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Breast Lift

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Mastopexy (Breast Lift) In Richmond,Va

Mastopexy (Breast Lift)

The goal of a breast lift (mastopexy) is to lift the breast tissue and nipple back to a more youthful position creating a perky breast shape.

The diameter of the pigmented areola, which often becomes enlarged with pregnancy, can be reduced. Some women also desire to reduce the size of their breasts, which can easily be performed at the same time.

BREAST AUG & LIFT – Artistic Breast Augmentation

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Breast augmentation seems very simple. You make an incision and place an implant but it really is rather complex. We’re going to touch on a few things that really are important to know about breast augmentation and implants, and how to choose a great breast surgeon. Implants come in several different flavors, so to speak. They come in saline, they come in silicone, they come in different shapes now, they come in round, they come different textures. Smooth or a fuzzy Velcro-like texture which has really fallen out of favor and frankly it’s an implant that I’ve never really used, and I don’t think it has the benefits that it was supposed to have.

Silicone implants come in also various, we call levels of cohesiveness, so those implants can be very firm and that’s known as a gummy bear implant or they can come very fluid and that’s more of a standard implant. I prefer one that’s in between which we call a soft touch. So it has the benefits of being a little bit firmer but it’s still very, very natural and it’s very soft. And so that’s really a newer … in fact, that is the newest cohesive level of implant sold by one of the manufacturers that I use.

The saline implants, again, I like them, I use them very often. They have the benefit that when they pop, they just deflate so it’s pretty simple. There’s no test, there’s no MRIs, there’s no studies. And the implants that I use are smooth and round and a newer implant that’s also on the market that is smooth and round is called the Ideal Implant. And again, they named it the Ideal Implant. It was created by a plastic surgeon because they wanted something that was very similar to silicone and how it felt and how it was shaped but was made with saline so when it did pop, it just would dissolve in the body and it would be very natural and you would have no problems. And that’s a very nice implant. I’m using more and more of them. And those are the general implants that we have on the market in the United States today.

BREAST AUG & LIFT – Overview Of The Procedure

Based on your examination and your desires, Dr. Lynam will recommend several options from which you can choose. It is very important to understand that the effect of gravity will continue working on your new breasts, thus wearing a good support bra to prevent re-stretching of the skin is necessary. There is the possibility of needing additional surgery to improve your appearance should your skin become loose over time.

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Let’s talk about breast augmentation and breast lift. It is a little bit of a different animal than breast augmentation alone, and the reason why is because you’re doing two separate things that are really on opposite ends of the spectrum. You’re trying to lift and tighten and remove breast tissue and tighten the skin envelope. At the same time, you’re putting essentially a balloon underneath the breast tissue and blowing it up. So, those are two opposing forces. And so really, you have to be cautious and careful and really understand those dynamics and make sure you size the patient appropriately and remove tissue appropriately so you don’t have a disaster where you take out too much skin and then put a big balloon in there and blow it all apart, and the implant is popping out through the skin because someone took too much skin and didn’t realize that they were going to have to put that big of an implant in.

One of the things that I counsel all my patients on is that what I do, is I do this in a very step-wise fashion to stay out of that problem. And so, what I do is I mark where I think your nipple needs to be and I put the implant in initially, and it’s typically what we call sizer implant, not the real implant, and then I can elevate the back of the bed, so to mimic you standing, and then I can draw and actually tighten the skin and temporarily hold it in place. And so, I can evaluate how tight the skin needs to be around the implant size that we’re currently going to use. Because obviously if I used a 200 CC implant, I can tighten the skin more than if I used a 600 CC implant.

So, where many surgeons draw and cut, close it, and then put the implant in, what takes me a little bit longer time but I think is much safer is to place the implant, put the bed, the stretcher that you’re in up and so I can evaluate your breast, evaluate your tissue, and then I can mark and draw, and tighten it accordingly to the breast implant we’ve selected and also place the nipple appropriately in the best position. And that way, we really limit the risks of over-resecting skin with an implant.

BREAST AUG & LIFT Correcting Breast Asymmetry

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So, we already talked about in breast augmentation that breasts are sisters, not twins. So, women who’ve had one, two, three, five children and they want a breast lift with implants, we know they’re going to have more asymmetry. They usually walk in the door and they say, “Yep, I breastfed on this side more than the other one,” and that’s why I think this nipple and this breast is a lot looser, more skin, and lower on their chest wall. And that’s very common. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. It’s nothing that’s unusual. We see it every day.

What this means is that during our preoperative drawing process and our marking process right before we do surgery, and then even during surgery, we’re taking that all into consideration to try to improve your symmetry as much as possible. Can we make it perfect? No, because nobody’s perfect, but we really take that into consideration with our markings to try to make your symmetry much better than when you started.

Breast Lift (Mastopexy)
Frequently Asked Questions?

BREAST AUG & LIFT
– Am I A Good Candidate?

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Let’s talk about the patient who comes in requesting a breast lift. They’ve typically finished with having their children and want to restore their breasts, part of a mommy makeover. When we examine their breasts, we see that their nipples are lower, and they’ve really lost the volume in the upper half of the breast. We call it upper pole volume or upper pole fullness. For most ladies, if their breasts are smaller and they’ve overall lost a lot of volume in the breasts, a breast lift alone is not going to give them what they’re looking for.

