When it comes to breast augmentation surgery, there are a lot of important factors to consider—what type of incision to use, whether to place the implant under or over the breast muscle, and whether to go with saline or silicone implants—but for most women, the most important thing of all to discuss is the size of the implants.
This is a difficult decision for obvious reasons: whatever choice you make is one that you’ll live with for years to come, and for many women getting implants is something they’ve wanted for a long time . . . so of course they want their results to mirror the image they have in their head!
It’s important to remember as you go into your consultation with your plastic surgeon that every woman’s body is different. Just because your friend’s breast augmentation turned out wonderfully doesn’t mean that you should get the exact same size she did—what suits her body perfectly might be too small, or too large, for your own frame.
One method I’ve found to be very effective is to have a patient try on a bra of the size she’d like to be. Once she has the bra on, we can insert implants of various sizes into the bra until she finds the size that she likes best. There are 3D computer programs out there that can show you a digitized version of yourself with different size breasts, of course—but until you stand in front of a mirror and see your own reflection, it can be difficult to visualize exactly what you’re going to look like after your augmentation.
At the end of the day, the “right” size breast implant is the size that you feel most comfortable with. Your job is to look at all the options available to you to ensure that the choice you make is one that will make you happy; my job is to help you through the process!
