Patient 10

Full, round D cup using teardrop (shaped) implants – 370cc, extra high profile, shaped, P-URE foam covered silicone gel implants.

The desire was for D cup, full, round looking breasts. You might think a round implant would be the right choice to achieve this but it was not. We identified two specific risks of a poor outcome for this patient because of the shape of her existing breasts in the context of her desired result – a big gap between the breasts and double folds.

She has a wide chest with a substantial gap between her breasts. Unless an implant that is significantly wider than her own breasts is used, the big gap will remain and will in fact look worse because, with larger breasts a gap is more obvious. By definition, a round implant is as wide as it is tall so if we had chosen a round implant wide enough to close the gap and give good cleavage, its lower edge would have been well below this patient’s existing breast crease. Because she has a well defined crease of her own this may not disappear if the new crease formed by the lower edge of the implant is below it. A very undesirable double fold can result as is shown here in a patient who was not given the best implant for her breast shape.

Double fold caused by the wrong choice of implant shape.

The solution is to use an implant that is wider than it is tall. This selectively closes the gap without coming down below the breast crease and thus avoids the risk of double fold. Extra high profile (extra sticking out) implants provide the round look the patient wanted to achieve at the top. This is a good example to disprove the common false belief that shaped implants, also known as tear drop implants, will not give enough fullness at the top of the breast. It depends on which shape in which patient. Here, if a less round look had been requested, we would have selected a lower profile, or less “sticking out” shaped implant.

* Unless otherwise stated, these patients have only undergone breast augmentation surgery

Before

After