If you’ve ever been to a sauna, then you know how hot it can get. The temperature of these steamy rooms can fall anywhere between 150° F and 195° F (65° C and 90° C). While this heat offers a range of health benefits, you might be wondering if you can safely use a sauna with breast augmentation.
You can use a sauna with breast implants, but not immediately after the surgery. It’s best to wait six to eight weeks after the procedure before visiting a sauna. Otherwise, you could be exposed to dehydration and infection. Saunas are not hot enough to rupture implants.
Let’s take a closer look at how saunas work and what you should keep in mind if you’re wondering about using them after breast implants. That way, you can be sure that you’re not taking any risks next time you’re craving a good steam.
How Do Saunas Work?
Saunas are usually small, unpainted rooms that can be heated to very high temperatures. Some saunas contain rocks that absorb and emit heat, and water can be poured on them to create steam.
Heat is generated in a sauna through various means, including infrared lamps, wood, electricity, and steam.
There are different types of sauna, such as Finnish saunas that use dry heat and Turkish-style saunas that usually have some moisture. While you can always use a public sauna, some people also have private saunas in their homes.
Either way, there are many health benefits of using these hot, wood-scented rooms. They can help with muscle recovery after sporting activities, and people with heart conditions might also find sauna bathing beneficial.
When Can You Go Into a Sauna After Breast Augmentation?
Understandably, you’d want to get back to your regular activities as soon as possible after a breast augmentation. However, just like with any surgery, there’s a period of recuperation in which you need to take special care.
While you can generally resume normal activities two weeks after breast implantation, medical experts recommend that you wait at least six to eight weeks before you go near a sauna.
Staying in a sauna can put you at a high risk of dehydration, which isn’t a great position to be in since your body needs all the fluids it can get to help you heal quickly.
Also, staying in a sauna will make you sweat profusely, which can lead to infection, especially if you recently had an implant and the incision isn’t yet fully healed.
Some women are scared of a possible implant rupture if they stay too long in a sauna, but that’s not likely to occur. There are two types of breast implants — saline and silicone gel — and both are completely safe in a sauna.
Silicone is the more common implant used, and it melts at 392° F (200° C). There’s absolutely no one who would stay in an environment that hot.
Still, you should note that it may take implants a longer time to cool down after a sauna session, at least compared to the rest of your body. That’s normal, and you shouldn’t worry about it.
Breast Implants Safety in the Sauna
If you love visiting the sauna, the chances are that you’re eager to go back there after staying away for the recommended six to eight weeks. You’re now able to sit in the hot room without the risk of dehydration or infection.
Still, there’s the possibility of a rupture, and that might be a big worry for you. Let’s give you a quick background study on heat and breast implants and how safe your breast implants are in the sauna.
The first thing you need to know is that there are two types of breast implants — saline and silicone. Although both use a silicone exterior filled with liquid substance, saline implants contain saltwater that isn’t harmful if it leaks. Silicone, on the other hand, is much more peculiar than that.
Silicone is made from silicon, a semi-metallic substance that’s also used for computers, mixed with oxygen to create silica. Natural silica is one of the Earth’s most abundant minerals. You can find this mineral in quartz and crystals, and it also occurs in the sand on the beach.
Implants are made from silica, which is chemically processed to form silicone, which can be a gel or a rubber-like substance. Silicone implants are not without risk.
In case of a rupture or leak with saline implants, excess saline will be absorbed by the body, and there’s hardly any negative effect. You’ll only need surgery to take out or replace the deflated shell.
Silicone implants, however, can silently rupture without anyone knowing. In this case, the silicone leaks but remains within the tissue that surrounds the implant’s outer casing. This may go undetected for some time.
According to experts, leaking silicone can’t cause adverse health problems like breast cancer or reproductive issues. Still, victims of this rupture might experience breast pain, changes in breast shape, or thickening of the breasts.
Breast Implants and Saunas in General
Non-infrared saunas can reach temperatures of 200° F, or 93° C, whereas infrared saunas rarely exceed 150° F. The silicone used in breast implants does not dissolve or rupture from being exposed to relatively low temperatures used in infrared saunas. That means you can safely use a silicone implant in a sauna.
The melting point of silicone is 392° F (200° C). It’s very unlikely that a human would expose their body to the kind of environment where it would reach a temperature so high that silicone would melt.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, the only thing you may notice is that after leaving a sauna, silicone implants tend to cool down more slowly than the rest of your body.
You may want to consider this: Infrared saunas can accelerate detoxification. Through sweating induced by infrared saunas, the body undergoes detoxification on a large scale.
Therefore, it is recommended that women with breast implants detox with an infrared sauna, as silicone is a polymer that could contain toxic elements. Elevated detoxification may help remove toxic substances that may enter the body through silicone implants.
The best thing to do is pay close attention to your body’s needs and note how you feel after a sauna session. Of course, if you still have concerns about breast implants and infrared saunas, the best advice is to consult your physician.
