What is the maximum cup size possible for breast enhancement using fat transfer?

Doctor's Answers 3

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Dr Samuel Ho

Plastic Surgeon

Fat transfer is a popular method of increasing bust size, with the other being the use of implants. The attraction of fat transfer is the ability to use only "self" tissue, thus negating the risk of foreign material in the body, as well as that of removing fat from unwanted locations in the body and placing them in desirable locations, in this case the breast, thus achieving 2 aims with a single procedure.

The maximum cup size is dependent on 2 main factors -

  1. The laxity/stetchiness of your native breast pocket
  2. The amount of donor fat that you have

Typical areas that would yield a good amount of useable fat are the abdomen, flanks and thighs. In this regard, certain slim ladies with a low fat % are not suitable.

The laxity of the breast pocket is important as high pressure fat injection usually results in high percentages of fat loss.

My patients typically go up 1 cup size after 1 procedure, depending on the factors I mentioned above. The overall shape of the breast also improves.

Repeat procedures can be performed to achieve the desired cup volume but this has to be spaced 2-3 months apart.

I hope this answers your question!

Best Regards,

Dr Samuel Ho

That’s a really good question.

You may have a certain body fat percentage, but the fat available for harvesting may or may not be sufficient for you to see satisfactory results.

When it comes to fat grafting for the breast area, having more fat definitely helps, but there are other important factors that can influence the outcome of the procedure.

For a start, surgeons need to look at your body's proportion and estimate the volume required before advising if fat grafting should be considered.

Your height and frame will give the surgeon a rough idea with regards to how much volume they need to create a well-proportioned breast.

The maximum cup size you can achieve from this procedure really depends on 3 factors:

1. Volume

The amount of fat harvested from other areas of the body will determine the volume of fat available for grafting. This allows surgeons to assess if there is sufficient fat to achieve a well-proportioned breast.

In some cases where patients do not have sufficient fat for harvesting, I would recommend implants over fat grafting. However, the surgeon will first need to do a personal assessment on such sufficiency of fat.

2. Fat Quality

With fat grafting, not all the fat tissues injected into the breast will survive. Its survival rate is dependent on the quality of the fat tissues.

Good quality fat has a higher survival rate, hence more volume can be retained in the breast after fat grafting and vice versa. Each patient's fat quality is also different and this can be affected by your lifestyle and diet.

3. Skin’s Ability To Stretch

Skin tightness can also limit the amount of fat that can be injected into the breast area. If the breast skin is too tight, then the amount of fat that can be injected into the breast is limited. If there is more skin laxity, then more fat can be injected into the breast. Occasionally, a breast expansion device such as the BRAVA can be used before and after the fat injection procedure if there is such a need.

In general, under optimal conditions, fat grafting can help to increase breast sizes by 1 to 1.5 cup sizes.

I hope my reply helps.

Warmest regards,

Firstly, not all patients will be suitable for breast augmentation with fat grafting. And I'm not talking about not having enough fat. Almost everyone will have some fat they would like to donate to their breasts.

When I perform cosmetic surgery for the breast, it's not purely about size and having bigger breasts, if that were the case, then, yes, everybody can have fat injected into their breasts. The best candidate for this procedure should not have any droopiness of their breasts. If fat is injected into droopy breasts, you will end up with big droopy breasts.

Another important factor in the decision process is what kind of result you want. Do you want a very full upper pole with a lot of cleavage or do you want a more natural result? Fat grafting is great, but it can never give you the full cleavage that implants can give you no matter how many times you repeat the procedure.

There really is no maximum cup size that can be achieved with fat grafting (as long as you have enough fat), but I wouldn't recommend going higher than a D cup. Anything larger than that using your own tissue will cause sagging of your breasts in the long term.

I have performed fat grafting on very slim patients with excellent, natural, scarless results. I would suggest an in person consultation to evaluate whether a patient is a suitable candidate for fat grafting.

Hope this helps.

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Answered By

Dr Samuel Ho

Plastic Surgeon

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