What is breast rippling? How can it be prevented?

Example of breast rippling after augmentation

The word rippling comes from the English term “ripple“, meaning “wrinkle/wave”. It refers to the appearance of folds or wrinkles after breast augmentation. Rippling is a concern for patients due to its unaesthetic outcome. This phenomenon does not usually appear immediately after surgery but rather after a few months, when the patient believes she has already passed the risk of complications.

How can rippling be prevented?

  • Using an implant with unsuitable cohesivity for the patient’s tissue (silicone density). An implant is safer, more uniform, and longer lasting when cohesivity is selected according to the patient’s tissue quality.
  • Soft or low-cohesivity implants feel very natural because their consistency closely resembles natural breast tissue.
  • Implants require sufficient tissue coverage, especially in very slim women. Rippling is more likely when a low-cohesivity implant is placed superficially (subglandular). In these cases, a deeper plane should be preferred: not subglandular but partial submuscular placement, following Dual Plane or Triple Plane techniques.
  • When choosing the implant, it’s important to remember that each shape comes with a specific cohesivity. Patients undergoing augmentation should be guided by the plastic surgeon in choosing not only the shape (anatomical or round) and size, but also the cohesivity and placement plane (subglandular or submuscular). If properly selected, these parameters will ensure natural and aesthetically pleasing results.

How can rippling be corrected?

Breast implant rippling is not a health risk but rather a cosmetic issue. However, if the rippling is too visible to tolerate, one option is to undergo revision surgery: replacing the implants with anatomical models, placing them in a deeper (submuscular) plane, or performing lipofilling to restore the thickness of the thinned skin and subcutaneous tissue. This way, the implant will be immediately and effectively covered, eliminating the aesthetic problem.