What is Breast Lift?
Breast lift is a plastic surgery procedure that corrects sagging breast tissue and gives the breasts a younger, fresher appearance. This surgery, which is performed to reshape and reposition sagging breast tissue due to aging, breastfeeding, weight changes or genetic factors, helps women increase their self-confidence. The procedure, performed with modern surgical techniques, provides only position and shape correction without changing the breast volume.
Breast Lift Surgery
Breast lift surgery is a cosmetic surgery procedure that involves the surgical repositioning and reshaping of sagging breast tissue. During this operation, also known as mastopexy, excess skin tissue is removed, sagging breast tissue is removed as needed to shape the breast, the nipple and areola are repositioned, and the breast tissue is shaped and lifted up. The procedure takes about 2-3 hours under general anesthesia.
It basically includes the following steps:
- Preoperative planning and marking
- Removal of excess skin and breast tissue as needed
- Repositioning of the nipple and areola complex
- Shaping the breast tissue and suturing
- Dressing and bandage application
Breast lift can be combined with breast augmentation surgery when necessary and at the request of patients. In this case, this surgery is called "mastopexy prosthesis surgery". However, in order for these two surgeries to be combined, the rate of sagging in the breast should not be severe. If there is severe sagging in the nipple and areola complex, nipple nutrition may be jeopardized. The surgery may even result in complete loss of vitality (necrosis) of the nipple. This means that the patient loses the nipple, secondary surgeries, prolonged dressing periods and deformity in the breast. For this reason, in cases of severe sagging, if the patient also requests breast augmentation, it is critical to perform breast lift first and then breast augmentation after 3-6 months in order to ensure the safety of the surgery.
In patients who are suitable for breast lift and augmentation, augmentation can be performed in three ways:
- Augmentation with breast prosthesis: It is the most preferred and recommended method.
- Augmentation with autogenous tissue: It is a method in which the breast tissue planned to be removed during surgery is not removed, but the skin on it is removed and used to increase the volume of the breast.
- Fat injection into the breast: In this surgery, unwanted fats taken from some parts of the body are duly prepared and used to give volume to the breast. It is not a very preferred method in the same session with mastopexy.