• Video
  • Breast Implant Sizing: Pictures, Measurements, and Sizers
{{ showTranscript ? 'HIDE' : 'SHOW' }} TRANSCRIPT
Sizing is probably the thing that most of our patients are really very anxious about when they first come in. They wanna be very sure they picked the right size, something they get enough of a change, but many, many of them are worried about looking too fake and overly done. Most of my patients want to avoid that look. We've got a good system for figuring out nice proportional size for the patients.

The first thing you do is you really have to understand what the patient wants in terms of the goals. We have a detailed conversation about what they like, what they don't like, what they want to avoid and what's important to them. We kinda go through all that sort of stuff. When we go to the exam room, we really start by measurements. Measurements I think are the key because I hear this over and over again from ladies that are thinking about breast augmentation. They want a nice cleavage. They don't want a big wide gap. They want the fullness of the implant to fill up the breast, but they certainly don't want a lot of fullness at the side because they're worried about looking bulky or heavy or the dreaded three-letter word, fat.

I think by doing careful measurements of their frame, you can really help them to get an implant that's nice and proportional. That's what most ladies want. They wanna look feminine and attractive. They wanna avoid that fake-y, overdone look. That's the second step.

The third step is trying on the sizers. The ladies can see what the implants look like in a sports bra. They can feel how heavy the implant is. I think, even though that's not a perfect system, it really goes a long way towards narrowing down from the dozens and dozens of options that we have down to two or three, and then we can really discuss what the best choice is or we can figure out which one they like the best.

I would think that a lot of them come in having read information online, perhaps talked to a friend that a certain number of cc will give them a certain look. They forget that it depends on their frame, their weight and their proportions and almost how much breast tissue they start with. Really it's more important to educate them about the process and really say, "Okay, just because your friend, Suzy or Jane, had a 400 cc implant, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the right one for you. It might be but you just don't know until you go through the whole step by step, careful process."

Breast implants are like anything that's man-made. They will eventually wear out and need to be replaced. We tell everybody that they're certainly not a lifetime device. Typically 12 to 14 years would be the average lifespan for the implant, but it's a bell curve. Some implants will last longer. Some implants will last less.

Breast Implant Sizing: Pictures, Measurements, and Sizers

Dr. Thomas Fiala explains the process of breast implant sizing, from discussing your goals with your surgeon to trying on sizers to understanding the misconceptions when it comes to how many CCs one should get.