Will I Wish I Had Gone Bigger with My Breast Augmentation?
This is a concern expressed by some women seeking breast augmentation, most commonly when they know a friend or family member who previously underwent breast augmentation and has said they wish they had gotten larger implants.
While this may be true for some individuals, “I wish I had gone bigger” is NOT a comment I hear often from my patients. Why is this?
Because my breast augmentation patients diligently do their homework before surgery in the form of soul-searching about the look and proportion they want as well as selecting pictures of nude breasts that correspond to the overall results they are going for—I like to call these “Wish Pictures”.
Before surgery, we have several meetings where I get to know my patients intimately and their goals are clearly elucidated. This process enables us to be on the same page prior to surgery, and for me to be very clear about the results each patient is seeking. In essence, my patients design the results, and I am the executor of this plan!
So why might other patients say they wish they had gone bigger? My suspicion is that when implants are placed under the muscle and drains are not used, there is a LOT of swelling that takes up to three months to go down.
During a submuscular augmentation recovery period, patients actually get used to their abnormally big implant size, and when the swelling finally goes down, they actually miss the larger breast size created by this abnormally long-lasting swelling/edema. This is just human nature as we gradually get used to things and it takes a LONG time for submuscular implants to settle!
Therefore, with subglandular breast augmentation (on top of the muscle), what you see is what you get very early on, with minimal swelling, very little pain and results evident in around 3 weeks.
If you have any additional questions or concerns about breast augmentation, how we size implants to your body and to learn more, please feel free to contact my office online or by telephone today: 415-923-3067.
– Dr. Karen Horton, Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon