Have you ever thought your boobs looked weird?
I recently discovered that my left ear sticks out further than my right and I swear it took a solid two days before I stopped freaking out about it. I nearly convinced myself I was part elf.
Anyway, back to the boob thing. “Normal” is such a misleading word, right? Like, what does it mean anyway? The way someone intended our bodies to look? Or the way the majority of people look? What dictates normal??
I can tell you that in my experience of seeing thousands of pairs of breasts, no two looked exactly alike. Everyone has slightly asymmetric breasts (and for that matter, every other body part that comes in pairs as well). On top of this, there is nothing that says your breasts should look like anyone else’s and just because they don’t does not mean they’re not normal. In fact, what you think is abnormal is probably perfectly ordinary.
The best example I can think of is something called tuberous breasts. Wikipedia defines it as a “congenital abnormality,” but I have seen at least as many tuberous breasts as I have non tuberous breasts. They are typically characterized by a cone-like appearance and are often spaced very widely apart. Sometimes, you may see instances where the breast tissue is herniated into the nipple-areolar complex, making the nipples look a bit puffy. The biggest indicator, though, is a constricted bottom. Meaning, if you try to grab the bottom of the breast and don’t find as much fullness as you do at the top, it’s likely you have tuberous breasts. You might have one or all of the characteristics and they might even present differently between both breasts.
Tuberous breasts are, in fact, exceptionally common. Click here to see our tuberous breast augmentation before & after gallery.
This Patient is a 25 – 35-year-old female. She was treated for Type III tuberous breasts with a periareolar breast augmentation with 695cc silicone implants and skin matching nipple tattooing.
What isn’t common, however, are surgeons who specialize in dealing with tuberous breasts. Augmenting tuberous breasts is a completely different ballgame than augmenting non-tuberous breasts. The problem lies with the constricted bottom. Imagine trying to stick an implant into a breast that has a super tight or even no underside. How will the implant sit nicely inside of the pocket? How can we get a nice natural-looking shape if the bottom of the breast doesn’t allow enough breathing room? It’d be like trying to put your shoes on before loosening the laces.
To properly address tuberous breasts, we have to make a periareolar incision (semi-circle at the bottom edge of the areola) and score (kind of like you do with meat before you put it on the grill) the inside of the breast tissue. This allows the breast tissue to splay out and sort of relax. Then, when we put the implant in 5 minutes later, it sits nice and round and full at the bottom.
This patient is a 30-40-year-old female with Type II tuberous breasts. The patient underwent breast augmentation with periareolar release. She chose silicone implants sized 485 cc for the left breast, and 520 cc for the right breast to balance her asymmetry.
If we didn’t take this extra step, the breast implant could get hung up inside and end up looking wonky. In fact, there are two scientific terms that describe complications from not properly addressing tuberous breasts when doing a breast augmentation: double bubble and Snoopy nose deformity. Yeah, because it looks like Snoopy’s nose. Seriously, you can’t make this shit up.
The only cartoon character you probably want to be compared with after a breast aug is maybe Jessica Rabbit. Surely not the beagle from the Sunday Funnies. Facepalm.
So, if you think your boobs are weird, or your ears are elfish, don’t sweat it. But make sure you let the right professionals handle it.
