“From small beginnings come great things.” – author unknown From resting and eating to lifting and love-making, here’s what you can expect – and do – from the first day after your breast implant surgery to your first post-op visit one week later. Top tip: Listen to your body. RECOVERINGHow will you feel after getting breast implants? Women most often describe the feeling as discomfort, not pain. Those who have had children say they feel like they did when their breasts were fully engorged with milk after childbirth. Women who haven’t had kids describe the feeling as tightness, burning or press ..read more

I’ve answered hundreds of questions about breast implants in my office and in my book, The Scoop On Breasts: A Plastic Surgeon Busts the Myths, but answering questions on Reddit? That’s another story! On Dec. 13 at 4 p.m., I hosted a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything!) session. I was introduced like this: IamA Guinness World Record Holding Breast Surgeon. I’ve examined at least 56,000 breasts during my 25-plus-year career as a plastic surgeon. I’m an expert knife and tomahawk thrower. AMA! I might not have gotten as many questions as Barack Obama, Jerry Seinfeld or Arnold Schwarzenegger did when the ..read more

I’ve examined a lot of breasts – at least 56,000 – during my career as a plastic surgeon. How’d I get to that number? About 7,000 women have come to me for breast augmentation surgery. On average, I see each woman about four times – once before her surgery and three times afterward for post-op visits. So, 7,000 women x 2 breasts x 4 visits = 56,000. That’s not a problem that would have been on your sixth-grade math homework. Through the years, I’ve observed every variation in breast size and shape, in breast perkiness and nipple size, and in women’s thoughts about their figure and their s ..read more

In honor of Valentine’s Day, you’ll find some questions and answers below about cosmetic breast surgery and relationships. They are excerpted from The Scoop on Breasts: A Plastic Surgeon Busts the Myths, which I wrote with my wife, Joyce, my childhood sweetheart. Can I see your license and registration?On Valentine’s Day, famous pairs come to mind, like Romeo and Juliet, Hillary and Bill, and Beyonce and Jay-Z. Here are some other pairs that we read about in online forums, where women shared the names they chose for their “girls.” In many cases, they called their breas ..read more

Breasts come in twos. So do shoes, socks, gloves and earrings. Many other things come in threes: a three-ring circus, primary colors, the little kittens that lost their mittens, and the number of blind mice in a group. Over the last five to 10 years, when I’ve reviewed charts in the operating room before I begin surgery, I’ve been noticing that, “Oh, look, everyone is from out of town today,” or “Everyone’s Asian today.” My cosmetic breast surgery patients seem to come in clusters. In other words, they share some distinguishing quality. Is it a cosmic biorhythm, an unexplainable phenomeno ..read more

Whether you are planning a beach vacation or a wedding, hoping to get pregnant or lose weight, or entering a sports competition, timing is everything when you are considering breast augmentation surgery. Taking a Beach VacationAround three weeks after your breast augmentation surgery, you can go in a hot tub, swimming pool or the ocean. At that time, the incision will be healed enough so that water won’t penetrate it and possibly cause an infection. You can go tanning as early as three weeks after surgery, too. Ultraviolet light, whether from the tanning bed or the sun at the beach, can m ..read more

Are you a candidate for a breast lift? Should you also also get implants? What can you expect during recovery? Here are 10 things to consider. 1. A breast lift, or mastopexy, raises and firms the breasts, giving them a more youthful look. I do this by removing the excess skin, moving the nipples to a new, higher position, and suturing the remaining tissue together to create a sling – essentially a natural support bra – that raises and reshapes the breasts. I use the I.D.E.A.L. Breast Lift technique, which I created and have been teaching to doctors from around the world. 2 ..read more

Times change. And so may your breast size. When women come in for a breast augmentation consultation, I tell them about two circumstances that could change their surgical results in the future: pregnancy and significant weight change. During pregnancy, breasts enlarge from hormonal changes and milk production. Afterward, they could return to their original size or get smaller or bigger. And because breasts are made up mostly of fatty tissue, they will get bigger or smaller as you gain or lose weight. Often, they are the first indicators. Although your breasts may change, your implants will rem ..read more

“Worth it but kinda wish I went bigger.” “Love ‘em but wish I went bigger.” Breast augmentation forums, such as RealSelf.com, are filled with comments like these. After doing thousands of breast augmentation consultations, I’ve identified four reasons that women hold back from choosing the size they really want to be. If you can avoid these traps, you’ll likely be satisfied with your choice after surgery. Holding back based on concerns that people will “know.”Some women don’t want others to know they had a breast augmentation, so they choose smaller implants: “I don’t want to look fa ..read more

When they come in for their breast augmentation consultation, most women tell me that they want to be a “full C cup” and they want to look proportional. They think this means they will wear a C cup bra after surgery. Problem #1: There is no standard bra cup-sizing system.“C cup” can mean one thing if it’s made by Victoria’s Secret and another if it’s made by Vanity Fair. You might wear a B cup in a full-coverage bra and a C cup in a demi bra, even if the same company makes both styles. Your cup size is also affected by how tight you wear your bra band. If you wear it tighter, it will pus ..read more