A Patient Guide to Breast Augmentation
Lesson ONE:
Choosing YOUR Look
It’s natural to start by asking “what size implant should I get?” — it’s the question almost everyone has at first. But there’s a better place to begin: defining the look you’re hoping for. Once you know that, your surgeon can combine it with your own anatomy and choose the implant that brings your goal to life.
First find your desired look. Then we can find the implant.
Most patients start — and get stuck — on a number: a cup size, or a cc count from someone else's result. But the same implant looks completely different from one body to the next. So we do it in the opposite order.
Step 1
Start thinking about the result YOU want
You've probably spent hours reading about incisions, over vs. under the muscle, and recovery — all very important. But none of it answers the hardest question: when you're honest with yourself, what result are you really after?
Words and descriptive terms often fail us here. Patients ask to be “conservative” and “natural” and turn out to want a rounded look with real cleavage; others ask to be “full” and actually want something modest and slim. That's normal — and it's why we first recommend finding photos of different types of results.
Collect photos of both results you like and results you don't, with a quick note on why for each.
Describe the look, not the label. “I don't want this rounded, far-apart look” tells us far more than “I like this one, it's 400cc high profile.”
Browse results safely. Use our before & after gallery, plus trusted databases like ImplantInfo.com and BustMob to compare real results.
Why this matters. You can't copy someone else's result onto you — but pictures can help prevent you from using the wrong words to describe want you want, and they open an honest conversation about what's realistic for your body with your surgeon
Nearly every patient's goals fall somewhere along a spectrum, from very conservative to full and dramatic. Identifying the general category that best reflects your preferences helps your surgeon better understand the results you're hoping to achieve.
Be honest with yourself and choose the category that most closely matches what you envision for your body—not what you think you should choose.
Finding your category, combined with creating a collection of “wish pics” from Step 1—examples of results you like and dislike—provides a powerful way to communicate your aesthetic goals to your surgeon. Together, these tools help establish a shared understanding of your preferences and guide a more productive consultation.
Step 2
Find your category
As you scroll through and research what you want, think of each one as a point along a spectrum, not a rigid box. Even within the same general size and look, a patient’s own anatomy and the surgical technique chosen can meaningfully change the final result.
Many patients land somewhere in between, and some of the examples could reasonably fit in more than one category. The simplest way to read them is from very subtle to very obviously augmented — nearly every patient’s goals fall somewhere on that range, from conservative and refined to full and dramatic.
Use the category you choose as a tool to communicate your goals to your surgeon — a shared starting point for the look you’re hoping for — rather than an exact blueprint of the result.
Swipe to explore these looks across a range of skin tones.
Most subtle
Category 1: Athletic/Ballerina
For patients who want just a subtle amount of volume — enough to fill out a swimsuit or bra and restore a little shape — without ever looking augmented. A favorite of active, athletic women who don't want anything that looks or feels “done.”
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Typical Profile: Low
Subtle
Category 2: Natural
For patients who want some fullness and a bit of cleavage, but not an overly round or “on-top” look. The result reads as a naturally fuller version of you — a soft, sloped upper pole that looks like it's always been there.
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Typical Profile: Moderate/Moderate Plus/Medium
Most subtle
Category 3: Balanced Full
For patients who want clear, rounded fullness and noticeable cleavage — a look that's obviously enhanced but still proportionate to your frame. The most-requested step up from natural.
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Typical Profile: Medium-High/Moderate High to High
Most Full
Category 4: Augmented Full
For patients who want maximum upper-pole fullness and a bold, round, unmistakably augmented look with strong cleavage. The fullest end of the spectrum.
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Typical Profile: High to Extra High
Step 3
Refine the details.
Your category and wish pics help set the big picture. The following are more nuanced, specific details that can make two similar results look different. You won't care about all of them — and you don't need to. I suggest you note the two or three that matter most to you, and bring those up with your surgeon.
Keep it simple — write down your top 3 as you go
There’s a lot to take in here, so make it easy on yourself. As you read through the details below, note the three that matter most to you — in your phone, or on our one-page worksheet you can print and bring to your consultation. This step helps communicate the additional details that matter to your goal, and lets your surgeon discuss whether your individual anatomy may make certain looks difficult to achieve or add additional techniques to help you reach your goals.
The main things most patients should think about:
Upper breast fullness
How full and rounded the top of the breast looks — from a soft, natural slope to an obviously rounded upper pole.
Inner breast fullness
The fullness along the inner side of each breast, toward the center of the chest.
Side/Outer Breast fullness
How much fullness sits toward the outside of the breast, out toward the armpit.
Distance between the breasts
How close together the breasts sit — the width of the gap down the middle.
A limit worth knowing: how close your breasts can be brought together is set largely by your own anatomy — your natural breast spacing and how your breasts attach to the chest wall. A surgeon's ability to change this is limited, and pushing it too far will not give a natural result and can lead to the breast implants looking "connected" in a process called symmastia
Specific concerns some patients have/want to avoid
These don't apply to everyone. If one is relevant to you, it's worth raising — a few have anatomy or technique considerations behind them.
Degree of bra-line fullness
Extra natural fullness on the side of the chest, along the bra line.
Nipples pointing outward
Nipples that aim out to the sides rather than straight ahead.
Worth knowing: to achieve the best breast result, patients with a large amount of natural fullness to the side sometimes need an additional procedure, such as liposuction or extra skin removal.
Nipples pointing upwards
Nipples that aim upward rather than forward.
Implant sitting low, or sagging
Breasts or nipples that sit low on the chest.
