Breast Implant Options in Sarasota, FL
Choose a Breast Implant With All the Facts in Front of You
Choosing a breast implant means making four decisions: saline or silicone, what size, what shape, and where the implant sits relative to the chest muscle. Most patients arrive thinking only about size, and size turns out to be the decision that matters least for whether you're happy a year later.
Dr. Shulman prefers saline implants placed under the muscle and will explain why at your consultation, though she places silicone as well and won't push you toward one if the other suits your goals better. What she will do is make sure you understand something many patients aren't told: implants are not lifetime devices, and choosing one means accepting that more surgery is likely somewhere down the road.
Dr. Alissa Shulman has been a board-certified plastic surgeon since 2002 and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (F.A.C.S.). She has practiced since 2000 and has been in Sarasota since 2009. She'd rather you hear the full picture during a consultation than discover it years later. Request an appointment and she'll walk you through all of it.
Are Implants the Right Choice for You
Decide Whether an Implant Fits What You Actually Want
An implant is the right tool if you want a clear, predictable increase in breast size, larger than your own tissue or your own fat could provide. It's the wrong tool if what you really want is a change in position rather than volume.
A few things point toward implants:
- You want more than roughly a cup size of change.
- You don't have enough spare body fat for fat transfer to be practical.
- You want a predictable, repeatable result rather than one that varies with how much fat survives.
And a few point away from them:
- Your breasts sit low but you like their size. That's a breast lift, not an implant.
- You want a modest change and would rather avoid a device entirely. Fat grafting uses your own tissue.
- You aren't comfortable with the prospect of future surgery to remove or replace the implant.
Dr. Shulman is candid that she's a poor match for anyone chasing an obviously augmented look. She aims for proportion, and she'll say so early rather than take a case she can't make you happy with.
What Happens, Step by Step
Follow the Decisions That Go Into Your Implant
Implant placement is an outpatient operation of roughly one to two hours under general anesthesia, meaning you're fully asleep. The surgery is the short part. The decisions beforehand take longer.
- Saline or silicone. Saline implants are filled with sterile salt water after placement, so they need a smaller incision, and a rupture is obvious because the breast visibly deflates and your body absorbs the harmless saline. Silicone implants come pre-filled with cohesive gel and feel closer to natural breast tissue, but a rupture can be silent, which is why imaging surveillance is recommended. Dr. Shulman prefers saline largely because a problem announces itself.
- Size and shape. Implants are measured in cubic centimeters, not cup sizes, and the same volume looks different on different frames. Dr. Shulman measures your chest width and tissue thickness and works within what your body can carry well. Going larger than your frame supports is a common route to sagging, thinning tissue, and revision surgery later.
- Placement and incision. Dr. Shulman places implants under the chest muscle, which gives a more natural result in thin patients. Incisions go in the crease beneath the breast. She'll show you where, at your consultation.
- The day of surgery and after. You'll wake up in a surgical wrap, sore and tight across the chest. Most patients go home the same day with a driver and describe the first few days as the hardest part. You'll get a device card recording your implant's serial number, style, and size, which you should keep permanently.
Breast Implant Recovery Timeline
Plan Your Return to Normal Activity
Most patients return to desk work within about a week and to full exercise around six weeks. Implants placed beneath the muscle are generally more uncomfortable early on than those placed above it.
- The first week. Expect tightness, soreness, and a sensation of pressure across the chest. You'll wear your surgical wrap day and night and sleep propped up on your back, and Dr. Shulman will tell you when to switch to a supportive bra. Gentle walking helps circulation.
- Weeks two and three. Discomfort eases considerably and most desk workers are back. No lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk and nothing overhead.
- Weeks four through six. Activity returns gradually, with clearance for full exercise including chest work at around six weeks, adjusted to your actual healing.
- Months three to twelve. Implants sit high at first and gradually settle into a more natural position, a process patients often call dropping and fluffing. Judging your result in the first month is a reliable way to worry unnecessarily.
- Long term. Implants need monitoring for as long as you have them. Keep your device card, and follow the imaging schedule Dr. Shulman recommends, particularly with silicone.
