Some breast augmentations are so good that you can’t tell they’re not natural – others are obvious from miles away. Here are the top giveaways that won’t have you fooling anyone.
1. Your breasts are too close together.
Real breasts don’t touch each other all the time, unless you’re wearing a bra or a tight top. Natural breast typically have a space between them.
2. Your breasts sit too high on your chest.
The top of the breasts should start where the armpits are. If the breasts sit higher than this, they are probably fake. “High-profile implants will often look more pronounced than moderate or low-profile ones,” says Torrance, CA, plastic surgeon Linda L. Swanson, MD.
3. Your breasts are too round.
Real breasts are not perfect circles. If a woman’s breasts look more like watermelons than pears, that’s a telltale sign that they are implants. “If the breast are too round, too full in the upper part and the ribs are visible above the breast mound, then it’s safe to assume that the breasts have been augmented,” says Peoria, IL, plastic surgeon John Eric Lomax, MD. It’s rare, but not totally uncommon, for someone who is genetically very thin to have large, round breasts.
4. Your breasts have no natural slope.
Natural breasts angle downward at the bottom of the breast. Large, round implants have no slope to them.
5. There is a gap between your breasts that makes them appear far apart.
Implants that are too big for your body, or are placed into a breast pocket that is too small, can cause the area between the breasts to look wide and bony.
6. Your breasts are hard.
Dr. Lomax says that using the wrong type of implants can cause the breasts to appear too firm and not move in a natural fashion with normal body movement. Sometimes the right implant is used but the body develops a capsular conttraction, which can also make the breasts too firm.
7. Your breasts are puckered, rippled, wrinkled or indented.
Wrinkles form from aggressive dissection and cutting of the muscle when creating the pocket (it usually contains implants that are too large for the body). The muscle becomes damaged and the skin ripples or becomes indented. “Going too large thins the tissue and causes rippling,” says Dallas plastic surgeon William P. Adams, Jr., MD. Thin patients with saline or textured implants, especially if they are in front of the muscle, may have more rippling, according to La Jolla, CA, plastic surgeon Robert Singer, MD.
8. The skin is stretched out.
Placing too big of an implant into a naturally small breast forces the skin to stretch out, which may result in an unnatural look. “It’s like squeezing a size 10 foot into a size 6 shoe. It just doesn’t fit and the result is not a pretty breast shape,” says Dr. Adams.
9. The bottom part of your breasts are excessively full.
Too much fullness in the lower part of the breasts is an indication of surgery (although some patients develop this from natural aging without implants).
10. You have side breasts.
If your implants are too large or too wide for your frame, they can pop out to the side, giving an unusual look. This can be avoided by making sure that the width of the implant does not exceed the width of the breast.
