Choosing the Correct Breast Implant: Part 2 Know Your Body

I know what you’re thinking “what woman doesn’t know her body.”  It’s true that most women know their height and daily weight, “bra size” (see part 1 for why I put this in quotations), clothing size and what they look like in the mirror.  However, it’s the relationship and proportions of body areas that need to be considered.

Height, weight, body frame, shoulder width, hip width, buttock and starting breast volume all need to be taken into account when choosing an implant. Wider shoulders and hips, lateral body width, allow for larger implants.  But this has to be balanced with with the anterior-posterior dimensions – i.e. the breasts and buttocks.

In general as all of these areas increase in size, the larger the implant necessary to maintain proportion. Of course this is somewhat easy when patients proportions are perfect.  Unfortunately this rarely happens because body frame can make all of these proportions more difficult to incorporate.

A woman 5’3”, 110lbs with a small frame will typically need a far smaller implant than a woman 5’10”, 145lbs with a large frame. However, if the first patient is heavier with a larger frame she may end up with larger implants than the second patient.  So the “science” of body interpretation is more “art” and therefore, your plastic surgeon’s expertise in appreciating these factors is essential to incorporating them into the overall evaluation.

It’s not easy to stand in front of a mirror and take a very critical look at your own body from every angle. But doing so will greatly increase your knowledge and appreciation of your body and therefore your ability to act as a partner with your surgeon when choosing the correct implant.

When in doubt Dr. Hess is here to guide you through the process.  Call my assistant, Katie, at 703.752.6608 so together we can choose the correct breast implant.