Risks Worth Understanding
Read the Warning Before You Choose an Implant
Breast implants are not lifetime devices. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires a boxed warning on implant labeling, which is the strongest warning it issues for a medical device. That warning states that the chance of complications increases the longer an implant is in place, that some complications require additional surgery, that implants have been associated with a rare cancer called breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL), particularly with textured implants, and that some patients report systemic symptoms often referred to as breast implant illness (BII).
Alongside the boxed warning, the FDA requires manufacturers to provide a patient decision checklist before surgery and a patient device card afterward. You can read the agency's guidance on what to know about breast implants.
The more routine risks are capsular contracture, which is scar tissue tightening around the implant, rupture, malposition, changes in nipple sensation, and rippling in patients with thin tissue. Dr. Shulman treats capsular contracture and performs breast implant removal, so she sees the long-term outcomes of implants as often as she sees the placements. That informs how she counsels patients before they choose one.
Paying for Breast Implants
Budget for the Implant and What Comes After It
Cost depends on implant type, whether you're combining placement with a lift, and facility and anesthesia fees. Dr. Shulman quotes you directly at your consultation, and your consultation fee applies toward surgery if you proceed.
Worth planning for honestly: because implants aren't permanent, the cost of augmentation isn't only today's cost. Removal or replacement somewhere down the line is a realistic expectation rather than a remote possibility. Insurance doesn't cover cosmetic augmentation or its later revisions, and Sovereign Plastic Surgery bills insurance only for breast reconstruction after cancer surgery. Financing through CareCredit and Cherry is available, and details are on our payment options and financing page.
Why Patients Choose Sovereign Plastic Surgery
Work With a Surgeon Who Tells You the Downsides First
Sovereign Plastic Surgery is a solo practice. Dr. Shulman runs your consultation, performs your surgery, quotes your price, and sees you at every follow-up. Patients can reach her directly afterward.
On implants specifically, her perspective is unusual because she sits on both sides of the decision. She places implants and she's a well-known advocate for removing them, which means she has no incentive to undersell the long-term realities. If you leave her office having decided against an implant, she considers that a good consultation.
You don't have to take our word for any of it. Patients describe their own results and their own care in their own words, and you can read reviews from Sovereign Plastic Surgery patients before you book.
About Your Surgeon
Meet the Surgeon Placing Your Implants
Dr. Shulman has been a board-certified plastic surgeon since 2002, has practiced since 2000, and opened Sovereign Plastic Surgery in Sarasota in 2009. She was the first woman to serve as Chief of Surgery at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, next door to her office, and the only plastic surgeon ever appointed Chief of Staff there. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture alongside her medical training, and she plans augmentation around your frame rather than around a number. She works below the neck only. Read Dr. Shulman's full background and credentials.
Frequently Asked Questions
There's no fixed expiration date, but implants are not lifetime devices, and the FDA requires that warning on the labeling. The chance of needing removal or replacement rises every year you have them. Many patients get well over a decade, and many need surgery sooner. Plan for the possibility rather than being surprised by it.
Neither is universally better, and they fail differently. Silicone feels closer to natural breast tissue, but a rupture can go unnoticed, so imaging surveillance is recommended. Saline needs a smaller incision and makes a rupture obvious, since the breast deflates and the saline is absorbed harmlessly. Dr. Shulman prefers saline for that transparency, and places silicone when it suits the patient.
Natural appearance depends far more on your native tissue, sizing, and placement than on what's inside the implant. An implant matched to your chest width and placed under the muscle will look more natural than a larger implant of any type, and thin patients in particular benefit from placement beneath the muscle.
There's no universal number, because implants are measured in cubic centimeters and the same volume reads differently on different frames. Dr. Shulman measures your chest width and tissue thickness and recommends a range your body can carry well. Going beyond what your frame supports tends to cause thinning tissue and sagging over time.
Augmentation is the operation. An implant is one of the tools used to perform it. You can have breast augmentation with an implant or with your own fat, so the two terms aren't interchangeable even though they're often used that way.
Scheduling is easy. You can request an appointment online or call the office at 941-366-5476, and the team will call you back to confirm a time. You'll meet Dr. Shulman herself. We look forward to seeing you.