Breast implants include just the smallest amount of surgery of all your reconstruction options. Slim, small-breasted women are inclined to do best with breast implants, because they often don't have enough excess belly tissue to form a good tissue transplant. In addition, it's easy to achieve a smaller breast size with implants. Breast implants only exist in three sizes (small, medium, and large) and the largest is a size 12–14. In Hollywood, however, size 12 or 14 may be "large," but in the real world, it's nothing.

There are three basic types of breast implants: saline-filled, silicone gel-filled, and alternative (e.g., soybean oil) implants. Breast implants are designed for treatment of augmentation, reconstruction, and revision patients. Despite the fact that many women believe that breast implants provoke illnesses, such as autoimmune disease, this is not proven at this time. Though, most women with breast implants experience local complications, such as pain, capsular contracture, and rupture/deflation. You may need to have non-surgical treatments or additional operations to treat local complications. Breast implants do not last a lifetime. You should be prepared for long-term follow-up, repeated operations to treat complications, and personal financial costs.

Your final decision whether or not to get breast implants should be also founded on realistic expectations of the ultimate result. There is no guarantee that your outcome will be similar to those of other women. Your own results will depend on many individual factors, they are: your overall health (including age), chest structure, breast/nipple shape and position, healing capacities (which may be slowed by radiation and chemotherapy treatment, smoking, alcohol), skin texture, tendency to bleed, prior breast surgery (-ies), surgical team's skill and experience, type and size of implant and type of surgical procedure.