Can a 17 year old girl get a breast augmentation?

Hello! Thank you for your question. Breast augmentation is a procedure often sought by women to increase size, add upper pole fullness and projection along with improve shape and symmetry of her breasts. Women who have the breast augmentation done report increased self-confidence, self-esteem, and more comfortable with her body. In fact, it has been the most popular procedure in plastic surgery in the US for the past few years. Many surgeons use 18 years of age as the standard for when to offer the breast augmentation procedure to women. Maturity and the ability to make an educated decision for yourself of whether this procedure is the right one for you as well as factors regarding implant choice, size, incision placement, position of the implant, other adjunct procedures, etc are major factors. Having the maturity to understand all of the risks and benefits of the surgical procedure is also mandatory - thus, most are readily able to comprehend this at that age. 23 years of age is the FDA guideline for utilization of silicone implants. Good communication between you and your surgeon of your expectations is warranted - choosing your surgeon wisely is the first step. Consult with a board certified plastic surgeon well-versed in this procedure. Research your surgeon's education, training, as well as ability to perform this procedure. See postoperative photographs and most importantly choose the one who you feel most comfortable with and competent to meet your expectations. Discussion of your wishes and having an honest and open dialog of your procedure is mandatory (e.g, implant type, incision, placement, lift, etc). I have found that photographs brought by the patient is helpful to get a visualization of the appearance you wish for in terms of size, shape, fullness, etc. In addition, your surgeon's pre and postoperative photographs should demonstrate a realistic goal for you. Once this has been accomplished, allow your surgeon to utilize his/her best medical judgment during the procedure to finesse the best possible result for you after preoperative biodimensional planning and fitting the right implant for your breast width. Hope that this helps! Best wishes for a wonderful result!

The short answer is, yes, you can get breast implants at age 17 with parental consent.  Schedule a consultation with a plastic surgeon, and take your mother along.  But the real question is whether this is the best time in your life to get breast implants?  Are you still in high school?  If you get implants while still in high school, boys may mock you more.  In my practice, I typically counsel young women to wait until after they are out of high school before considering breast implants.  Remember--small breasted women are beautiful too!! and many times make the best fashion models!!

 I am very sorry to hear about the “bullying” that you have experienced.   However, with all due respect, I'm not sure that breast augmentation surgery is the answer. Given your description of self-esteem and depression issues, I think that you may be better off considering counseling… Prior to altering your body in a very significant way. This is not to say that you will not end up undergoing breast augmentation surgeon at some point.  Appropriate motivation and timing will be important. Best wishes.