Implant sizes are determined at your consultation and preoperative visit so that your cup size requirements are satisfied, and the implant width ideally suits your breast dimensions to give you the best shape and optimal superior and medial cleavage.
Moderate profile implants tend to look the most natural and have a natural teardrop shape when the patient is standing, as the saline or silicone falls to the bottom. They work best in broader frames, or in cases where a woman has a wide bony cleavage. In this situation, the more gradual slope from skin on bone centrally or peripherally, to the breast projection is gradual and more natural. High profile implants in this situation can look too unnaturally projecting, where skin on bone centrally dramatically slopes up onto the projection of the breast. This can give rise to a deep-looking valley centrally, along the inner cleavage area. Most don’t admire this look.
Saline high profile implants look very round, while the silicone equivalent looks more attractive and natural. Dr. Brown admires the silicone high profile implants and uses them frequently, along with moderate profile styles in saline and silicone. They work well to satisfy cup size requirements in narrow-framed, petite individuals. In general, high profile implants are rounder, more projecting and slightly less natural looking than their moderate profile counterparts.
Midrange (also called Moderate Plus) profile implants are a nice compromise between moderate profile and high profile implants, and work well in women who want to achieve a larger breast size than their frames would otherwise allow, without compromising too much naturalness.
Extra high profile implants are also available. These are the narrowest, least natural, and most projecting implants. Dr. Brown almost never uses these implants, even in the subset of petite women who want to be as large as possible, as something is lost in the overall attractiveness of the result. Skin stretch and tissue thinning over these implants with subsequent rippling, sagging, and extreme roundness (think tennis ball) is not aesthetically pleasing in Dr. Brown’s opinion. Other plastic surgeons in the Las Vegas area might tend to disagree.