One of the most common questions that we get is, “You know, what am I going to look like with a breast lift versus a breast lift with implants?”
We have some patients who may rather not use an implant, but they also want to make sure that they’re going to get the look they desire from their breast enhancement procedure.
So, let’s dive into this. A breast lift is going to improve the overall shape of the breast. The goal of this is to lift and shape the breasts, make them a little tighter, and give them a more rejuvenated appearance.
This involves removing excess skin. It typically also involves moving the nipple into a better position where it’s pointing straight ahead, maybe instead of pointing downward, and then letting the breasts have a much tighter, rounder appearance overall.
A breast lift may remove a small amount of tissue, more for shaping than trying to necessarily reduce the overall size of the breast. But the real goal of a breast lift is removing all of the excess skin, especially in some of our weight loss patients, and it’s really focused on creating a really nice shape to the breast.
There are some techniques that we use here at Austin Plastic Surgeon to improve the overall shape and give you some fullness to the breast. However, if patients are looking for more upper pole fullness, or more fullness on top, as many patients are, they have a couple of options.
The easiest and most common option to give you some of that fullness on the top of the breast is a breast lift with augmentation. Many patients can do this with a small implant, because using it in the right place will give some of that shape and add some fullness to the breast.
How much shape and volume you can have with a breast lift really depends on your starting point. If you’re someone who has lost a lot of weight or is really deflated after pregnancy or breastfeeding, it can be challenging, because a lot of times, there’s not a lot of volume left to work with; it’s mostly skin. That can really limit how much volume or shape we can create in the breast.
An implant will not fluctuate with your weight changes and can give some of that shape and size back to the breast itself. Also, with the variability of breast implants, we can match up the two breasts as much as possible.
For some of our patients who don’t want to use a breast implant, a breast lift can also be combined with fat transfer to help increase the overall volume of the breast, especially if a patient is already undergoing liposuction. This can be an attractive option for adding some volume to the breast.
In summary, really, the decision whether to do a breast lift or a breast lift with implants depends on what your ultimate goal is. This is why we love for patients to bring in pictures of their goals, or “wish pictures.” Wish pictures are going to help your plastic surgeon better understand what your ultimate goal is for your breast procedure.
Usually, from wish pictures, it’s easy for your plastic surgeon to guide you into which procedure is going to be better for you. This will make sure that you’re both aligned in the journey to get you the results that you desire, because ultimately, we want you to be extremely happy with the procedure.
Most patients do really well with a breast lift or breast lift with implant surgery. They can be combined, and depending on your skin and the size of the implant, occasionally an internal bra will be used to help support the implant.
Often, when you need a breast lift, you have skin that’s either thinned out or fallen over time, and some additional soft tissue support will help with the longevity of your results and stabilize the implant placement so it’s not weighing down on the breast itself.
The gummy bear implants have improved the options for breast lifts with augmentations, because patients can restore some of their volume, enhance their overall shape, but still have a natural soft appearance to their breasts.
I think this has been the biggest hesitation for patients who wanted to improve their overall shape in the past. They may have leaned a little bit more towards a breast lift because they didn’t want to be overly fake, they didn’t want to be overly big.
Now, there are so many breast implant options available for patients. New gummy bear breast implants or sixth-generation Motiva implants can be combined with a breast lift to give a very natural but sexy appearance to your breasts.
Recovery for a breast lift versus breast augmentation tends not to vary much. The breast lift is mostly resolved by the incisions, giving you a good chance to heal, minimizing the appearance of your incisions, and maximizing the overall appearance of your breast with a little bit of time.
Combining some of the breast preservation procedures for a breast lift with augmentation is also going to help make the recovery much faster for patients and get them to a great spot.