AboutAlan M. Engler, MD, FACS Expertise Dr. Engler has answered over 2700 plastic surgery questions for Allexperts. His expertise is in cosmetic plastic surgery including breast surgery (breast enlargement with implants, breast reduction, breast lifts), liposuction, eyelid surgery, tummy tucks, facelifts etc.
Dr. Engler has been listed as one New York`s Top Doctors, and as "One of the World's Most Famous Aesthetic Surgeons" (Aesthetic Surgery, TASCHEN Books, Angelika Taschen, Editor). He is the author of 4 books, including "BodySculpture" (a best-selling plastic surgery book on breast surgery, liposuction and tummy tucks), "EyeScapes" (Plastic Surgery of the Eyelids), "Restylane," and "The Slim Book of Liposuction."
Dr. Engler has two US Patents for surgical instruments that he's designed, and has appeared on numerous television shows, including The Tyra Banks Show, The Ricki Lake Show (four times), and the Dr. Keith Ablow Show. Videos of his appearances are available on YouTube (SEARCH FOR "DR. ENGLER"). His website is www.bodysculpture.com.
Experience Dr. Alan Engler is a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York and the author of BodySculpture - Plastic Surgery of the Body for Men and Women (ISBN 0966382749) one of the top-selling plastic surgery books on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, etc.
Education/Credentials Dr. Engler graduated from Yale University (undergraduate) and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University (medical school). He did his residency training in General Surgery and, after that, Plastic Surgery, at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York. He is on the faculty of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
Question My girlfriend recently had a lift and implants on tues may 19 and she is worried that the size of her breast is gonna be too big than what she asked for. My question is how long does it take for the swelling to subside and is it normal for the breast to go from ee to a d or dd? Thank you for your answer
Answer from Dr. Alan Engler
www.bodysculpture.com
Hi Mike,
It's hard to give an absolute answer to that. The amount of swelling varies a lot from patient to patient but, in general, is related to the amount of breast tissue that there was beforehand. In other words, if the patient was almost all skin and the implants represent virtually everything that is there now, then there tends to be less swelling. If there was relatively more tissue beforehand, then there would be relatively more swelling. That, of course, is assuming that all other factors - bleeding during the surgery, tension, reaction to medications - are the same. And the surgeon may have felt the need to "fill up" the skin with a certain size implant in order to avoid a breast lift with its attendant scars.
Most importantly, therefore, is knowing beforehand what the patient wanted from the standpoint of size. Once that swelling goes down the overall size should then be essentially what the patient wanted.
In terms of cup sizes, a DD is sometimes called an E and a DDD and F, so going from a EE to a DD is really dropping one full cup size. I would think that that's a lot to drop just from swelling.
Again, it's very difficult for me to answer that more specifically, but I hope that this has helped a bit. She should, of course, stay in touch with her plastic surgeon to make sure that she got what she wanted, or at least as close as was reasonably possible.
