What if I look too fake? And other quandaries.

What’s your goal?

I think of breast augmentation as a spectrum of possibilities for each patient. I do not approach the surgery as a one size fits all augment. Each individual patient envisions themselves looking a certain way, and it’s part of my job to help them define exactly what that is.

Many women express concern over looking obvious or fake after breast augmentation. Some of them believe that outcome is related to the shape of implants used or the plane of the pocket above or below the pectoralis muscle.

The first step in achieving the desired result is actually knowing what result you want. It may sound obvious but you would be surprised how commonly people struggle to know “their look”. Some patients aren’t sure exactly what they want, only that they desire larger breasts and don’t want the change to be blindingly obvious to their neighbors and colleagues. Other patients want a dramatic change, and want the world to know it. Both are good and valid approaches.

Once a woman knows her goals, we can combine that with measurements of the trunk and chest wall to arrive at a range of possible implants of varying projection (projection refers to how far the implant stands out from the chest wall).

In my experience it is very possible to achieve exceptionally subtle results with round implants in any plane. Having spoken to thousands of women about breast augmentation I can say that for as many women who worry about looking too obvious there are as many who desire a noticeable change to their pre operative appearance.

My goal is always to talk to people and help them define their desired look so that we can create a safe sensible surgical plan to achieve their goals.