Breast Augmentation and Liposuction Blog - Dr. Bottger

In attempt to describe ideals of beauty, the primary drivers have generally been evolutionary psychologists, who frame their results in terms of their particular grinding wheel, proving that the evolutionary forces that shaped humans in the Holocene still impact us today. Now, though, a plastic surgeon has described what he claims is the "ideal breast shape."

Before we get to considering his results, let's consider the noble goals of his quest. As a plastic surgeon, he performed many revision breast augmentation surgeries, correcting the poor results that women received from other surgeons. One of the things he found was that patients often got results whose shape they found unattractive, in part because they knew how to talk about breast implant size, but were unable to describe their ideal shape to their surgeon, whose ideal of breast shape was often based on personal formulas or poorly defined. To correct this, the British plastic surgeon sought to define the breast shape that most would agree were attractive.

To attempt to define the ideal breast shape, the plastic surgeon started by looking at The Sun's daily Page 3 girls. For most of the world, Page 3 means little, but Britons have been accustomed to seeing a topless girl on Page 3 of the Sun tabloid since 1970. In the early years, there were no restrictions, but since the early 90s, only women with natural breasts have been allowed on Page 3, and it is this feature that inspired the plastic surgeon to look at the Page 3 models to determine the ideal breast shape.

The surgeon selected 100 models and a computer was used to analyze the dimensions and proportions of each breast and found that there were four common features. First, the nipple meridian (a horizontal line drawn at the level of the nipple) divided the breast into two uneven parts, with 45% of the breast volume above the meridian and 55% below the nipple. Next, the upper surface of the breast was either straight or slightly concave. The nipple pointed slightly upward at an angle of about 20º, while the lower pole of the breast had a tight concave curve.

Next, to test whether these parameters actually described an ideal breast, the surgeon asked women to rate the attractiveness of before and after photos of breast augmentation patients. He found that when results deviated from these described features, they were considered less attractive.

Although we are a long way from being able to state that these factors actually represent an "ideal breast," they do give plastic surgeons and patients considering breast augmentation a better starting place for discussing breast shape than they have ever had in the past. This is crucial because nearly as many women seek breast augmentation to improve the shape of their breasts as to increase the size.

You can read the study in the August 2011 issue of the Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive, & Aesthetic Surgery.

To discuss your shape and size goals from breast augmentation with a Philadelphia board certified plastic surgeon, please contact Dr. David A. Bottger today.

Labels: aesthetic study, breast augmentation, breast shape