How Common is It for Breast Augmentation Patients to Wish They'd Gone Bigger?

Your feeling of being too small after your breast augmentation is very common.  In fact, over 90% of women all wish they had gone larger about three months after surgery.  The reason is that for the first few weeks, your breasts are swollen and larger than they really are going to be.  You get used to things that way, and when the swelling goes down and the implants settle, women say they liked it when things were swollen, etc.  I would not beat yourself up over the difference between 350cc and 375cc.  That size difference is very small ( essentially two tablespoons), so I doubt that would have made you feel perfect about the size.  I usually recommend women give it a good three months of healing up so that they are used to everything before making any sort of revision decisions.  This way, you have had time to run through the full gamut of emotions, as well as complete all the healing process.  I hope this helps.

This is the number one reason for re-operating after a #breastaugmentationif a woman wears a size 36 AB bra and would like
to be a C cup, which is the average size that women wear and the average size
bra that is sold, she needs a volume of approximately 350 to 390 cc to make
that change. This becomes less if she's wearing a 34 bra, because it has a
smaller strap size and the cups have a smaller diameter. A smaller diameter
implant would then be a volume of approximately 300 to 350 cc. In the same way
if she was more petite, maybe a double zero or size one and wore a 32 AB bra,
then to become a 32C cup she would only require about 250 to 300 cc.

What you are feeling is very, very common! Many patients choose the conservative implant size option, but then regret doing so. In fact, one of the primary reasons patients seek revision surgery is to replace their implants with something bigger. However, the difference between 350cc and 375cc isn't much, so you may have still been unhappy if you had gone with 375cc.You should consider the pros and cons of having revision surgery, carefully considering the related risks of treatment. Having larger implants will also increase the rate at which your breasts sag over time.  If you believe the pros outweigh the cons, then proceed with revision surgery. Best of luck!

Undergoing surgery with larger implants is generally reporated as one of the most common reasons for breast implant revision and occurs approximately in 8% of primary breast implant augmentation procedures performed with silicone implants.

Unfortunately, this is a common experience for many breast enlargement patients. The most common failure is to rush into surgery without proper consultation or to choose the wrong surgeon for your goals/objectives. There may need to be multiple consultations for a patient to be properly informed and to properly express her goals/objectives to the surgeon. Both the surgeon and the patient needs to be patient with the proper development of a surgical plan. The size of the implants are based on a combination of a patient's goals and objectives and her anatomy. In order to provide a natural looking augmentation, the surgeon needs to evaluate many factors including soft tissue coverage, skin laxity, chest wall width, breast imprint width, the shape of the breasts and relative level of constriction to ensure that the breast implants are appropriate for your body. Consult with 3 experienced and expert board certified plastic surgeons to understand your objectives.

Sorry to hear you are unhappy.  Don't beat yourself up over it.  If you had chosen the 375cc, it would have been slightly bigger, but you still would probably not have been satisfied.  Also, going from an A cup, there is a limit as to how big you can go in a day.  If yo exceed that limit, the pec muscles will push the implants out to the sides and/or you will get stretch marks.  If you want to go larger, you may want to wait at least 3 months.

There have even been studies to show that most women who undergo revision following breast augmentation do so because they want to be bigger. The majority of women who reoperate for size issues ,in probably 80% of cases, go larger. The reasons for this are numerous. It is very important to feel comfortable with your plastic surgeon and to ask all of the questions related to your procedure preop. In your case i am sure that your surgeon has had some experience with this in the past, as we all have, and the appropriate steps can be taken to address your concerns.

The most frequent complaint that I get with breast augmentation patients is that "I should have gone bigger.'  As a result, I will always try and push patients just a bit to make their final decision - even the PTA moms.  I think most women aren't honest with themselves about how big they would like to truly go - for fear of looking too big and obvious.  As a result, they under-size.

In your situation, I would wait until about 6 months after surgery so that your tissues can adequately heal.  Then you can proceed with a secondary augmentation.  The only advice is to go at least 2 sizes larger, one size just really isn't worth it.

Best of luck

Vincent Marin, MD

La Jolla Plastic Surgeon

Unfortunately, this is a common experience for many breast enlargement patients. In my experience, a large percentage feel entirely too large for approximately 2-3 weeks, okay with their size for the next 2-3 weeks and then disappointed for a period of time after that. You should keep in mind, however, that your chest wall is only so wide and if you have an overly large implant in your chest, you get a less than optimal appearance. Also keep in mind that extremely large implants can make an otherwise athletic build appear to be top heavy. All in all, it sounds like you and your surgeon made a good choice. I tell my patients to wait a year and then increase their size if they so desire.

In my experience it is not common at all for patients to wish that they had selected a larger or smaller size implant.  I think that this is due to time spent with the patient in selecting and trying on different implant sizes.  I do occasionally change implant sizes, but it is unusual.