Breast Augmentation Philadelphia

Dr. Ted Eisenberg has performed more than 7,000 breast augmentation surgeries with smooth saline implants or smooth silicone gel implants. He has never used textured breast implants. 

The women who come into our Philadelphia plastic surgery office tell us that they want to stop being self-conscious about their underdeveloped breasts, to regain their pre-pregnancy bustline or restore their breast shape after significant weight loss. They are having this surgery, which patients sometimes refer to as a “boob job,” to feel confident in a bathing suit, to fit into their clothes better, and to feel as good about themselves on the outside as they do on the inside. Read recent patient reviews here.

Cara McCollum (left), Miss New Jersey 2013 and a student at Princeton University, talks to Ruth Weisberg, a former Miss Philadelphia, about why she decided to get a breast augmentation and why she chose Dr. Ted Eisenberg to do it.

Click the arrows to expand each answer:


Your Breast Augmentation Consultation

At your free consultation, which will run about 45 minutes, you’ll have a a chance to talk about your expectations and find out what breast implants can accomplish. Dr. Eisenberg will take your medical history, discuss your specific health considerations, and examine and measure your breasts. Together, you’ll discuss the difference between saline and silicone implants and choose your breast implant size. You’ll see before and after photos. Finally, you’ll get the details of the procedure, review the risks of surgery, and learn what you can expect during the recovery period.

Your Breast Implant Options

You’ll have a choice between saline implants and silicone implants for your breast augmentation surgery. Both have a silicone outer shell. Saline implants are filled with sterile saline (salt water); silicone implants are filled with silicone gel.

A breast implant shell can be smooth or textured. Dr. Ted Eisenberg has performed more than 7,000 breast augmentation surgeries with smooth saline implants or smooth silicone gel implants. He has never used textured breast implants

Both types of implants come in different sizes and profiles – low (moderate), medium (moderate plus), and high profile. This refers to the implant’s width and forward projection.

Availability: Silicone gel implants are recommended by the FDA and the manufacturers for women 22 and older. Saline implants are available to women ages 18 and up.

Implant size: There is a limit to how large an implant can fit behind the chest muscle, and it’s dependent on the width of each breast. A saline implant acts like a tissue expander, which means a woman can sometimes get a slightly larger size than she could with a silicone gel implant.

Incision size: A saline implant, which comes empty, can be folded and placed through a smaller incision. It’s filled after placement. A silicone gel implant comes prefilled and therefore requires a larger incision.

Implant look and feel: Dr. Eisenberg places smooth saline implants and smooth silicone implants behind the pectoral (chest) muscle, not in front of it, because they look more natural. When they are in this placement (as opposed to in front of the muscle), saline and silicone implants feel similar. In slender women who have very thin skin, less breast tissue, and little or no muscle coverage around the side and underneath their breasts, there’s a higher chance that either implant can be felt in these locations.

Implant rupture: When a saline implant shell breaks, the body safely absorbs the saline (salt water) and it is urinated out. The breast returns to its original size. In Dr. Eisenberg’s experience, the saline deflation rate at 8 years is less than 2%. Read his latest article on this topic, which appeared in the international Aesthetic Plastic Surgery journal.

When a silicone gel implant ruptures, the cohesive gel inside sticks together. Women might not notice a change in breast size. In 2020, implant manufacturers Allergan and Sientra reported a 10-year silicone rupture rate of ≈10%, while Mentor Corporation reported its 10-year rate at approximately 24%, of which 75% were silent. To check silicone gel implants for rupture, the FDA and manufacturers currently recommend that you get an MRI 3 years after surgery and every 2 years thereafter. This might not be covered by health insurance.

Choosing Your Breast Implant Size

Dr. Eisenberg has an incomparable collection of before and after photographs of actual breast augmentation patients. At your consultation, you’ll have plenty of time to look at photographs of women who started out similar to you in height, weight, frame size and breast volume. You’ll see pictures of women before surgery, at three months after surgery, and at nine months post-op. We also have photos of women at nine months in their bra or tank top, so you can see how a certain breast size looks both with and without clothes.

