Massaging exercises after breast implants. Why are they important?

Other than complications found in all other surgeries, such as infections and bleeding, encapsulation stands out as one complication typically seen only in breast implants. This is when the pocket around the implant tightens around the implant to such an extent that the implant becomes like a ball and can feel firm and appear deformed. The encapsulation can be mild or severe and can involve one breast or both.

With the encapsulation phenomenon the body reacts by forming scar tissue around the implant, which tightens around the implant causing it to feel firm. The point of the massaging is to maintain a pocket larger than the implants allowing the implants to move around and act, look, and feel like a natural breast. Obviously, there is a limit as to how much they should move and this is determined by how large the surgeon makes the pocket.

I instruct my patients to move the implants up, and to each side, pressing the implant against the walls of the pockets. This discourages the wall from closing in on the implants. My patients start their massage exercises on the fifth day, and each patient gets individual instructions on exactly how they are done and how often.

The massaging along with other important details performed in surgery by your plastic surgeon has lowered the incidence of encapsulation significantly. When I first started performing breast augmentations decades ago, encapsulations occurred about 70% of the time, and now they are still seen, but are very uncommon.