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Should I Combine a Lift With My Breast Augmentation?
Breast ptosis, the medical term for sagging of the breasts, is essentially an inevitability in women with breasts of any substantial size. It is particularly common in older women, those that have been pregnant, as a consequence of breastfeeding and in those who have had large weight fluctuations. Other influencing factors include gravity, health conditions, lack of regular breast support, genetics, and hormone levels.
Since breast ptosis is a very common experience, the following can help you “identify” it and explain how it can be corrected with a breast lift with or without breast augmentation surgery.
How to Identify Breast Ptosis
Breast ptosis occurs in varying degrees. Your degree of breast sagging is easily determined with a simple ruler test. Stand in front of a mirror, remove your bra and shirt, and align a ruler along the crease beneath your breasts. Your degree of ptosis is indicated by where your nipples lie. The following is one guideline that you can use though ultimately, your plastic surgeon can more accurately assess your situation.
- Grade 1: Mild ptosis is when your nipples lie right at the top of the ruler.
- Grade 2: Mild to moderate ptosis is when your nipples fall between one to three centimeters below the top of the ruler.
- Grade 3: Severe ptosis is when your nipples fall more than three centimeters below the top of the ruler.
How Breast Ptosis Could Affect Your Breast Augmentation Results
When you undergo a breast augmentation, implants are placed either behind or in front of your chest wall muscle to increase your breast size. While implants can improve breast firmness and volume, they do not treat or effectively address sagging skin and tissue. If you do not have breast ptosis, then this is of little concern. However, if you do, you should be aware that it can negatively affect your breast augmentation results.
If you have sagging breasts and do not have a breast lift performed along with your breast augmentation, the outcome from your surgery can be quite disappointing to say the least, and it usually continues to worsen with time. With implants placed behind the muscle, your breast tissue will hang off the underlying implants, creating a bizarre appearance that some describe as a dripping ice cream cone. When the breast implants are placed above the muscle, there is often a “ball in a sock” configuration where the breasts along with the implants begin situated too low and then continue stretching and drooping lower with time (along with problematic thinning of the breast skin) – more so with larger implants.
To avoid these situations, consider combining breast lift surgery with your breast augmentation. Your plastic surgeon can explain this to you in great detail.
How Breast Lift Surgery Combined With a Breast Augmentation Can Correct Ptosis
Breast ptosis can be corrected by undergoing a breast lift at the same time as your breast augmentation surgery. Along with the insertion of the implants, Dr. Turkeltaub can remove excess skin, increase breast support, tighten, reposition and reshape the breast tissue and elevate your nipples to provide you with a far more desirable appearance and much more attractive breasts.
In general, therefore, if you do have drooping breasts, undergoing these two procedures together can provide you with the opportunity to have fuller, firmer, more alluring and more youthful shaped breasts.
If you are considering breast augmentation and also have some degree of breast ptosis, Dr. Turkeltaub can help you decide whether a breast lift with breast augmentation is right for you. Call (480) 451-3000 or fill out our online contact form to schedule your private consultation with him today.