Breast Lift

A breast lift does just what it says: elevates the breasts to a more youthful position. But the procedure also reshapes the breasts for a more attractive look. The tradeoff of a lift are the incisions required in order to reshape the breast. Any incision leaves a scar and this idea is scary to many ladies. No surgeon can guarantee how each individual lady scars and it is important to understand the tradeoff. While scars fade over time, they never go away. This is important to understand, as some people believe they will go away with time. Dr. Sorokin understands the desire to avoid scars, however sometimes a lift is needed to fix overall shape. Dr. Sorokin is happy to share more information with women considering a breast lift.

A lift by itself does not create a larger breast size, but some women find that after this procedure they are better able to fill out a bra or swimsuit. There are several different types of lifts and each type addresses a different degree of breast sag (ptosis). Patients who have minimal breast tissue often will need to combine their lift with breast augmentation.

During a breast lift, Dr. Sorokin makes careful incisions to remove excess skin, lift and tighten breast tissue, and relocate the nipple and areola to a higher position on the chest wall.

Breast lifts are not performed in the exact same way for every patient. Dr. Sorokin has experience in several breast lift techniques and will recommend a particular approach for you based on the way your breasts look currently. Some women are eligible for a minimal scar technique, which requires an incision only around the areola. This technique is used when the breasts have just begun to sag and only a minimal amount of lift is needed. There are several downsides to this procedure and since all of the tension is placed on the circular scar, very often they widen in time. Often this type of lift is not the best option, as if you can get away with this type of lift, maybe you don’t need one at all!

Many women will require a vertical incision in addition to the incision around the areola, known as the vertical mastopexy or lollipop type incision. This is a powerful procedure capable of significantly lifting breasts especially from sag related to modest weight loss or breast feeding. A small horizontal extension at the base of the vertical incision can often provide even more lift.

Women who require a more extensive lift will have incisions placed around the areola and down to the base of the breast, in a pattern commonly known as an anchor or “inverted T” incision. With more extensive incisions comes increased scarring, though most women find the scarring, which lightens over time, to be a welcome trade-off to regain a more youthful-looking breast shape.

More than one procedure can help you achieve breast enhancement. When you visit with Dr. Sorokin in New Jersey, you will receive a personal evaluation and professional recommendation about how breast surgery can meet your cosmetic needs.

Generally, women who choose a lift are satisfied by their breast size but are unhappy with sagging or the placement of their nipples on their breasts.

Women need breast implants if they are unhappy with breast size or fullness or have lost breast volume following pregnancy or weight loss.

For some women, breast augmentation can provide a lifting effect as it increases volume. With years of experience in private practice and training with some of the country’s most respected plastic surgeons, you can trust Dr. Sorokin’s professional opinion about the type of surgery that will meet your needs. His cosmetic surgery patients appreciate his dedication to achieving excellent results and focusing on their individual satisfaction.

You can change your look and your life with a breast lift. Request a consultation at the office of The Breast Doctor in New Jersey to discuss your options in detail, or call us at 856-797-0202 to set up an appointment. He has been honored to be named Top Doc for over 10 years by Philadelphia Magazine because of promises delivered.

A breast augmentation makes the breast larger. A breast lift raises the breast back up to the “normal” position on the chest wall. A lift by itself will make the breast smaller as it tightens up and removes loose skin so sometimes an augmentation can be done at the same time to maintain breast size or to make the breasts larger. If the breast and nipple sit above the breast crease then usually an augmentation alone will suffice. If the nipple points down or sits below the level of the breast crease a lift is usually required.

The pencil test is a classic way to easily tell if the breast needs a lift. If you can put a pencil under the skin of the breast and it stays on its own the breast likely would benefit from a lift. If the pencil is not held up by drooping breast tissue there is likely no need for a lift.

No breast lift will be scarless. Scars are an unfortunate tradeoff for incisions used by the surgeon to remove skin. Some people have skin that heals very well and other people scar poorly. Unfortunately scarring cannot be prevented even by a plastic surgeon.

This really depends on multiple factors including how droopy the breast is, how much natural breast tissue there is, health and quality of the skin and breast tissue and more. The two procedures are opposites where an implant stretches tissue and a lift tightens tissue so whenever it is done at the same time there is a higher chance of complications than when the two operations are done in stages. Whether or not taking this risk is appropriate is a conversation best had in consultation with a plastic surgeon.

While many of Dr. Sorokin’s patients have been able to breast feed after a breast lift there is certainly a chance that this will not be possible.

This is a complicated answer as pregnancy will likely change the appearance of your breasts. Whether or not to have a lift now depends on how much the appearance bothers you and if you are willing to accept the potential to not be able to breastfeed as well as the very real possibility that you may need a revision after pregnancy. Many ladies have told us that they don’t plan on having kids for several years and that these risks are worth taking.

While we hope that the results last for many years there are many factors that influence the result. Tissue elasticity has a huge impact on how long this will last and the better the quality of the skin the longer the results will last. Wearing supportive bras after breast lifts is important. We often hear from patients who say they never want to wear a bra again. This is a recipe for recurrent breast sag. Weight fluctuations will also cause the breasts to droop again so a healthy lifestyle is key!