What scars can I expect to see from breast lift surgery?

Breasts may develop with low nipples and sometimes with tubular breast shape. A breast lift or mastopexy can be the answer. Much more commonly the breasts sag with age and particularly after pregnancy. There is a wicked combination of loss of volume and stretched skin.

Non-surgical breast lifts using lasers, radiofrequency, ultrasound and thread lifts are only suitable for minor problems and have little application.

Fat grafting (lipofilling, fat transfer) is perfect for filling hollows, rejuvenating the upper breast after pregnancy.

Breast lifts (mastopexy) will remove surplus skin and lift the nipples to a proper level and reducing the surrounding areola, if necessary. Breast implants alone will replace volume and if shaped appropriately lift the nipples. This will mean that the implants need to be larger enough to take up the surplus skin. Putting in implants too small creates the peculiar double bubble deformity. A combination of implant and mastopexy skin reduction is often an appropriate option.

The actual breast lift mastopexy takes various forms and does not create volume. You will need implants for this.

If there is only a little skin to remove, the Periareolar (round block) technique is adequate and confines the scar to encircle the areola around the nipple.  The Le Jour technique involves a vertical scar extending from the circular periareolar scar down not the crease below the breast.

The next stage up is to include a horizontal scar beneath the breast. We like to keep this as short as possible to make it less visible.

The skin is sutured tightly, and it takes a few months to achieve the best, more natural, result as the skin relaxes. Any pre-existing asymmetries of the breast or nipple height will be addressed by the mastopexy. The breast will be restored to a proper level on the chest wall and nipples properly placed on the breast.

Following traditional techniques, you should expect a small degree of scarring. There are of course different techniques for a breast uplift procedure and the scars created will depend on the technique employed as well as the patient, lifestyle and the level of ptosis (droop) of the breasts to begin with. Most commonly you should expect scarring around the nipple, across the natural fold underneath the breast and a vertical scar linking the nipple scar to the breast fold scar.

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