Enlarging a breast doesn't always reliably lift it. If this applies to you, a lift may be part of the plan — see more information on mastopexy
Asymmetry
Differences between the two sides in size, shape, or nipple position. Everyone has some — it can be improved, but not made perfectly identical.
Visible Edges or Rippling
Being able to see or feel the edge of the implant, or a rippled texture — This becomes more of a consideration in patients with with thinner tissue in their upper breast.
Some patients get symmetry that improves a great deal with augmentation alone, and some patient benefit from doing procedures that allow for better symmetry in addition to breast augmentation. In fact, a breast lift or Mastopexy is not always done just to provide a lift, but it is sometimes performed primarily to provide better symmetry
Too much movement or animation when you work out or flex your chest muscle
The implant moving more than you'd like, or flexing and distorting when the chest muscle tightens, is called animation deformity. It's related to how the implant sits relative to the muscle and is more likely to occur in patients who both weight train and who have implants placed under their muscle.
Step 4
Educate Yourself
These are all topics that your surgeon will discuss with you. if it seems overwhelming, feel free to let your surgeon walk you through these topics and help you make educated decisions during your consultations. If you prefer to read up prior to your consultation, here are some easy to understand discussions about how some of these decisions will affect your final result so you can read them from a credible source.
Why "cc's" don't equal a cup size — and why your look matters more than a number.
"Gummy bear" and beyond — how firm vs. soft gels feel and hold shape.
How projection and width change the same volume's shape on your frame.
Step 5
Choose your surgeon and book a consult
You've done the hard part — you know your goals and you've familiarized yourself with the important questions to consider. The last decision may be the most important one: who performs your surgery. Here's a practical approach to finding the surgeon who is right for you.
What proper training actually looks like
Cosmetic breast surgery is real surgery, and finding a properly trained, thoughtful surgeon can make or break your result — and keep you safe. The most reliable signal of proper training is board certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS) — or, in Canada, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
A surgeon reaches that point one of two ways, and neither is quick. Both an integrated plastic surgery residency and a general surgery residency followed by a plastic surgery fellowship take roughly six to eight years of accredited training after medical school — years devoted specifically to plastic and reconstructive surgery, with minimum surgical-case requirements along the way.
And finishing training isn’t the finish line. To actually become board certified, a surgeon must pass rigorous written and oral board examinations — and in the oral exam, present a collection of their own cases from their first years in practice. Those real operations and outcomes are scrutinized by a panel of experienced plastic surgeons to confirm the surgeon operates safely, ethically, and well. Certification isn’t just a diploma on the wall; it’s evidence that a surgeon’s actual results have been examined and held to a national standard.
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MD or DO doesn't tell you much by itself — both can lead to excellent, fully trained plastic surgeons. What matters is what came after medical school: the residency and board certification above.
One distinction patients are rarely told about: a "cosmetic surgery fellowship" is not the same as a plastic surgery residency. There are short cosmetic-surgery fellowships open to physicians from other fields — family medicine, OB/GYN, dermatology, or ENT, for example — who can then advertise as a "cosmetic surgeon" without having completed an accredited plastic surgery residency. Unlike plastic surgery, "cosmetic surgery" is not recognized as a distinct specialty by the American Board of Medical Specialties, and these fellowships are generally not accredited by the ACGME, the national body that accredits residency and fellowship training. Because there's no single accredited standard, the length and content of that training can vary widely from one program to the next.
A fair word, both ways. Certification can't promise that a surgeon will be caring, attentive, or gifted — those qualities aren't on any exam — and a surgeon who took the cosmetic-fellowship route isn't automatically unskilled. What board certification in plastic surgery does guarantee is that a surgeon was held to a defined national standard: years of accredited training specifically in plastic surgery, a required volume of surgical cases, and rigorous board examinations. It's not a promise about any one person, but on average you're more likely to be in well-trained hands by choosing a board-certified plastic surgeon. You simply have the right to know what the words mean — a "cosmetic surgeon" who isn't board-certified in plastic surgery has not completed, or been tested against, the rigorous standards required to be one.
You can verify any surgeon yourself. The American Board of Plastic Surgery runs a free public lookup — search a name and see whether they're board certified in Plastic Surgery:
Questions you're always allowed to ask:
Are you certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery?
What specific training did you get and where?
Will my surgery be performed in an accredited facility? Do you have privileges at nearby hospitals just in case?
How many Breast Augmentations do you perform each year?
Can I see before and afters of procedures you performed?
A note on risk & recovery
Like any surgery, breast augmentation does carry some risk. In the research — and in our own practice — it's very low for most patients, and recovery is usually quick and well tolerated. What matters most is talking through the risks, and the pros and cons of every option, with a qualified, board-certified plastic surgeon who can weigh them against your health and your goals.
Next Lesson
Keep it going
Explore More Breast Augmentation topics
Why "cc's" don't equal a cup size — and why your look matters more than a number.
How projection and width change the same volume's shape on your frame.
"Gummy bear" and beyond — how firm vs. soft gels feel and hold shape.
Search through before and after images organized by Category of what general "look" each patient has
To schedule an appointment to discuss achieving your breast goals, please click here to contact us, click the below link to schedule online, or call us at (469) 899-8758.
What financing options exist for treatments at Walker Plastic Surgery?
Walker Plastic Surgery has partnered with Care Credit to help our patients finance the costs of their procedures. The CareCredit card is North America’s leading patient payment program. The CareCredit card is easy to use, includes no hidden costs, and can be applied towards both surgical costs and follow-up appointments.
Through their website, you can access tools like the payment calculator and even find out if you qualify for a CareCredit card by starting a commitment free, instant application.