Most breast augmentation patients will get a nice result from round, smooth surface implants, but there are specific cases where a shaped implant works better. These implants go by many names – anatomic, shaped, teardrop, cohesive, gummy bear – but the preferred term is “form-stable.” These implants are firm enough to hold specific shapes that don’t change with position; sometimes an advantage, sometimes not. An oval-base teardrop profile implant is most helpful in breasts with a specific shape: wide set and with a short nipple to fold distance.

Here is an example of a patient that had form-stable, oval base implants (Sientra 370 cc high profile.) On the VECTRA 3D analysis, you can see that the patient’s breasts have a wide distance between them, and the distance from the nipple to the bottom edge of the breast is short (the bottom edge, or inframammary fold,  is the purple line.) This type of breast has an oval base, not a round one. If round implants are placed without lowering the fold, the implants will not be wide enough to make the breasts appear closer together, and the nipples will look too low on the breasts. Larger round implants will have to go lower than the fold, possibly creating a double bubble, or they will sit too high making the nipples appear even lower. Oval base form-stable implants are designed with the maximum projection closer to the bottom, but because they are wider, they can fill out the breasts closer to the middle.