Dr. Robert Schwartz - The Plastic Surgery Blog

Getting the Right Implant Size: What Doesn’t Work

by Dr. Robert Schwartz on February 26th, 2008

In my last breast augmentation post, I said I would next explain a method for finding the right size breast implants. Before we do that, let’s discuss some methods that don’t work. This is important because these are the most commonly-used sizing techniques. And they often lead to the wrong size breast implants.

Here’s how a typical sizing conversation goes:

PLASTIC SURGEON: So what size breasts do you want?

YOU: Oh, about a full C-cup. (Feel free to replace “C-cup” with any size you like. “Full C-cup” or “small D-cup” are the most common answers to this question.)

PLASTIC SURGEON: OK, we’ll make you a full C-cup.

The plastic surgeon then orders and ultimately inserts a pair of implants that he or she feels will give you C-cup breasts.

That is the most common way breast implant size is chosen. And it doesn’t work.

It doesn’t work because nothing has been communicated. When you tell me you want C-cup breasts, you have a mental picture of what that means. And when I hear you say it, I have a mental picture of a C-cup breast.

But there’s no guarantee that what you’re picturing and what I’m picturing are the same thing. Odds are they aren’t.

When you go to surgery, you’re going to get the plastic surgeon’s idea of a C-cup. It may not be what you had in mind.

You wanted your idea of a C-cup - not his.

We’ve all heard stories about women wishing they’d gotten bigger breast implants or even going to surgery again to change implant size. The cup size guessing game is the biggest cause of this problem. If your plastic surgeon doesn’t have a clear picture of your target, he’s not likely to hit it.

In the next post, I’ll review another popular but inaccurate method for choosing breast implant size. Then we’ll move on and discuss a method that really does work.

2 Responses to “Getting the Right Implant Size: What Doesn’t Work”

1. Breast Implant Sizing II- The Bra Stuffing Sham | Dr. Robert Schwartz - The Plastic Surgery Blog

   
   

   February 29th, 2008 at 9:35 am

   […] the last post, we saw how choosing breast implants by naming a cup size is, at best, a guessing game that can […]

2. Why Do Those Breast Implants Look So Fake? | Dr. Robert Schwartz - The Plastic Surgery Blog

   
   

   February 29th, 2008 at 9:50 am

   […] getting the right size implants is critical. I’ll discuss how to do that in the next post. Subscribe to The Plastic Surgery Blog These icons link to social bookmarking sites where […]

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