Houston Plastic Surgery Blog

Since medicine allowed women to enhance their breasts back in the 1960's, it was recommended to massage their breasts following surgery. Within the past couple years, it is now advised to not touch the breasts at all.

The body will form a capsule around the implant once it's inserted. It takes several weeks for the capsule to form completely. Before it was thought that massaging the breast will help to keep this capsule soft and prevent capsular contracture: scar tissue building around the implant which can make the breast hard. Well research has shown that the two have no correlation what-so-ever.

With this being said, massaging the breast can actually be more harmful than helpful. When touching the breasts after surgery, you are taking a higher risk at getting an infection. We have bacteria all over our bodies and the more contact you have near the incision, the higher you are at risk for an infection. You are also taking a chance on opening the wound, not to mention that it can be painful to massage the breasts.

The breast will heal and take their shape all on their own over time. In all, after breast augmentation surgery, it is not recommended to massage the breasts.