When you are considering breast augmentation surgery, it can be difficult to choose a surgeon. You want a doctor you feel confident in and you want to know that you’ll love your results. Consultations are like the interview process, helping you to find the surgeon that is the right fit for your procedure.
As you are interviewing potential surgeons to determine who will perform your procedure, you’ll want to come prepared with a list of questions to ask. You’ll also want to take note of the surgeon’s personality and overall “bedside manner” to make sure you are working with someone who respects you, understands your goals, and can help you achieve them.
Qualifications and training are important, but today we’re sharing an industry secret for choosing a plastic surgeon. Make sure you ask for a gallery of photos from the doctor’s previous breast surgery patients. Any reputable cosmetic surgeon should be proud of their results and be able to offer you a selection of photos for your review. These photos can give you a sneak-peek of your results, provided you know what to look for.
Here are some things to look for as you go through these pictures.
1. Body Frame and Type
Your body frame goes a long way in helping you choose the right size and shape of your breast implants. For example, if you are naturally petite and small-boned, having larger implants might look unnatural or even cartoonish. Scan through the surgeon’s before-and-after photos with an eye toward women who have a similar shape and body type as yours. What looks great on one woman may look entirely different on a patient with a different body type.
2. A Wide Variety of Photos
Don’t make your decision based on one or two pictures alone. Make sure you get a chance to see photos of plenty of different patients, all shot with consistently good lighting. Remember, your goal is to make sure the quality of the surgeon’s work is up to the highest standards with every breast augmentation they perform.
3. Size, Shape, and Type of Implants
As you’re reviewing before-and-after pictures, don’t be shy about asking the size, shape, and type of implants the patients received. These are decisions you’ll be making yourself and seeing what other women have done can help you choose your best look.
4. Scar Locations
Though scarring is inevitable with any surgery, a skilled cosmetic surgeon should know how to place breast implant incisions in locations that will heal discreetly, leaving them virtually undetectable. If you see noticeable scarring while you are evaluating previous patient photos, it could be a red flag that the surgeon doesn’t pay close attention to detail, or that their technique is not as advanced as it could be.
5. Natural-Looking Results
Though the trend with breast implants used to be overly large, round breasts and dramatic cleavage, most women today are looking for a subtle size increase. Many women who want breast augmentation have held off on getting the procedure, for fear of ending up with a look that broadcasts to the world the message that they’ve “had work done.” Competent surgeons keep a finger on the pulse of industry trends and should be able to suggest a surgical approach that helps enhance your natural beauty, instead of making you look like someone else.
Breast Augmentation in Maryland
If you’re looking for outstanding breast augmentation results, start with the before and afters. Looking through a surgeon’s collection of patient photos can help you keep your expectations realistic and give you an idea of their skills and abilities. At the Maryland Institute of Plastic Surgery, our four board-certified cosmetic surgeons have decades of combined experience in breast augmentation, providing our patients with a consistently high satisfaction rate and an excellent experience from start to finish. Contact us today to set up your consultation.