If you’re interested in getting a breast lift in Dallas or have questions about breast surgery, please contact North Texas Plastic Surgery today to schedule your consultation. Our plastic surgeons and skilled medical staff serve patients in Plano, Southlake, Dallas, and surrounding areas of Fort Worth, Texas.
Our patients often come to their consultation equipped with thorough questions about the process and procedure, which include:
Women can experience breast sag for a wide range of reasons. For example, pregnancy and nursing cause breasts to become larger. After nursing, the breasts contract to their original size. If the breast skin doesn’t also contract — as it often doesn’t — the breasts appear saggy. The same thing can happen to women who gain and lose a large amount of weight, as this also causes the breasts to increase and then reduce in volume. Breast sag affects your entire silhouette and can even change the way that clothes fit on your body.
If you’re not sure if you need a breast lift, you can try the “Pencil Test” in which you place a pencil in the crease below your breast. If the pencil stays in place when you remove your hand, you most likely need a breast lift. You can also judge the need for a lift by looking at your current nipple position. For example:
Breast augmentation is a procedure in which saline or silicone breast implants or fat from another area of your body is used to increase breast volume. In contrast, a breast lift involves the removal of the excess skin that causes the breasts to sag, along with tightening the surrounding tissue without adding any additional volume.
Note that while a breast lift doesn’t change the volume of the breasts, it is possible to combine this procedure with a breast augmentation or reduction. Therefore, if you have a breast lift, you can also choose to have your breast size increased or reduced at the same time.
Breast augmentation is best for addressing “deflation” where the upper pole of the breast is flattened or sunken, while a breast lift is best for “drooping” where the nipples and bulk of the breast tissue have sagged.
The breast lift procedure involves the relocation of the areolas and the physical lifting and tightening of the breast skin and tissues. Depending on the degree of sagging, you’ll have one of four potential techniques during your breast lift.
In general, the lower the breasts sit on the chest, the more skin must be removed to help move them to the perfect location. The more skin that must be removed, the more incisions (and subsequent) scars the patient needs.
The breast lift procedure is suitable for people who are dissatisfied with the shape or volume of their breasts, or with the way their breasts droop. A good candidate for the breast lift procedure is at a stable weight, is a non-smoker, and is physically healthy. Maintaining a stable weight is essential because losing or gaining weight will alter how your breasts look and may change the results of a breast lift. Being in good general health and being a non-smoker is important because these factors help promote safe surgery and proper healing and recovery.
No one can promise how long the results of a breast lift will last as this is highly dependent upon weight and hormonal fluctuations, pregnancies, and innate skin quality. That being said, most patients expect to see a significant improvement in their breasts for 10-15 years after a breast lift.
It should be noted that if you become pregnant, breastfeed, or gain or lose a significant amount of weight after having a breast lift it can affect the way your breasts look. Any of these circumstances can cause the breasts to change in volume enough that some or all of the sagging may return.
Since breast sagging is something that happens with age, your breasts will start to change in volume and shape as you get older, even after having a breast lift. However, these changes will happen later in life as a result of having a breast lift and may not be as dramatic if you do not become pregnant and your weight fluctuates very little.
A breast lift is a day surgery procedure, meaning that you will return home the same day as the surgery. Most patients are able to return to work or daily activity in approximately five days. You will need a friend or family member to drive you home and be with you for the first 24-48 hours. You will also need to avoid lifting objects heavier than 10 pounds and ensure you drink plenty of water, eat nutritional foods, and take medications as directed.
After three weeks, patients are cleared to begin cardio workouts such as jogging, running, and elliptical (without the use of the arms) exercises. At six weeks, patients are cleared to resume heavy lifting, strength training, and yoga work.
The primary reason patients need a breast lift is they have more skin than they have breast tissue. Because of this excess skin, the breasts appear deflated and start to sag. This problem can be corrected by adding breast volume, removing extra skin, or by a combination of the two.
If a person chooses to add volume to help fill out the sagging skin, then breast implants or a fat transfer breast augmentation (which uses fat from some other part of the body to increase the size of the breasts) may be the best choice. The advantage of adding breast volume at the time of your breast lift is that it will decrease the amount of skin that needs to be removed which will, in turn, shorten the scar length. More importantly, it will give the breasts more size and also improve the breast shape, specifically adding more fullness to the top of the breasts (the upper pole). This will then give you fuller and more attractive cleavage.
If maximizing cleavage and fullness at the top of the breasts is important to you, then it is best to add volume with a breast augmentation. If a reduction in size is preferred, then a mastopexy without breast augmentation is the right choice.
Our plastic surgeons regularly combine breast implants and a breast lift in one surgery in roughly 90% of patients. For patients that have severe breast sagging, our plastic surgeons may need to separate the procedure into two stages with a mastopexy or breast lift performed first and the breast augmentation done second. This is to ensure that enough tension can be safely placed at the time of the breast lift to ensure that the breasts are lifted to the highest location possible.
