though breast implant surgery is minimally invasive, the tissue around the incisions can cause pain while healing.
- Increased Hardness. This condition, known more clinically as Capsular Contracture, is where breast implant pain is caused by hardening in one or both breasts. This situation should not be taken lightly, and can occur at any time following your breast augmentation surgery. As soon as you detect any changes or shifts in flexibility, you should call your surgeon so necessary steps to relieve your pain can be made.
- Tenderness and Swelling. A bruise-like appearance that shows up near your incision area is called a hematoma. This condition occurs when blood from your incision sites pools and clots in the tissues that are located nearby, forming a lump. While most hematomas disappear without treatment, you should contact your doctor to be safe and rule out any complications.
- Lymph Node Enlargement. If an infection occurs at the site of the incisions or in your breast tissue, the lymph nodes in your armpits can swell and cause pain. Lymph nodes can also sustain damage during the breast augmentation procedure and increase in size as a result of infection or healing. But no matter how it occurs, consult with your plastic surgeon to check for any potentially serious problems so you can resume your recovery.
- Serum Liquid. This bodily fluid is something that can collect near the breast implant incision sites. If there’s too much build up, it can create a lump known as a seroma. Touching this area can leave a burning sensation or breast implant pain. A seroma takes about two weeks to accumulate, and may leak a clear liquid out of the incision site. If you are suspicious that the liquid building up in the breast tissue is forming a seroma, you should see your plastic surgeon to have it drained and eradicate the pain.
Get The Answers You Need
By all accounts, most cases of breast implant pain occur because of minor problems that subside in the course of a few weeks with normal recovery. When you come to Aristocrat Plastic Surgery & MedAesthetics for your breast augmentation procedure, we will provide you with all the instructions and equipment you need to have the most pain-free recovery.
You will get a surgical bra to wear for a few weeks following your procedure, pain medication to ensure your comfort as you heal, and full post-op instructions for washing your stitches. Follow up appointments with your surgeon will also ensure that the healing process goes exactly as intended and that any pain you have is addressed.
Breast augmentation can restore your appearance to a more youthful, more confident look. It can truly be life changing, so we invite you to call us at Aristocrat and set up an appointment for a private consultation with Dr. Tehrani – New York City’s top plastic surgeon.