This is a source of an enormous amount of misinformation, confusion and misunderstanding surrounding the shape of implants and the outcome for patients. Here are the facts:
- “Tear drop” and “anatomical” and “shaped” are different terms all used to describe the same thing – implants which are not round and where the point of maximum projection of the implant is slightly below the middle of the implant (it is in the middle with round implants).
- Neither patients nor surgeons can reliably tell whether a patient has had tear drop or round implants unless they know what the patient looked like before her implants. This has been proved in blinded tests.
- Some round implants will give a “tear drop” appearance with a gentle slope at the top of the breasts and some tear drop implants will give a very round look. It depends on which tear drop and which round implant is used in which patient.
- A low profile round implant for example, will give much less of a rounded look in the upper part of the breast than a high, or extra high profile tear drop one will and vice versa.
- Tear drop implants can often give a better final result because the height (the north – south dimension) and the width (the east – west dimension) can be controlled independently. This is not possible with round implants because the width and the height are necessarily the same because they are round. It can be particularly useful to use an anatomical implant with the width more than the height as this can give a better cleavage with less gap between the breasts than would be the case with a round implant of the same size. The explanations in our gallery demonstrate this.
To discuss the best profile for you, contact our friendly team on 1800 682 220 or complete an enquiry form here.