Round or Anatomical Implants. What's Best For Me?
This is a common question that women ask when they're considering breast implants. Should I have round implants or teardrop implants? It's a complicated question to answer, but hopefully the information below will be helpful.Many women considering breast implant surgery wonder whether they should go for anatomical-shaped implants (also known as teardrop implants) or round implants. It really all depends on three factors: what you have, what you want and what your budget is. The last consideration is unfortunately quite a concern as round implants cost £3499 and teardrops cost around £5000. It's very understandable if someone has spent several years saving up and can justify a certain budget but is unable or unwilling to spend extra for a different shape of implant.
The first question to think about is "What am I hoping to achieve?" If you want to have a natural look, or if you feel as though you have never had a bust and do not wish to have a sharp angle where the breast begins to take off, then this has to be taken into consideration. Sometimes there have been changes with ageing, weight loss or after pregnancy and breast feeding, and you may be hoping to regain some of the volume you used to have previously.
The next step is to look at the size and shape of the breast. In someone who doesn't need an uplift of the nipples at the same time, as part of the examination the surgeon will look at the amount of glandular ptosis, the amount of upper pole concavity and measure the thickness of the soft tissue in the upper pole of the breast. (Have a look at a YouTube video by Mr Shoaib to see how the examination takes place)
Glandular ptosis: This is defined as the amount of droopiness in the breast itself. Ptosis is droopiness, and there can be two things in the breast that droop. The nipple can droop below the level of the breast crease, and that's called nipple ptosis. Also, the breast itself can drop and deflate, with the upper pole of the breast becoming less and less prominent because of post-pregnancy changes, after weight loss and simply as a result of ageing.
The breast normally starts to "take off" a few centimetres below the point where the arm meets the chest at the armpit and, in a natural looking breast, there's a straight line between the collar bone and the nipple but in a breast with glandular ptosis, there's an indentation here. Some people refer to this as upper pole concavity, or a ski slope, and the presence of an upper pole concavity is a reflection of glandular ptosis. Some women have marked glandular ptosis and there are different grades of this.
The surgeon will usually measure the soft tissue thickness in the upper pole. This is done using measuring callipers, as you can see in the YouTube video. This tells the surgeon what to do with the upper part of the implant and where he should place the upper part of the implant in relation to the pectoral muscle.
For someone who has no upper pole concavity, has no glandular ptosis and is not looking for a sharp take off at the junction of the chest wall and the breast, the surgeon will usually use a teardrop-shaped implant. For women who have very little soft tissue thickness in the upper pole of the breast, your surgeon will often recommend teardrop implants almost completely under the muscle (in a dual plane type I pocket). An example of someone who had this done is shown below.
The first question to think about is "What am I hoping to achieve?" If you want to have a natural look, or if you feel as though you have never had a bust and do not wish to have a sharp angle where the breast begins to take off, then this has to be taken into consideration. Sometimes there have been changes with ageing, weight loss or after pregnancy and breast feeding, and you may be hoping to regain some of the volume you used to have previously.
The next step is to look at the size and shape of the breast. In someone who doesn't need an uplift of the nipples at the same time, as part of the examination the surgeon will look at the amount of glandular ptosis, the amount of upper pole concavity and measure the thickness of the soft tissue in the upper pole of the breast. (Have a look at a YouTube video by Mr Shoaib to see how the examination takes place)
Glandular ptosis: This is defined as the amount of droopiness in the breast itself. Ptosis is droopiness, and there can be two things in the breast that droop. The nipple can droop below the level of the breast crease, and that's called nipple ptosis. Also, the breast itself can drop and deflate, with the upper pole of the breast becoming less and less prominent because of post-pregnancy changes, after weight loss and simply as a result of ageing.
The breast normally starts to "take off" a few centimetres below the point where the arm meets the chest at the armpit and, in a natural looking breast, there's a straight line between the collar bone and the nipple but in a breast with glandular ptosis, there's an indentation here. Some people refer to this as upper pole concavity, or a ski slope, and the presence of an upper pole concavity is a reflection of glandular ptosis. Some women have marked glandular ptosis and there are different grades of this.
The surgeon will usually measure the soft tissue thickness in the upper pole. This is done using measuring callipers, as you can see in the YouTube video. This tells the surgeon what to do with the upper part of the implant and where he should place the upper part of the implant in relation to the pectoral muscle.
For someone who has no upper pole concavity, has no glandular ptosis and is not looking for a sharp take off at the junction of the chest wall and the breast, the surgeon will usually use a teardrop-shaped implant. For women who have very little soft tissue thickness in the upper pole of the breast, your surgeon will often recommend teardrop implants almost completely under the muscle (in a dual plane type I pocket). An example of someone who had this done is shown below.
For someone who has glandular ptosis, with an upper pole concavity, the surgeon will want to offset the indentation in the upper pole of the breast with an implant that has an "outdentation" in the upper pole - in other words a round implant. If there's not much soft tissue thickness in the upper pole of the breast, the surgeon would use a dual plane type III pocket (in which the upper half of the implant is below the pectoral muscle and the lower half of the implant is placed behind the breast tissue alone).
If there's enough soft tissue thickness in the upper pole of the breast to cushion the minor imperfections that every implant develops when placed in the body, then the surgeon will place the implant above the muscle (in other words, a subglandular pocket). The cut-off in soft tissue thickness is around 4-5 cm. Examples of round implants are shown below: the first placed in a dual plane type III pocket and the second example is where the implants are placed in a subglandular pocket.
If there's enough soft tissue thickness in the upper pole of the breast to cushion the minor imperfections that every implant develops when placed in the body, then the surgeon will place the implant above the muscle (in other words, a subglandular pocket). The cut-off in soft tissue thickness is around 4-5 cm. Examples of round implants are shown below: the first placed in a dual plane type III pocket and the second example is where the implants are placed in a subglandular pocket.
You can get a really nice natural look using both teardrop (also known as anatomic) and round implants, but it depends on the examination findings. If someone is looking for more of an enhanced look and would like to have a cleavage without needing a bra to shape the breast then it is probably best to consider a round implant above the muscle. The amount of soft tissue thickness then determines the profile of the implant to achieve the enhancement of the look.