June 2020 Procedure of the month: Breast Augmentation and Mastopexy (Breast Lift)
Posted May 27, 2020
Breast Augmentation and Mastopexy (Breast Lift)
When restoring the shape and volume to a breast, many times this requires not only adding volume to reshape the breast, but also including a lift to restore the position of the breast on the chest. Implants come in many different shapes and sizes but that alone may not be enough to give the patient the result they are trying to achieve. There are several different ways to do a lift procedure and each one can be used in combination with a breast augmentation to restore lift and volume to the breast for a beautiful result.
Your surgeon needs to be skilled in choosing the right implant and the right style of lift to give you the results you are trying to achieve. During your consultation and examination, the surgeon must isolate each area of concern, the volume and/or position. This allows the surgeon to choose the correct implant to match the patient’s goal for volume with the lift that will re-establish the patient’s position and shape. Many times, the volume is lost during pregnancy or after weight loss and an implant alone will not lift the breasts back to their previous position. The different lift procedures vary depending upon how much the nipple and breast tissue need to be raised. The more sagging that is present, the more skin will need to be removed. The incisions for the lift can range from a small incision on the upper part of the areola to an incision encircling the areola. If more sagging is present, a vertical incision can be added on the lower portion of the breast and, lastly, the classic “anchor” incision will be needed if the nipple and breast tissue have significant sag (ptosis).
This can be a challenging combination for a surgeon without much experience so the patient will need to do their homework. Some surgeons choose to split this combination into 2 separate surgeries. This is not a problem if that is the surgeon’s comfort zone and if the patient is okay with having 2 procedures and 2 downtimes. However, both procedures, the augmentation and the lift can be safely combined in one surgery and therefore, one downtime.
Be sure to ask your potential surgeon how many augmentation/mastopexy (lift) combination procedures they have done and how often. Also, ask what the most common complication that a specific surgeon has with this procedure, as these may be different among surgeons. You may wish to see “before and after” photos for breast augmentation and breast lift procedures. Most commonly, the procedures can be done safely and without any significant healing issues. This combination of procedures is done frequently by Dr. Antimarino and has increased significantly over the past 10-12 years.