Galaflex is an absorbable mesh that can be placed as internal bra to help support the breasts in a lifted position just like a bra would. The galaflex internal bra is an acellular dermal matrix, which means that it is a scaffolding that encourages your body to grow a thick layer of dermis (the strong deep layer of skin). With time, the galaflex is absorbed by the body so that there is no foreign material left behind in the breast. While the galaflex itself is temporary, this thicker layer of dermis that the body is stimulated to produce is permanent meaning that the support the galaflex adds for the breasts is permanent!
The “upper pole” or top of the breasts is the area in the breast that gives patients attractive cleavage in a swimsuit or without a bra. Traditional breast lift or mastopexy techniques alone often rely on pulling the skin to support and lift the breasts. In most patients, the skin alone is not strong enough to lift the breast volume up to the upper pole to provide cleavage without a bra. For this reason, our plastic surgeons often recommend adding volume to the upper pole at the same time as your breast lift to maximize your cleavage.
Volume can be added to the upper pole or cleavage area of the breasts during your breast lift either with breast implants or with a transfer of your own fat from another part of your body.
Our studies show that without trying to make the breasts smaller, a breast lift alone typically reduces the breast approximately one to one and a half cup sizes. If you desire a further reduction in breast size at the time of your breast lift, this can absolutely be accomplished.
The incisions for a breast reduction and a breast lift are often identical. The difference between the procedures lies in the amount of breast tissue removed. During a breast lift, our plastic surgeons remove just a small amount of breast tissue to help shape and lift the breast. During a breast reduction, our surgeons will lift the breasts and at the same time take the extra step to remove a large amount of breast tissue so that the final product is lifted smaller breasts.
Our plastic surgeons use the Crisalix 3-D imaging system to show you what your breasts will look like after your breast lift surgery. For our patients who are having Virtual Consultations, the Crisalix 3-dimensional imaging software can be used to simulate your potential results from the comfort of your own home!
In healthy patients, our plastic surgeons will commonly combine a breast lift with other procedures such as a tummy tuck or liposuction to help reverse the effects of pregnancy or weight gain and loss.
Most women are able to breastfeed after a breast lift, but often they find that they need to calorie supplement with formula as they are not able to produce the same amount of milk as they used to. There is a small percentage of women who will not be able to breastfeed after their lift. This is a rare occurrence, but one that should be noted prior to the surgery.
North Texas Plastic Surgery offers three financing options: Alphaeon, Prosper™ Healthcare Lending, and CareCredit®. With the help of one of these choices, you can spread the cost of your procedure over several months or years.
Your procedure will take place at our office-based surgical facility in Southlake, which is certified by AAAASF, the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities, a nationwide organization with standards of excellence that ensure accredited facilities provide care of the highest quality.
Your mastopexy (breast lift) surgery will be performed under general anesthesia meaning that you will be totally asleep. This is important from a safety perspective as it ensures not only your comfort but proper monitoring throughout your surgery. You will be under the care of our team of board certified anesthesiologists and CRNAs who have years of plastic surgery anesthesia experience. They will monitor you for the entirety of your surgery so that you can rest easy and wake up to a beautiful new you!
The breast lift surgery shares many risks common to all surgeries including but not limited to the risks of blood clots, infection, bleeding scarring, and cardiovascular complications. For these reasons, it is recommended that patients optimize their health status prior to surgery.
Beyond these, risks that are specific to breast lift surgery include but are not limited to breasts that are too small or too large, prominent scarring, failure of the wounds to heal, asymmetry, breasts or nipples that are too high or too low, nipples or areolas that are too large or too small, fat necrosis, skin or nipple loss, loss of color or projection to the nipple, abnormal scarring around any breast implants, and the potential need to remove a breast implant or other foreign material placed during surgery.
To help minimize the risks of breast lift surgery, it is recommended that patients abstain from smoking, vaping, nicotine use of any kind, and recreational drug use for 4 weeks before and 6 weeks after your surgery. It is critical that patients are forthright with their medical history and any supplements or homeopathic medicines that they are taking. Your surgeon may ask that you stop certain meds for a period of time to protect you during anesthesia or to help ensure that your wounds heal.
Post surgery, it is critical that patients get up, get moving, and get walking to minimize the risk of blood clots. In some cases, an incentive spirometer will be recommended to help ensure that the lungs are being exercised in the post-operative period to prevent pneumonia. Patients must also have good nutritional intake to ensure that they are getting the protein, vitamins, and minerals necessary to heal their wounds.
If you’re interested in getting a breast lift in Dallas, please contact our plastic surgeon in the area today to schedule your complimentary consultation. North Texas Plastic Surgery has four convenient locations in Southlake, Fort Worth, Plano, and Dallas.
