At Peel Haus, we are pleased to offer surgery for breast lift in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia areas. Pregnancy, nursing, weight loss and previously having large, heavy breasts can all contribute to accelerating the aging process of the breasts and can cause premature or more excessive sagging. Many women feel self-conscious about the deflation of their breasts and wish to have a breast lift to restore their breasts to a more youthful appearance.
Breast Lifts are one of the most popular procedures performed at our Washington, DC plastic surgery practice. For many women, breast size and shape are an important part of their self-image. If you would like to improve the appearance of sagging breasts, then a breast lift may be a great option for you. Our board-certified plastic surgeons have many years of experience performing breast enhancement procedures. She can help you sort through your numerous surgical options and help you select the best option for your goals and lifestyle. Call us to schedule a consultation.
While you want your breasts to sit high on the chest, you also want them to have a firmer look and feel. If you experience sagging, your breasts can feel elongated and deflated. When we lift the breasts, we provide them with new support so they can maintain their firm appearance.
Many degrees of ptosis are identified by poor nipple projection. If your drooping breasts have nipples that point down toward the floor, a breast lift can help. By reshaping the breasts, we can also reposition the nipple-areolar complex, giving it a more natural, forward projection.
Deflated breasts can lose the attractive shape you may be looking for in your breast appearance. They can take on a more tubular-like aesthetic as most of the tissue accumulates below the inframammary line. By lifting the breast tissue, we can restore a more attractive and supple breast shape.
Breast sagging is common with aging and after pregnancy and weight loss. Since high, perky breasts are often associated with youthfulness, you may feel that your ptosis is significantly aging your appearance. With a breast lift, we can restore that youthful position and projection you desire.
Low sitting or sagging breasts can lead to skin irritation caused by excess skin. During your breast lift, we can also perform a minor breast reduction to reduce the amount of excess breast skin to improve painful chafing.
One of the benefits of breast lift is making shopping for clothing more enjoyable. You will have perkier breasts that sit higher, so you will feel more confident in low-cut tops, swimsuits, and more fitted looks.
Many results of a Breast Lift are internal, such as more self-confidence and greater self-esteem. A breast lift can give:
The breast lift procedure alone is not designed to enhance breast size. However, in most cases, only unneeded skin is removed and not breast tissue, so your breasts will appear fuller and shapelier as a result. Some women want to enhance their breast size along with the lift, and so, in some cases, a combination of breast augmentation with a breast lift may be performed to achieve the desired results.
Breast lift — also known as mastopexy — is surgery to change the shape and appearance of your breasts. It involves removing excess skin and tightening the surrounding tissue to reshape and support the new breast contour.
The surgical technique for breast lift in Washington, DC will depend on your existing breast tissue, the amount of excess skin to be removed, and your goals. If you have less excess skin and minimal sagging, you may have a crescent lift or periareolar (“donut”) lift which involves small incisions around the areola and results in minimal scarring. If you have more sagging and excess skin, you may have a vertical (“lollipop”), inverted T (“anchor”), or Wise pattern breast lift, all of which require more incisions be made on the breasts. During breast lift surgery, an incision will be made in one of three possible places: around the areola, around the areola and vertically down from the areola to the breast crease, or around the areola, vertically down to the breast crease and horizontally along the breast crease.
After making the incisions, the underlying breast tissue is lifted and reshaped to improve breast contour and firmness. Then, the nipple and areola are repositioned to a natural, more youthful height. If necessary, enlarged areolas are reduced by excising skin at the perimeter. Your plastic surgeon will also remove excess breast skin to compensate for a loss of elasticity. Finally, your plastic surgeon will close the incisions — typically with stitches (sutures) — and bandage them with skin adhesive and surgical tape.
Breast lift is a profoundly personal procedure, and it’s essential that you’re doing it for yourself and not for someone else, even if that person has offered to pay for it. Patient satisfaction is high, specifically when they want the procedure themselves.
Anyone who is in reasonably good mental and physical health can be a candidate for breast implants. However, you are likely not a good candidate for this surgery if:
If you plan to become pregnant in the future, you might delay getting a breast lift. Your breasts could stretch during pregnancy and offset the results of the breast lift. While a breast lift in Washington, DC can be done on breasts of any size, those with smaller breasts will likely have longer-lasting results. Larger breasts are heavier, which makes them more likely to sag again.
After breast lift surgery, you will be taken to post-op where you will come out of anesthesia and be on pain medication. You will need someone to drive you home afterward and stay with you for at least 24 hours. At the time of surgery, you will either be wrapped in an elastic bandage or placed in a surgical bra over gauze dressings to support and protect your breasts. The elastic bandage and dressings will be removed in a couple of days. In addition, a small tube may be placed in each breast to collect blood and fluids for the first two days following surgery. Your plastic surgeon will send you home with detailed instructions for changing bandages, cleaning incision sites, showering, and other post-op activities.
