What Is The Recovery Process After Breast Implants?

For many, many women, breast augmentation is a huge step toward feeling more confident, comfortable, empowered, and attractive in their own skin. At the same time, breast augmentation is a considerable surgery worth careful consideration.

It’s also calming to many women to know that they’re in great company. Hundreds of thousands of women undergo breast augmentation every year.

Here’s what recovery is like and what happens after your surgery.

Milestones in breast implant recovery:

• Walking: Immediately after surgery
• Certain light exercises: 1 week (lower body only, walking, very light)
• Driving: 3 – 5 days; the longer the better. (Note: Maybe on pain meds that bar driving.)
• Back to work: 1-2 weeks
• No more pain: 10-12 days
• Full recovery: 4-6 weeks for the body to heal

Above are rough estimates and are typically what is experienced by patients. We do want patients in motion and making progress. We do not want to cut short the required rest and recovery time. If something doesn’t feel right or comfortable, it’s in everyone’s best interest to refrain from doing it. Having a friend or family member on call throughout recovery will help tremendously. 

Let’s look at the recovery timeline in more detail.

For 24 hours: Soreness, fatigue, nausea, and tightness

Your surgery is done under general anesthesia and you won’t feel a thing. That is, until after the surgery. You will come to after the anesthetic has worn off and soreness will begin to come in. A friend will drive you home after you’ve been given the all-clear. Expect to be on pain medication, and to have a deep soreness and tightness in the chest, feel fatigued, and want to rest. You should rest.

By 5 or 7 days after surgery: Mild pain

The toughest period of your recovery occurs between days 2 and 4. You will be provided very complete postoperative recovery guidelines. During this time,  you should expect to be mostly in bed recovering while gradient increasing the actions you do around the house. At least one light daily walk is essential. Nourishing foods, plenty of water, and intermittently applying ice packs will go a long way toward recovery.

By 3 or 4 weeks after surgery: No pain, less swelling, less bruising

Three or four weeks after surgery, you will be feeling no pain as you go about your daily activities. You will likely still have some swelling and mild bruising, albeit far less than you had in the days immediately following surgery. Most aspects of your body and how you feel have returned to normal—barring the breasts, which are by now more in line with your body ideals, and that brings psychological improvements as well.

Full recovery: 4 to 6 weeks

The full recovery process from breast augmentation is typically considered to last from 4 to 6 weeks. To be clear, this does not mean you will be out of commission for 4 to 6 weeks, it simply means that even after you have returned to your social and professional life, your body is still recovering.

Throughout recovery, patients have a direct line to our office and we remain in tight communication. There are a few adverse events we would want to be informed of immediately. Patients are provided complete postoperative discharge instructions that cover recovery in great detail. If you would like to learn more, schedule a consultation with us today!