Breast Sizing
Beauty is obviously in the eye of the beholder.
Many people in the general population, both male and female, focus purely on volume. It is not uncommon for patients undergoing cosmetic breast surgery (either reduction or augmentation) to obsess over the cup size of the final result. As all women would know every brand of bra will differ in relation to sizing.
Bra sizes are determined by the chest circumference number ie 12 or 14 and the breast cup size ie C or D cup etc. Sizing of breasts by bra size can differ by up to 3 sizes in the same bra range. For example a 12 C cup size can easily be either a 14 B cup or a 10 D cup and this is within the same bra brand range!! There is no universal standard cup sizing guide. If you add in all the different brands of bras the differences are almost endless. So you can see it can be very difficult to guarantee a final cup size.
There is no universal standard cup sizing guide.
Plastic surgeons will often discuss bra cup sizes to make sure that the patient and the surgeon are on the same wavelength with respect to the outcome you want to achieve. For example if a patient is an 8 A cup and wants a natural result from a breast augmentation and is asking for a 500 cc implant this will be impossible to achieve and therefore further consultation will be required in order to reset the patients expectations in order to achieve the desired result.
With that in mind the other common misperception amongst patients is that they absolutely need to have a certain volume of implant. A 300 cc implant is going to look completely different in different size patients. It may be too big for a patient that is size 6 or 8 and it may be too small for someone who is a size 14 or 16. Read more on Breast Augmentation here
Similarly if a breast reduction patient is a preoperative 14 G cup and wants to be a B cup this will not be achievable and once again is unrealistic. For reasons behind this please see Breast Reduction.
This opinion piece was brought to you by Dr Damien Grinsell. For an appointment please call 03 85602999 or email enquiries@horizonplasticsurgery.com
