• Video
  • Breast Implant Size Depends on Your Body Shape, Height, and Lifestyle
{{ showTranscript ? 'HIDE' : 'SHOW' }} TRANSCRIPT
Hi, everyone. I'm Dr. David Reath, a plastic surgeon in Knoxville, Tennessee. I, like you, am a fan and user of RealSelf. As a plastic surgeon, one of the things I do a lot of is breast enlargement. Perhaps the biggest decision that I make with my patients and my patients have to make is what size breast implant to use.

Let me start by saying that, for any given individual, there is rarely one perfect size but rather a range of what's going to look good. Some of the things that you have to consider are obviously what you start with in terms of your anatomy -- how tall you are, what is your build like, what's the width of your chest, what's the beginning size of your own breast -- because that will affect what we need to add to it to get what you want.

You have to consider what it is that you're looking for in terms of how you want to look. That depends upon your personality, your work, your recreations, and how things may change over your life. For instance, I know a patient who, much younger, had breast augmentation. That patient is much more physically active than she was at a younger age. She's running and she wishes she'd gone a little bit smaller. In other individuals, there can be changes over time with pregnancy, changes with weight, changes in lifestyle. I think what's important is to understand what is your concept of how you want to look. If you're a conservative person, you're interacting with a lot of people in a business setting, you may wanna be a little bit more conservative. Other people wanna be more showy. They want more fullness. They want a look that is almost overdone and that calls for a different size implant.

What we have found in our office, works really well, is working with sizers. What are sizers? Well, I have one right here. This is basically something that you put inside the bra externally on the body to mimic the size of a certain implant. We work with our patients. We have them put these in their bra. We put a t-shirt on. We look at how they look and we go up and down on the sizes.

This can give you a better idea of what it's going to look like when you have a certain volume implant. I would wanna end where I started out, and that is to say that there is no one perfect size. I think there's a range of sizes that will look good. Frequently where you end up in that range is a matter of personal taste or what you want to look like. So your best bet's to work with a board certified plastic surgeon who can sit with you, spend some time with you, get to understand you and give you some recommendations.

Breast Implant Size Depends on Your Body Shape, Height, and Lifestyle

Dr. David Reath discusses some important things to keep in mind when choosing the size of your breast implants, such as your height, your build, the kinds of activities you enjoy, and even your career.