Typically, those patients need a breast lift with somewhat of a smaller implant, just to add that upper pole volume. It doesn’t need to look fake. It can look 100% natural. But you really can’t restore that upper pole volume without an implant. Even if someone has very large breasts and we do even a breast reduction, sometimes it’s still hard to restore upper pole volume, because once it’s gone, it’s kind of gone, and you can’t just stop the tissue back up there and expect it to stay there.

BREAST AUG & LIFT
– When Can I Return To The Gym/Working Out?

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Let’s talk about when you can get back to the gym, and what you can do, and what you can do safely. So many of our patients are fitness conscious. They want to look good. They want to feel good. And that’s part of the reason why they’re having surgery. But the real key is recovery time. I break it down into maybe three stages. The first stage is about the first week after surgery. I generally tell people, first week after surgery, you’re walking around your house. That’s all you’re doing. The second week after surgery, you’re walking around your neighborhood, and that’s about all you’re doing. The third week, yep, you’re probably on a bicycle, you’re on a treadmill, and you’re doing a moderate amount of exercise. The key is, if it hurts, don’t do it.

The fourth stage, I really tell people is think of this: You’re really only healed 10% a month, so one month, you’re 10% healed. At four months, you’re 40% healed. You can probably do anything you want. But during that timeframe, from one month to four month, you really have to be careful, and depending upon the surgery you’ve done, you just have to limit the exercise that activates that muscle. For breast augmentation, you can’t use your pecs for really at least two months. For a tummy tuck, same thing, can’t really use the abdominal muscles for two months. You really want to let those muscles heal before you overdo it and cause some problems that you would regret.

BREAST AUG & LIFT
– What To Expect On Your Day Of Surgery

The Procedure

Candidates for Breast Lift (Mastopexy)Procedure

The best candidates for a breast lift are healthy non-smokers who have a positive outlook and realistic goals in mind.

At the time of your consultation, your goals, the procedure and the routine post-operative healing process will be explained in detail and all of your questions will be answered. Your medical history will be reviewed to ensure you are a healthy candidate for the mastopexy procedure.

BREAST AUG & LIFT –
How The Breast Lift/Aug Procedure Is Performed
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Our next topic we’re going to talk about is breast lift with or without breast implants. Most women who’ve had children who have loss of volume, and a little bit of sag or a little bit of droop some women can get away with just an augment alone. But many, many need a breast lift. And what this means is that we need to elevate the nipple to a higher position, or a higher level on the chest wall. I mean, we don’t want the nipple pointing down like a Snoopy nose. We want it to be on the most anterior projecting portion of the breast.

So there’s things out there like the pencil test, putting a pencil on your breast and lots of different things. But we can clinically determine this by measuring the distance from your chest in the middle down to your nipple. And it’s pretty traditional level of a kind of low, how low the breast nipple is on the chest wall. We can determine what type of lift you need.

There are several different lifts. My personal favorite is what we call a lollipop lift or a circumvertical lift. And this does two things. It’s a very powerful operation. It decreases the size of the areola, or the pigmented skin around the nipple, and it removes lower breast tissue and tightens the lower skin envelope. And that way you have a higher nipple, a smaller areola, and you have essentially a lollipop scar, which is a circle on a stick. If someone has a lot more laxity and a lot more extra skin, then we convert that lollipop into what we call an anchor. And then anchor is a traditional breast lift, which has the lollipop shape, but then with just a little wing medially and laterally along the lower breast fold where we can trim out and remove a little bit of extra skin to give you a very pleasing shape.

The Breast Lift (Mastopexy) Procedure

Dr. Lynam offers a number of options. There are three general types of breast lifts:

1. A circular lift [often called a doughnut breast lift]—This is a limited lift and not a good option for most patients.

2. A lollipop lift, which has a “circle and a stick” incision—This lift is a great way to lift the breast and avoid the lower breast fold scar.

3. A standard breast lift (mastopexy), which looks somewhat like an anchor and is essentially a lollipop lift with an additional incision made just above the natural breast folds across the bottom part of your breasts.

The total length of the incision depends upon the extent of the breast lift required. Dr. Lynam follows the Brazilian philosophy of breast surgery, which concentrates on creating the best-shaped breasts. Ultimately the best shape is what Dr. Lynam tries to achieve for all of his patients.

The breast lift procedure is done on an outpatient basis, takes 2-3 hours to perform, and is done under general anesthesia. There is usually one drain tube inserted per side; these are used to remove any small amount of fluid collection for the first few days following surgery.

After Mastopexy Surgery

Drain tubes are removed in the office three to four days following surgery. Your breasts may be swollen, bruised, and sore for several weeks. Scars created to perform the mastopexy are permanent but fade with time. You may return to work in one week.

The best way to determine if you are a good candidate for the breast lift (mastopexy) procedure is to schedule a consultation. You will learn the reasonable expectations for the goals you wish to achieve.

Recovery From Your Surgery

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