It’s like looking into a magic mirror of the future! You’ll get to vote – “too big,” too small” or “just right” – and you’ll discover that you’re consistent on the number of cubic centimeters (ccs) you like. Every photo notes the size of the breast implants Dr. Eisenberg used and he’ll know exactly what size saline or silicone gel implants to order, which will give you the look you want.

Breast Augmentation Cost

Dr. Eisenberg’s price is all-inclusive. It includes his surgical fee, hospital and anesthesia costs, smooth breast implants, laboratory tests, and all postoperative visits – usually at 1 week, 3 weeks, 3 months and 9 months. Silicone gel implants cost $1000 more than saline breast implants; that’s because they are more expensive for the manufacturers to produce. When you call our office, we’ll discuss pricing and financing options with you; we work with three reputable companies that are very accommodating to our patients with favorable approvals, quick processing, and minimal red tape.

Addressing Breast Asymmetry

If your breasts are uneven: It’s not uncommon for a woman’s breasts to be different in size. When we talk about breast asymmetry, we are talking about a woman whose breasts differ in size by a half-cup or more. Breasts can be made closer in size by enlarging them with breast implants of different sizes, augmenting the smaller breast, or reducing the bigger breast. Dr. Eisenberg has operated on women whose breasts varied by as much as two cup sizes and was able to make a significant improvement.

Correction of Tuberous Breasts

Many women who come in for breast implants have a concern about this congenital condition in which the breast might have a combination of a tubular appearance, a lack of skin under the nipple, and/or an inframammary crease that’s higher than usual. While plastic surgery websites and Internet forums describe a complicated approach to correcting tuberous breasts using silicone implants, Dr. Eisenberg has achieved an equally aesthetic result by using saline breast implants in a simpler, safer, one-stage procedure. Dr. Eisenberg’s article on One-Stage Correction of Tuberous Breast Deformity Using Saline Implants has been recently published in the American Journal of Cosmetic Surgery. Click here to read more.

In the Asymmetry Photo Gallery, almost every woman had some degree of tuberous breasts; they all received saline implants.

Improvement of Mildly Sagging Breasts

If your breasts aren’t as perky as you’d like: If your breasts are mildly droopy, a saline or silicone gel implant placed behind the pectoral muscle might help create the illusion of perkiness. That’s because as the implant fills out the top of the breast, it also fills out the bottom, making it look as if the nipple has moved higher. It hasn’t. A silicone gel implant placed in front of the pectoral muscle might create the same illusion.

If your breasts are moderately to severely droopy and you get breast implants, it could look as if you have four breasts, with the breast implants up high and your natural breasts down low. A breast lift (mastopexy), with or without implants, would be a better choice; it would restore the breasts to a more youthful look by repositioning the nipples at a higher position and removing excess skin. Read more about Dr. Eisenberg’s groundbreaking I.D.E.A.L. Breast Lift technique.

The Breast Implant Incision

Although breast implants can be inserted through an incision made around the nipple or in the armpit, Dr. Eisenberg inserts them through an incision under the breast near the crease (the inframammary fold). It will be fairly well hidden.

He chooses this placement because there are fewer vital structures to go through, unlike an underarm incision, which may involve blood vessels and nerves to the arm, and an incision through the nipple, which could interfere with milk ducts and healthy breast tissue. When the incision is made beneath the breast, the pocket behind the muscle where the implant is placed can be reached easily without disturbing any breast tissue.

Breast Implant Placement

Dr. Eisenberg places smooth saline implants and smooth silicone implants behind the pectoral (chest) muscle, not in front of it, for the following reasons:

  • The muscle blunts the part of the implant that peeks out of a tank top, bra or bathing suit, creating a more natural look. There is less chance of seeing or feeling the rim of the implant.
  • There may be less chance of infection and capsular contraction (hardness).
  • There is less shadow cast by the implants during a mammogram.
  • Manual breast exams are still possible after the augmentation.

