A minority of women undergoing breast augmentation for breast enhancement will decide after their plastic surgery that their breast enhancement was not enough and will want to have larger breast implants placed. Other women may want to exchange silicone breast implants for saline breast implants, saline breast implants for silicone breast implants, or saline breast implants for other saline breast implants because of other factors other than the size itself.

Some women may request breast implant exchange plastic surgery because of age of the implants, shapes of the implants, or for correction of some asymmetry. When undergoing the corrective secondary surgery, the woman may also request a breast implant exchange plastic surgery. This enhancement will usually result in a better cosmetic result than the woman previously enjoyed.

The recovery from a straight forward breast implant exchange surgery is usually not at all like the first breast augmentation surgery for breast enhancement. This form of secondary plastic surgery is usually very well tolerated with little to no downtime at all. This is especially true if the woman has large capsular pockets where the breast implant is positioned. In this case, an incision is used to gain access to the breast implant capsule, a cut is made in the capsule and the space where the breast implant is positioned is entered. The older breast implant is removed and the new breast implant is put in. Since no significant scar tissue correction is required during this secondary breast plastic surgery, there is very little pain or discomfort. When the capsule surrounding the breast implant is tight and limiting, then extra cutting or releasing of the scar tissue will be required to place the new breast implants. When more work is required, there is usually more discomfort afterwards. However, this discomfort is still markedly less than the first breast augmentation surgery. If the entire breast implant scar tissue capsule has to be removed at the time of breast implant exchange, there may be more discomfort. This too is usually still less than the original breast augmentation plastic surgery. The only time there is considerably more discomfort at the secondary plastic surgery for implant exchange is when the breast implant is repositioned from above the chest muscle to below the muscle. It is this repositioning of the breast implant below the muscle which causes the most discomfort because the muscle has to be stretched and cut to position the breast implant.

Some women will want to change their breast shape and aesthetics at the time of breast implant exchange plastic surgery. Most will want to maintain a natural look while others will want a rounder, ball-like appearence. It is a very personal choice and usually either request can be accommodated at the second breast enhancement plastic surgery.