Breast Lift

You should take at least 10 days off (meaning two weekends) at a minimum prior to going back to work regardless of level of activity at your job. If you have a more physical job where you must lift heavy objects with your arms, you may consider taking up to 4 weeks off.

Internal breast lifts have been described using threads to pull the breast up. However, the verdict is still out whether this provides a stable lift as the threads will eventually give out and the breast will likely fall again. This is in contrast to the gold standard lifts which actually move the nipple to a higher position on the breast by cutting around the areola and resewing higher on the breast mound.

Multiple surgeries are routinely performed simultaneously especially for patients who have lost a lot of weight such as a total body lift which may include upper body lift, tummy tuck, lower body lift, brachioplasty, medial thigh tuck in addition to the breast lift. In general, as long as your surgery is kept to under 8 hours and you are healthy, you should have a safe surgery.

If you are worried that you don’t have enough volume to get the desired size you want, you should consider getting an implant or having fat grafting performed.

If you want to have breast augmentation with fat grafting you cannot have a lift at the same time; if you want a lift and more volume, you should consider:

1) stage a breast lift and then have fat transfer after 6 months.

2) simultaneous surgery with a breast lift and implants.

Benelli Lift converted to vertical lift

You can have your Benelli lift converted to a vertical lift without lifting your nipples; poor areola scarring and suboptimal lifts are a common problem with the donut lifts such as the Benelli lift. The scars from a Benelli or donut lift can be corrected with a vertical lift which does not necessarily have to elevate your nipples signficicanlty.

The reason breast lifts may appear boxy in the begining is because your surgeon is trying to avoid a bottomed out look; it takes approxiamtely 6 months for the bottom of the breast to relax and stretch out; thus most surgeons tighten the lower breast pole purposely so that once your lower breast pole relaxes it doesn’t look too pronounced, termed bottomed out. So when you look at the photos, if they are boxy, they were probably taken prior to the six month mark.

What you are wanting is a breast lift specialist who maximizes your upper pole fullness without the need for an implant; this is done in two ways:

1)leaving the bulk of the breast tissue above the nipple without resection so that this results in upper pole fullness.

2)stitching up the breast pedicle up on the chest wall so that it does not fall down.

Incision lines will mature at one year. As a result I would not consider tattooing any incision lines until then.

A crescent lift is the worst lifting technique as it results in suboptimal lift and poor areola scarring but can be used for minimal nipple asymmetry when one nipple is less than 1 cm lower than the other. Otherwise, the vertical mastopexy is my favorite for routine lifts when implants are also required and the inferior pedicle when no implants are required.

As long as you wait 6 months, you should be fine to have another breast lift, regardless of the incision lines used. This is because the nipple and areola will re-establish a new blood supply. However, it is a good policy to know the incisions used previously in order to design the revision lift to be least intrusive to previously performed cuts.

How well your incisions heal is based on many factors including: tightness of skin when incision lines were closed, type of suture used, and how your body heals. There are many products available designed to improve the appearance of scars, such as Biocorneum or Silagen. These products are topical silicone that is the only proven scar prevention available and should be used starting at one month once the steri-strips fall off. The topical silicone can be used for two months after the steri-strips fall off. Intense pulse light can also be offered to patients who have incision line redness at three months. If these products and procedure do not achieve the desired result, a surgical scar revision may be indicated and can benefit the appearance, reposition the incision line, and possibly achieve more lift to the breast if necessary.

It can. Don’t agree to a breast lift procedure before you have had your breasts examined thoroughly by a plastic surgeon and discussed what he or she feels would get you your desired results and the best outcome.

Yes! It is absolutely possible to achieve a youthful, voluptuous shape with a breast lift procedure  alone. A breast lift can be done with implant augmentation if more breast volume is desired.

This is an excellent question and a point of confusion for many patients. “Anchor” incision vs “lollipop” incision is an important decision and requires discussion with your plastic surgeon. You have to realize that a breast lift is a glorified “hemming out” of your sagging breast tissues; whether you need a lollipop or anchor incision is dependent on how much excess and sagging tissues are being removed, and what breast shape and volume you are aiming for. If you have only horizontal fullness then a “lollipop” incision alone will suffice. If you also have vertical fullness, i.e. breasts are too long, then an anchor incision will be required. Sometimes a “J” incision only is required when the medial pole is tight but the lateral pole is loose.

A breast lift can certainly restore upper pole fullness. Whether you get a breast lift alone or breast lift with implant is based on your desired final breast shape. You’ll want to consider a breast sizing consultation with a breast specialist.