Dr. Eisenberg has used this approach for more than 7,000 breast augmentation patients and has found it to be safe and successful.

“My breasts look and feel so natural. My new boyfriend didn’t know that I had implants until he saw old pictures of me in a bikini, which had been taken before surgery.”  – Barbara S.

Breast Augmentation Surgery

Your procedure will be done in the safety of the operating room at Nazareth Hospital, one of the region’s top facilities, with sensitive and competent registered nurses and certified anesthesiologists. On the day of surgery, your support person can stay with you until you are transferred to the operating room. That means he or she can be by your side when you meet the anesthesiologist and when Dr. Eisenberg marks the incision site, takes pictures for you and your records, and reviews your postoperative medications and diet. Then you’ll have to say goodbye – or ta-ta!

Dr. Eisenberg has developed a medication protocol to minimize post-operative nausea and vomiting during breast implant and breast lift surgery.

Breast enlargement surgery takes less than one hour. After surgery, you will be cared for in the recovery room by compassionate nurses until you are ready to go home later the same day. You must arrange for someone to drive you home.

“I feel gypped. I’ve been a size 34A since eighth grade.” – Samantha T.

Breast Augmentation Recovery

The first three days after surgery, women who have had children commonly say they feel like they did when their breasts were fully engorged with milk after childbirth. Women who have not had children describe the feeling as some tightness, burning or pressure. Dr. Eisenberg will prescribe medications to make you more comfortable during this period. The discomfort usually starts to ease up on the fourth day after surgery. More than 90 percent of the patients are back to work in an office setting on the fifth day.

  • Three-quarters of our patients report no nausea and vomiting from the day of surgery on; the rest report minimal symptoms.
  • You can take a shower the day after surgery.
  • By the third day, many women are able to comfortably lift their children; they can also drive a car if they are not taking narcotics.
  • Getting back to the gym: Patients can generally return to aerobics in three weeks and upper body weightlifting in six weeks.
  • Your first postoperative visit is usually within a week. Your stitches are dissolvable, so there are no stitches to remove at this visit — or ever. There are no drains to be removed either; they are never used.
  • It may take between three and nine months for your augmented breasts to achieve their final shape, so we recommend that women wait at least eight weeks before making a major investment in new bras.

After Breast Augmentation Surgery

Will I be able to breastfeed after I get breast implants? 
In most cases, a breast augmentation will not interfere with breastfeeding. That’s because the milk ducts are generally not disturbed during the procedure when implants are placed through an incision under the breast. However, not all women are naturally able to breastfeed, whether or not they have cosmetic breast surgery.

Do breast implants have to be replaced every 10 years?
Breast implants only need to be replaced if they deflate (saline implants) or rupture (silicone implants), and they’re not fragile. Through the years, manufacturers have increased the strength of the implant shell; in Dr. Eisenberg’s experience, only about 3 percent or less of implants break. He recently removed saline implants from a woman who wanted to go bigger after 23 years, and her implants looked the same as the day he put them in.

Do breast implants get in the way of reading a mammogram?
With over 300,000 women having breast augmentations each year, most radiologists are likely to have experience evaluating breasts with implants. When you schedule your mammogram, it’s important to let the facility know that you have breast implants. To maximize the amount of breast tissue that can be seen, the technician will gently displace (push up) the implants and will take extra views of each breast.

Because Dr. Eisenberg places breast implants behind the chest muscle, the implant interferes less with your mammogram. Likewise, the placement does not interfere with a manual breast exam by you or your gynecologist.

To read Dr. Eisenberg’s Breast Blog, click here.

“I couldn’t be happier with the results of my breast augmentation surgery. Thank you for making my dream come true; this is what I’ve always wanted! Based on my results and the care I received from your staff, I would recommend anyone to your office. My mother also says thank you for taking care of me as if I were your own!” – Kristina