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Is There An Ideal Breast?

Although surgeries are often based upon measurements and proportion formulas, all bodies will be different, have asymmetry and vary in shape and size. Surgeons may use measurements as a guideline for a surgery but no one, not even the surgeon, expects a breast to be perfect before or after any surgery.Nor should you.

Are there measurements for which the breast surgery is based upon in reduction mammoplasty or mastopexy? Yes. However, not all surgeons use these guidelines or measurements. Nor are these post-operative measurements to be expected no matter how much reconstructive surgery is performed. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all shapes and sizes are considered aesthetically pleasing and for lack of a better word, "normal."

According to the Core Curriculum of the prestigious Yale University School of Medicine - Plastic Surgery Section, the following dimensions and measurements are considered in plastic surgery of the breast.

• sternal notch or mid-clavicle to nipple: 19-21 cm (yellow)

• nipple to midline: 9-11 cm (blue)

• nipple to infra-mammary crease: 7-8 cm (white)

• breast base: 11-14 cm (dark green)

• areolar diameter: 35-45 mm (red)

• nipple diameter: 5-8 mm (purple)

• nipple projection: 4-6 mm (bright green)