Posted: May 25, 2010
All women considering Denver plastic surgery will want to be well informed about the procedures they are considering. In my blog on capsule formation, I talked about good capsules and bad capsules. Every woman who gets implants must know how to get the good capsule and avoid the bad one!
1. No High Impact Activities for 6 Weeks: The body takes about 6 weeks to make the capsule, after breast implant surgery. During that 6 week time period, the tissue around the implant is still a raw surface and is easily irritated by excessive implant motion, which will cause tissue irritation, inflammation and cause thickening of the capsule. So during this time, you must avoid high impact activities like jumping or jogging, or big arm swinging activities (tennis, golf).
2. No Heavy Lifting or Repetitive Arm Motion for 6 Weeks: For the same reason noted above, the tissues need to be protected from intense or repetitive contraction of the pectoralis muscle (don’t lift more than 20 pounds), or do things like vacuuming (repetitive motion) or raking the lawn.
3. No Blood Thinners for 14 Days Before Surgery: The presence of even a small amount of blood in the implant pocket irritates the tissue. We must avoid post-operative oozing, so it is critical to avoid foods, supplements and drugs that thin the blood for a FULL 14 DAYS before your Denver breast augmentation surgery: aspirin, ibuprofen, herbal supplements, vitamins are blood thinners important to avoid. Even one baby aspirin 10 days before surgery can make a big difference!
4. Implant Manipulation Forever!: The body will naturally want to scar down the space we create at the time of surgery, so moving the implant to keep the full dimensions of the pocket is very important. I recommend a specific manipulation that takes only 10 seconds twice a day, that should be done every day starting right after surgery, and continue as long as you have implants.
5. Dental Prophylaxis: When you get your teeth cleaned by the dentist, there is a possibility that the scraping of the plaque can force some bacteria into the tiny blood vessels in the gingival (gums). The presence of bacteria in the blood stream (“bacteremia”) can stimulate the body’s defenses, the immune system to react in a way that can cause capsule contracture. Clinical studies have shown this can happen even many years after a breast augmentation! For this reason 40% of plastic surgeons routinely recommend antibiotic prophylaxis: a single dose of amoxicillin ½-1 hour before having your teeth cleaned or any surgical procedure.
Do these 5 really important things to help avoid capsule contracture!
