A woman will elect to have breast augmentation because she wants to increase her breast size and/or have her breasts more proportionate to the rest of her body. Picking a breast size can be very distressing, because some women tend to obsess over getting the perfect size, which is completely understandable. Some women worry about going too big, while others worry about not going big enough. Having realistic expectations regarding size is a must. It is a also a good decision not to push the limits of your body by trying to force a (too large) breast implant. Spending some time considering breast implant size is a very good idea.
Determining Breast Size / Breast Implant Size
We have breast implant sizers in the office that you can try on during your consult. The breast implants are usually tried on underneath a sports bra or in a regular-type bra. Another method is the rice test. In general for every 175 to 200 cc of breast implant volume breast size will increase one cup size.
Rice Test for Determining the Size Breast Implants
There is a simple method to help determine what size breast implants might be best for you. Prima Center patients have found that the “rice test” is an effective way for them to better understand what size implants they would like. This test can be performed in the comfort of your own home.
The rice test can be done in the following way:
1. Fill the legs of pantyhose with the desired amount of rice (or instant oatmeal, if rice is too heavy). Breast implants are measured in cc’s (cubic centimeters)
2. You follow the chart below to help you determine what rice measurements equal the different cc amounts for breast implants.
3. Once the legs of the pantyhose are filled with the desired amount of rice, you can try them on under a sports bra. The sports bra will compress the simulation implants much like the muscle will compress the real breast implants if the breast augmentation is performed under the muscle.
4. If your breast augmentation surgery is going to be performed under the muscle, you will need to add 15 percent to the cc amount you liked during the rice test for the cc amount of your actual breast implants. If you like the 400 cc amount during the rice test, you would want to have 460 cc breast implants placed during breast augmentation surgery.
CC Amount Conversion Chart - Rice Test
The conversions below will help you determine the amount of rice (in cups) that will equal the cc amount of equivalently sized breast implants.
1 cup = 236cc 1/2 cup = 118cc 3/4 cup = 177cc 1/4 cup = 59cc
1/3 cup = 78cc 2/3 cup = 156cc 1/8 cup = 30cc
This technique is meant only as a rough guideline. It is accurate + or – 20%.
It’s important to remember that you should not totally rely on cc amounts to determine breast size. For instance, if you like the way 400 cc looks on one person, that does not mean that 400 cc will look the same on you. This is due to several factors including
The amount of existing breast tissue
The shape of the chest wall
Deformities of the chest such as pectus excavatum, and pectus carinatum. (differences in the shape of the breast bone).
Weight
One important thing to keep in mind is that a photograph is a better graphic representation than an estimate of size in terms of cups. For this reason it is recommended that you look at photographs and understand your desires such as too small, too large, too round, not full enough at the top and just right. This will help your plastic surgeon immensely and takes away a lot of the guess work regarding size. A photograph locks in graphically your desires and leaves less room for error.
Prima Center for Plastic Surgery
