Dr Dona discusses double bubble and the different causes.

Double bubble is complex problem and has many different causes. The end result is basically where you have a double curve in the bottom half of your breast, from your nipple to your lower breast fold. This is caused when there has been a loss of harmony or balance between the implant and breast tissue – so we don’t have a uniform spread of the natural breast tissue over the implant. Effectively, you see the breast tissue mound sitting on, or hanging from, an implant mound. The causes of this include:

• Constricted breast base with a short distance from nipple to breast fold – or very conical or pointy shaped breast tissue, which typically also have a constricted breast base are more prone to double bubble on breast implants
• An implant base that is too big relative to natural breast tissue base. The end result is a small natural breast tissue base sitting on top of a larger implant base
• Implant bottoming out/dropping down so that the lower part of the implant is lower than the natural lower base of the breast tissue.
• Breast tissue changing over time and becoming softer and droopier. So what was once a great breast shape with a uniform spread of breast tissue over an implant, changes with breast tissue essentially hanging from an implant mound
• A combination of any of the above mentioned issues

A skilled and experienced plastic surgeon can do a few things internally and with implant selection to minimise the risk of this happening.

If you do have double bubble, correcting it is a very difficult problem and the underlying cause will ultimately determine what needs to done to fix the problem.