1. What should I expect during the surgery?

It is important that you know where your surgery will be performed. You will be safest in a fully accredited surgery center or hospital where all safety precautions can be taken for you. You should be cared for by a board-certified anesthesiologist, a board-certified plastic surgeon, and proper support staff and recovery nurses. Most aesthetic breast procedures are performed under a general anesthetic for your comfort and safety. This is not to say if your board-certified plastic surgeon performs some procedures under local anesthesia with sedation that they are not safe, but you need to be fully aware of your options. Once your are carefully positioned on the operating table anesthesia will be induced and then your surgeon will perform your surgery. Once completed you will be allowed to wake from anesthesia after which you will be transferred to the recovery room. As you become more alert the recovery room nurses will take your vital signs, check your dressings and eventually prepare you to go home with the person who will be taking care of you.


2. Is it possible to increase or decrease my breast size during surgery?

If you have a breast lift alone your breast will be a little smaller even if the only tissue removed is skin. If you would like to be larger breasted, you should speak with your board-certified plastic surgeon about adding breast implants to your surgery.


3. Can exercise tighten the skin without Breast lift?

There is not an exercise, cream or injection that can actually tighten the skin. On a very small scale the skin of the face is minimally tightened by treatment with a laser. Based upon current techniques and technology, surgery is the best way to tighten the breast skin.


4. Will Breast lift tighten up loose skin?

The goal of a breast lift (mastopexy) is to tighten and lift the breasts to a more youthful position and reposition your nipples on a more centralized position on the breast mound. A breast lift by itself will compress somewhat your natural breast tissue and therefore your breasts will be smaller after the surgery. It is possible that bras that fit you before will not fit after breast lift. Some women opt to have a breast implant placed at the same procedure in order to increase upper breast fullness or overall breast volume. This needs to be discussed at your consultation with your board-certified plastic surgeon.


5. What are the techniques of Breast lift?

Depending on how much laxity you have of your breasts, the technique will be chosen by your board-certified plastic surgeon. For minimal height changes in your nipples, your plastic surgeon may recommend a crescent lift which can raise your nipple and areola a centimeter or two at most. For more lift an incision may be placed all the way around your areola in a purse-string fashion called a peri-areolar lift. This is oftentimes combined with placement of an implant for the best aesthetic result. For more laxity to be corrected you may have to have a vertical, sometimes referred to as a lollipop incision where the lower breast tissue can be tightened as well. Lastly there may be a need for an incision as well in the lower fold of your breast, the inframammary fold, which is referred to as a full or anchor-pattern mastopexy. Illustrations of these options can be found at the website of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) at http://www.surgery.org/consumers/procedures/breast/breast-lift.


6. What is meant by the Rapid Recovery method? How much swelling is there after operation?

This is a catch phrase used to make a patient feel as though they will heal more quickly. The rate at which you heal depends on the size of the implant used; is it above or below the muscle, does your plastic surgeon use a pain pump or place local anesthesia in the pocket around the implant. Every plastic surgeon strives for their patients to be up and about on the night of surgery but everyone heals in a little bit of a different manner.


7. Where are the scars after Breast lift?

As described in question 5 the scars that you will have after a breast lift will depend on the amount of lift required and the technique used. This is another very important question that every woman seeking this procedure should know. The reader is referred to the website of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) at http://www.surgery.org/consumers/procedures/breast/breast-lift.