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Breast implant sizes

Breast implants come in different shapes and sizes. Breast augmentation is not performed with one size breast implant filled to different sizes. The breast implants are measured by width, projection and fill volume. Saline filled breast implants have a recommended fill range. The breast implant manufactures name or number their devices by the lowest recommended fill volume for the device. Most plastic surgeons will fill the breast implants to the highest recommended fill volume for the breast implant. Filling the breast implant to its highest volume will typically make the breast implant feel better and less likely to fail (deflate) than the lower range of the breast implant. It is important to understand that this higher filled volume in the breast implant is not ‘overfilling’. This term usually is used when the breast implant is filled well over the highest recommended fill volume. Overfilling is when a breasts implant is filled more that 15% more than its highest recommended volume.

Breast implants can also be under filled. This markedly lower volume is sub optimal because it will increase the likelihood that the breast implant will fail or deflate. Breast implant problems can be made worse by over filling or under filling. Implant wrinkling, rippling or ball-like feeling breast mounds are more likely when one of these two techniques are applied.

As mentioned above, breast implants have specified widths. The wider a breast implant is, the more volume it can be filled with. This is particularly true with moderate profile breast implants. The high profile breasts implants actually become narrower as they are filled. The high profile breast implants also have much larger fill ranges than the moderate profile breast implants. As high profile breast implants get filled more and more, they get narrower. This why these high profile breast implants tend to look ‘torpedo-like’ on certain women.