Will Replacing My Breast Implants Create More Cleavage?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I had breast implants done about one year ago.  I had textured silicone gel shaped breast implants placed under the muscle. They were 335cc in size. My breasts were A cup size before surgery. I would like to know if corrective surgery with bigger implants will create more cleavage.  have quite a small frame and chest. I would not mind getting bigger implants but only if they looked natural and the breasts did not move any further out to the sides than they are now.

A: One of the basic principles of breast augmentation surgery is that the breast implants merely take the breast features that one currently has and makes them bigger. Therefore, if one’s breasts are fairly widely spaced, getting implants will not create cleavage. It is clear based on your pictures that your breast mounds, small as they were, were more to the sides of your chest wall. That can clearly be seen by how far your nipples are to the side before and after breast implant surgery. With the placement of implants under the muscle, it is hard to create any semblence of cleavage unless one has breast mounds that are naturally close together. That being said, the question is whether bigger implants will give you cleavage. If you place large enough breast implants, you will likely end  up with more cleavage but they will not likely look very natural and will be oversizes for your frame. You are better off just accepting the good breast augmentation result you now have even if it doesn’t create the cleavage you want. That is where bras can compensate for what implants can’t do.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana