A couple of decades back, breast augmentation patients tended to prefer breast implants that would produce results inspired by Baywatch actors. That’s rarely the case now. Women considering breast augmentation at our Boston plastic surgery practice want breast implants that create more natural-looking results and fit their active lifestyles.
Women who exercise at the gym, run, or compete in sports often spend much of their free time in activewear. They want to avoid implants that create overly large breasts requiring extra supportive garments.
Whether a woman wants to enhance naturally small breasts or restore volume lost after having children—or for any other reason a patient is considering breast augmentation—choosing breast implants that will help achieve their goals is both exciting and a bit nerve-wracking. It’s important to choose an experienced cosmetic breast surgeon in the Boston area who can help match breast implants to your aesthetic desires and lifestyle.
What Are Your Breast Implant Options?
Something that often surprises patients when they begin researching breast implants is the number of options available. These choices include implant size, the material used to fill them, and the width and projection from the chest—called the implant profile. As a breast augmentation patient, you really have hundreds of options when choosing breast implants. That may sound a bit overwhelming, and that’s why choosing a plastic surgeon you trust and can communicate with honestly is so important.
The path to great breast augmentation results begins at the consultation.
When I meet with patients for breast augmentation consultations, the conversations about their concerns and their goals are followed by a physical exam that includes measuring the patients’ frames, including the width of their chests. These measurements help narrow the options for implants.
For women concerned about implants interfering with their active lifestyles, it’s important to choose implants that are:
- Not wider than your chest, so they don’t spill out from the side, and;
- A size in harmony with the rest of your body, which produces results that look natural
Patients often arrive at their consultations having already completed a lot of online research. This is fine, but I caution against having a specific implant size in mind because what looks great on one person may not create the same results for another woman.
Which Breast Implants Create Results That Look More Natural?
When an experienced plastic surgeon performs breast augmentation, both saline-filled and cohesive silicone gel implants can create natural-looking results. Most patients and surgeons, however, believe silicone gel implants feel, look, and behave more like natural breast tissue. Saline implants tend to feel harder. About 85% of the patients getting breast implants at our Boston practice and nationwide choose silicone gel implants.
If you do choose saline-filled implants, you can consider a hybrid breast augmentation. This technique transfers purified fat from another area of the body, such as the abdomen, and uses it to soften the look and feel of the implants to create a more natural outcome.
Where Should You Have Breast Implants Placed?
You may already be aware that surgeons insert implants either behind the natural breast tissue but above the chest muscle (subglandular) or behind the chest muscle (submuscular). Leaner, athletic women with little existing breast tissue typically benefit from having their implants placed behind the muscle as a way of camouflaging them. Women with highly defined chest and arm muscles, such as bodybuilders, may choose to have implants placed above the muscle for aesthetic reasons.
Tools to Help You Choose Breast Implants
Many patients look at before-and-after photos of actual patients when they start thinking about breast augmentation. Look for women with similar body types to yours and bring in those photos or other pictures that demonstrate the look you want. It’s also helpful to find photos showing the results that you don’t like.
At our practice, we also offer patients the opportunity to visualize potential results using a state-of-the-art 3D imaging system called Crisalix. This popular technology enables you to see how your breasts could look with different sizes of implants.
How to Know What You Want
An active lifestyle means different things to different people. It’s important to evaluate what it means to you. Do you run every day, play tennis, or participate in other sports that involve a lot of running? You may have different goals than a woman who gets most of her exercising by hiking or swimming. Do your aesthetic goals match your lifestyle?
The good news is that with so many breast implant options available, it’s easier than ever for a surgeon to customize your procedure based on both your lifestyle and the look you want.
If you’re looking for a breast augmentation specialist, you can contact us using the online form to request a consultation or call our practice at (781) 740-7840 to schedule an appointment.
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