PinkLisa, I think you've mentioned this before, no? Maybe I'm thinking of the chatroom....
Worth noting: the cohesive gel implants (a.k.a. "gummy bear" implants) aren't in terribly short supply, or restricted to European usage. The limitation which I think was referenced is that Eurosilicone was known for their 'Cadillac' of implants, and the fact that Eurosilicone used to be known for not being limited by the sizes typically found in the USA, ie, 800/850cc, or 1000cc if you happened to find a surgeon who was participating in the 1000cc implant study. To the best of my knowledge, you can't find the 1000cc silicone implants at present. Meaning, all participating surgeons have their quota of participating patients. And Eurosilicone are now owned by an American interest (don't recall which implant company) and now their max size is something like 995cc.
(Quick tangent: 1200cc silicone implants are being reviewed by the FDA. No word yet on when they'll be approved for use.)
So really, for conventional silicone or cohesive gel silicone, the max size available in the USA is 800cc (or 850cc, depending on manufacturer).
One alternative is to go with Becker double lumens, which gives you the best of both worlds. This implant is effectively a saline bladder inside of/behind a silicone-filled secondary shell. There was one woman back around Dec 2009 who posted here to say she'd gotten hers up to 1750cc (don't recall if that was the combined fill, or just the saline fill), which is well past the warrantied limit. The catch: the USA seems to be the only country where you cannot easily get the Beckers. I've no idea why. That's not to say you can't get them. This woman's surgeon did the necessary paperwork to get her to the desired point. I can dig up that link and the name of her surgeon, if you like. In the case of collared_cherri, should she ever get another breast augmentation (ie, to go bigger), this is definitely something I would consider for her, as it would give her the option to fine-tune the size over a period of time. Once she's at the desired size (fullness vs lifestyle), along comes the doc with the local anaesthetic, and out come the fill ports.
Here's another thing to consider. You're quite busty. I realize that's not news, but stop for a moment and ask yourself how far below the breast fold your nipples (appear to) hang. The vast majority of surgeons listening to your request for a lift and implants will first do the lift to the point where your breasts can effectively succeed on their own (ie, without the implants), then will add the implants afterwards. If you plan to have a very moderate size afterwards, this would be an acceptable approach, but if you were considering more or less keeping your current size/volume and simply want them more perky than they are now, then the list of surgeons willing to think outside the box is a considerably short one.
I have certainly heard of surgeons willing to either take a very modest approach to the lift, with an eye towards a fairly large implant. Or for some patients, they will forego the lift altogether.
Before I forget, check out the list of surgeons here:
LargerImplants.info ReferenceI remember Vixen Lamoore saying that she had had 3 lifts. More to the point, she had had 3
crescent lifts, done over a period of time. Ordinarily a crescent lift doesn't provide a dramatic change, but in her case, she healed up completely between lifts, so the effect was cumulative. If you see her early pics, you can see the difference, and it's pretty dramatic. This is handy to know, if you happen to be adverse to the notion of vertical scars starting from your areola and going down to your breast fold. Vixen's surgeon was Dr Yermian, and she could never say enough good things about him.
In summary:
- most surgeons will do an aggressive lift, so choose your surgeon after careful consideration
- check out the list of surgeons on my site
- cohesive gel silicone is an excellent choice
- silicone basically maxes out at 850cc in the USA (at least at present)
- don't rule out the Becker double lumens, as it provides other options
- a crescent lift is the only lift which doesn't leave a vertical scar
- vertical scars actually fade quite well in general, unless you happen to scar badly or form keloids easily
Let me know if you have other questions.