Your plastic surgeon will give you a prescription for pain medicine preoperatively. You will be on narcotic pain medicine for around 2 to 3 days following the surgery. Tylenol is used to transition off narcotics and the NSAIDs (Motrin, Advil) after the first two weeks. You will be able to drive once you have stopped taking narcotics.
Expect soreness, tenderness, and sensitivity during recovery, especially during the first six weeks post-op. It is still essential to wear breast garments and to ensure the incision sites are kept clean to prevent infection. This should be worn both night and day for an additional two weeks. After four weeks from your surgery date, you may stop wearing a bra at night, although some women continue to wear one at night. Wear a supportive, non-underwire bra for two more months before returning to underwire bras.
For the first six weeks, you will not be able to exercise or do any heavy lifting and should sleep on your back or side during this time. If you have young children, you will want to enlist help to assist with childcare, as picking up children (or heavy objects for that matter) for the first six weeks is strongly advised against. However, driving, cooking, or shopping is often manageable after a week, or two. Some patients opt to take a few weeks off work for recovery. If you have a physically demanding job, it’s crucial to take plenty of time off so you don’t jeopardize your recovery. Of course, you will also want to avoid exercise for the same reasons.
It’s essential to line up help for at least two or three days once you’re home following your breast lift in Washington, DC. You will be prescribed pain medications and have somewhat limited mobility. Having someone to help around the house during the initial period after surgery can make recovery significantly more manageable.
Plan to take a week off work and other responsibilities after your surgery. You will need this time to rest and recover. You will need to rest and sleep at an angle for the first few days of recovery and will be given instructions to move about to help prevent any blood clots.
As with any surgery, there is a risk that a complication may develop. For breast lift surgery, these risks include excessive bleeding, infection, anesthesia reaction, impaired breastfeeding, slightly asymmetric breasts, sensation loss, poor scarring, and fat necrosis, which resolves in most at six months but may require ‘excision’ in a second surgery. Your plastic surgeon will provide a list of guidelines to follow to reduce the risk of complications. These instructions will include information on exercise and medications in the weeks before and after surgery. Complications can usually be managed, but it is important to follow your plastic surgeon’s pre- and post-operative instructions to reduce the risk of complications.
The most common complication is an infection of the incision site. Your plastic surgeon will discuss how to minimize the risk of infection during your consultations. If you think your incisions may be infected, call us immediately. To lower your infection risk, avoid swimming, or using hot tubs for the first two weeks post-surgery. You’ll be able to shower the day after your surgery. You might have an infection if you have a fever or notice warmth and redness in your breast. If this happens or you have shortness of breath or chest pain, please get in touch with our office as soon as possible.
You’ll have a post-op appointment with your plastic surgeon one week after surgery.
Breast Lift surgery is a relatively low-risk procedure, however, the most common complication is an infection of the incision site. Your plastic surgeon will discuss how to minimize the risk of infection, but if you think your incisions may be infected, call our office immediately.
Other breast lift risks include:
If you work, how much time can you take off? Is there a slower time of the year for your work that might be best for your surgery?
Do you have a desk job or something more physical? This will factor into when you will be ready to return to work.
Do you have someone available to help you the first week after surgery? Will they need to take time off work?
If you have a big event coming up (wedding, reunion, vacation), give yourself extra time to heal. You will need at least six weeks, but a few months would be even better.
Do you want to have surgery before summer? If so, winter or early spring is the best time to have a breast lift so that you will be fully healed and swimsuit-ready by summer.
This breast lift timeline can help you make an informed decision about when to have surgery. All of these factors should be taken into consideration when making your surgery plans, and it can be helpful to think about what works best for you, as well as for anyone who will be helping you during the healing process. This can help you plan the ideal time for your breast lift surgery and recovery.
There are many important factors to consider when scheduling a breast lift:
Breast Lifts are one of the most popular cosmetic procedures. If you are a generally healthy but wish to improve the appearance of sagging breasts, then a breast lift may be an excellent option for you. The first step is making sure you’re a good candidate and that you have realistic goals in mind. Schedule a consultation at Peel Haus with our board-certified plastic surgeons who can answer any additional questions you have about the breast lift procedure.
Our plastic surgery team is widely recognized as one of the best practices for body and facial implants in Washington DC. Schedule a consultation with our expert team today to create your unique treatment plan for breast lift in Washington DC.
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