Subglandular breast implants are surgically positioned carefully inside the breast mound, underneath the natural breast tissue, but on top of the pectoralis muscles. This surgical approach remains popular and demonstrates some advantages over the more common submuscular placement method. It is advised to consider all the pros and cons of this breast implant placement carefully before making your decision on which location is best to achieve your specific body image goals.
This treatise explores the positive and negative characteristics of subglandular placement of breast implant prosthetics.
Subglandular Breast Implant Placement
Placing the implant into the breast mound over the muscle is the easiest of all breast augmentation surgeries. This implant location can be accessed through any of the four traditional incisions and the procedure is quite fast and easy.
Recovery from breast augmentation performed over the muscle is faster and more comfortable than all other types of enlargement surgery, since less tissue is disturbed and muscular attachments remain in place.
Implants will settle quickly in this placement, since there is no muscular supportive tissue to prevent “dropping”.
Women commonly report feeling a significant difference in the weight and movement of their breasts using this approach, since all the implant weight is supported the actual breast skin.
Not surprisingly, the breasts may be sensitive to high impact movement for some time, until the patient can acclimate to the feel of the implants.
Subglandular Positioning of Implants
Being that the implant is placed inside the actual mammary tissue, it moves like a natural breast. If there is significant organic tissue to fully hide the implant, visual aesthetic can also be excellent.
Over the muscle placement will allow the breast to have a natural teardrop shaped contour, with a flatter top and fuller rounded bottom.
The cost of this procedure is often somewhat lower than submuscular placement.
Implants in this plane can be easily replaced, since scars are only in the skin and do not affect any muscle tissue or attachments.
Athletic women often like this positioning, since the implant does not interact with the chest muscles.
Drawbacks of Subglandular Implant Positioning
Women with only small amounts of organic breast tissue will often have a less pleasing postoperative appearance. The implant might be too large for the natural tissue to adequately cover and conceal completely. This can result in visualization of the actual implant, or more commonly, wrinkling or distortion of the implant shell through the breast skin.
The feel of the breast will often be considerably less real, since the implant will account for the majority of the fullness.
Both wrinkling and feel can be greatly improved if silicone implants are utilized, rather than saline-filled styles.
Another solution is to alter the procedure slightly to be a subfascial approach. This allows additional natural tissue to cover the implant shell and reduce aspects of artificial look and feel.
Capsular contracture rate is higher using over the muscle placement, as opposed to submuscular approaches.
Over the muscle placement will definitely interfere with mammography screenings for breast cancer and other health concerns. Additional films will need to be taken with each test and there is still a chance for poor test results. Some women receive a false positive identification of a potential problem which turns out to be some scar tissue from the augmentation surgery. Worse, some women do not get enough warning for potentially fatal conditions, which might develop in areas that are difficult to correctly image, due to the implant. This might allow cancer to grow to a serious degree, before it is diagnosed.
Subglandular Breast Implant Advisory
Placing your implants over the muscle might be preferred if you are athletic or conscious of distortion of your breasts during vigorous movement.
Subglandular placement is a good option for women with moderate natural tissue, but is a less aesthetically pleasing option for smaller busted women. This is unless the smaller breasted woman wants an “obviously enhanced” look and feel.
Remember that this placement can cause potential problems when receiving routine mammograms. If you are an older woman, this might be an immediate concern. If you are younger, it will be a future concern. Very young women will probably not need to worry much about this potential complication, since there is a good chance they will have to replace their implants by the time they reach the age of normal mammography screening. At that point, they might elect to change the placement to a submuscular or subpectoral position to avoid affecting the test results.
