Breast implants recovery

Your breast augmentation will probably be performed under general anaesthetic and you will probably stay in hospital overnight but certainly until you are comfortable enough to go home. When you do go home you will need to take pain killers for a few days until the discomfort settles down. The first day of the operation is the worst and you may well need help with day to day activities for a few days. Some women still feel some twinges of discomfort for a few weeks after the operation, but most women are back to normal tasks within a few days. If you are taking time off work, you may be able to go back after a week and you can go back to high impact activities after 4-6 weeks. Most women are back to doing most of their normal day to day tasks within a couple of days, in my practice.

For the first few days after the operation, take it easy. You should try and keep your wounds dry and clean, though it is sometimes impossible to keep them away from water completely. If you have an absorbent dressing, then this should be changed if it gets wet. After a bath or shower, you may want to dry your wounds with a hairdryer on a cool setting (so as not to burn your delicate healing skin) before applying any more dressings, if still required.

If we have told you to wear a bra, then you should wear it constantly for the time period advised (often 4-6 weeks). You can take off your bra for an hour at a time once or twice during the day, but you should really wear it constantly at night time.

We may insert drains after the procedure and we may ask you to wear a supporting bra for a while after your operation. Your support bra should be wireless with firm supporting cups - something like a shockabsorber sports bra is usually fine. Wired bras are very supportive, but they can sometimes press against the bottom of the implant or the site of the surgical wound, and be more uncomfortable than non-wired bras.

You should buy a couple of sizes, as the breast size changes over the course of a few months after the operation. The bra may be needed so that the implants can be supported in place while the bruising and swelling gets better. The implants will drop down over time and a well supporting bra will help prevent this. You might only want to buy one bra of each size in the first instance, and only buy more once you know you are filling a particular manufacturer's size.

Occasionally we will tell you not to wear a bra for a few weeks. This may be because the implants have been placed behind the muscle and muscle appears to be quite strong - wanting to push the implants upwards and outwards. Sometimes we will apply an upside down bra to the top of the implant or place a pressure dressing at the top of the implant to help keep the implants from riding upwards. This is more commonly done after placing the implants behind the muscle.


If we have placed drains into the chest at the end of the operation, these will be removed, usually the following day, before you go home. They can help reduce bruising and help remove some of the excess air and fluid in the implant pocket. Not all patients will need drains and many surgeons will only use drains for the operation if there seems to be a little excessive bleeding during the operation.