Breast Implant Shape, Texture, And Size have Costs Breast implants come in a variety of shapes, surface textures, and sizes. Depending on the desired shape wish to achieve, and the plastic surgeon may choose a round or contoured breast implant shape. The patient chooses between round breast implants and teardrop or "anatomical" implants. Anatomical breast implants are shape like a teardrop in order to give the breasts a natural flow and bounce. Anatomical implants allow the breast to have a gentle slope until it reaches it maximal projection or fullness towards the bottom of the breast. Anatomical or teardrop breast implants typically have a textured shell and they do not accidentally rotate after breast augmentation. Rotation of a teardrop breast implant may still occur after breast augmentation surgery, which leads to breast unevenness or asymmetry while distorting the shape of the breast. Round breast implants appear perfectly circular when placed on a table. When held upright, however, they assume a teardrop shape as gravity pulls the majority of the gel filling downwards. Textured anatomical breast implants are fixed and no not change shape as the body changes position, so even if a patient lies flat, round implants move, but teardrop implants stay in the exact position. The surface of a breast implant can be smooth or textured. The surface of a smooth implant is as smooth as the surface of a balloon. The surface of a textured breast implant feels somewhat like sandpaper. Textured surface implants originally thought to reduce the chance of capsular contracture. Some information in the literature with small numbers of patients suggests that surface texturing reduces the chance of severe capsular contracture, but clinical information from studies of a large number of women with breast implants shows no difference in the likelihood of developing capsular contracture. A smooth breast implant is able to move freely in the breast pocket. Smooth implants usually have thinner shells than textured implants, which makes them the softer choice of the two. Additional benefits of a smooth breast implant include implant longevity, lower patient cost, and reduced risk of rippling. A textured breast implant has a rough outer surface in order to create cohesion between the implant and the surrounding tissue. This helps the implant maintain proper vertical alignment, a particular concern with teardrop breast implant shapes. Textured breast implants have been associated with a higher rate of leaking and breast rippling than have smooth implants; however, textured implants decrease the risk of displacement. There is actually a scientific method for selecting the best breast implant size based on the width of the breasts. Doctors do not want patients to have an implant that looks like a small marble under the breast. Nor does either party want implants that are so wide that they touch each other at the center of the chest or and extend too far to the underarms. A full breast measurement is imperative to assure the appropriate breast implant size. Of course, any patient can select an implant larger or smaller than the suggested sized base on breast measurements, but then the patient is risking looking unnatural.