Picking a breast implant size is a difficult decision. First of all, many ladies come in to see me stating they want to be a “B” cup. What does that mean? What store does she shop at? A bra specialty store, a department store? Is the bandwidth being measured properly?
Maybe she wants to be a “C.” A small C? A large C? Such a difficult decision….
Many surgeons recommend different ways of deciding what implant to be used. First of all, the most important thing is that the prospective breast implant patient knows what she wants herself. My best recommendation is to look at many sets of breast implant photos. Go online and look at various plastic surgeon websites. Go look at Playboy(C) or a similar magazine. If she doesn’t know what she wants, there is no way the surgeon can deliver a result.
The next important issue is communicating her desires to her surgeon. She needs to not be shy. She needs to tell him or him exactly what she wants. I tell patients in my New Jersey plastic surgery practice to find pictures of breasts that they like. A picture is worth a thousand words and when she shows me what she wants, I have a much better understanding.
The next possibility is things like sizers. Some surgeons’ offices have sets of sizers ladies can put in bras. Some ladies place rice in ziplock bags and place in their bra to determine how much volume they are comfortable with. Weighing the rice can be converted to cc of volume. Some surgeons use computer imaging. I have used computer imaging in my office and found it to be a very artificial, unrealistic portrayal of different sized implants and while it sounds good it didn’t work well for me in my NJ practice. I hated putting the expensive imager in storage but found it misleading. Thus, I have gone back to using sizers in bras as it is a reliable method for me.
The final issue is understanding that different implants look different on different body type frames. A 400cc implant will look very different on a lady that is 5 feet 1 inch tall and 95lbs compared to 5 foot 7 and 150lbs. Thus, when a lady comes in and tells me I put 350cc implants in her friend “Amy” and she wants that size I need to explain to her that the size of the implant is based on her individual chest width, height, weight, and tissue characteristics.
Communication of her desired result is the most important thing I can stress. The potential breast augmentation patient needs to have a good insight into her desired result and to communicate this to her surgeon for a successful outcome.
