Will Breast Augmentation Fix My Breast Asymmetry

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have a question about my breast augmentation procedure that I forgot to ask about during my consultation. My left breast is slightly bigger than my right breast and I was wanting to know if this would affect the overall look of my breasts after getting implants? It is only a slight difference in size, and is only noticeable from a side view. I am just afraid that it will affect the look of my breast post surgery. 

A: Breast asymmetry is very common amongst many women undergoing breast augmentation and is a very important aesthetic issue to identify before surgery. As a general statement, all implants do is to take the breasts you have and make them bigger. They are nothing more than a mound enlarging device. Thus whatever breast shapes one has when they are small will become bigger. This means that for some women a small breast asymmetry may become more noticeable afterwards. (i.e., the breast asymmetry becomes bigger) In other cases, enlarging the mounds may make the slight breast asymmetry go away completely. The difference in what may make breast asymmetry more or less noticeable after augmentation is whether the asymmetry is due to mound size differences or whether it is due to a difference in the horizontal position of the nipples. Slight mound size differences will usually go away even with equally sized implants on both sides. (the key is the term ‘slight’ mound size differences) Conversely, horizontal nipple level differences will usually get worse with implant enlargement as the mounds enlarge. For this reason if I see such differences I point that out to patients during their consultation and usually recommend a small nipple lift at the time of breast augmentation to even out the horizontal nipple levels to avoid the so-called ‘cock-eyed’ breast look when nipples are at different levels on the breast mounds.

I don’t specifically remember any significant asymmetries in your breast mounds that would justify either a nipple lift on one side or the use of different implant volumes. But since you have noticed a slight asymmetry in your breasts and it is of concern to you, I would lastly mention an old breast augmentation adage…‘breasts are not twins but sisters’. This means that if they are slightly different before breast augmentation surgery, they will continue to be different after surgery. One should not expect perfect symmetry from surgery when the breasts are exactly perfectly similar before surgery.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana