After a breast lift, you'll have some discomfort, swelling and bruising. Your skin may feel tight. These effects get better over time and last about two weeks. If you had drains near the incisions, your healthcare team will remove them a few days after the procedure.
How Painful Is Breast Lift Recovery? 2-3 days following their breast lift surgery, most patients report mild to moderate pain. The pain should ease off after that and your plastic surgeon can prescribe pain medication to relieve your discomfort.
While discomfort or pain after surgery is to be expected, women usually mention that breast reduction or breast lift surgery is a lot less painful than what they expected. Generally people comment that it's more 'discomfort or pain limited to the incisions', rather than pain within the breasts or over the chest.
TYPICAL POST-OPERATIVE SYMPTOMS
Tightness in the chest region and stiffness; Tingling, burning or intermittent shooting pain: These are normal experiences as the skin, tissues and sensory nerves heal. Pain medication and muscle relaxants will help you cope with any discomfort.
In general, as a breast lift involves only removal of skin and a breast augmentation usually involves some work on the pectoral muscle, I think breast augmentations are more uncomfortable and take patients slightly longer to recover from.
Breast lifts are considered minor surgeries, not major ones, but they still require downtime. After your surgery, your breasts will feel tender and sore, and you will need bed rest to recover.
The average woman can expect her breast lift results to last for 10 to 15 years. However, due to the number of factors that affect the longevity of the results, individual results can vary significantly.
A Breast Lift Surgery Can Reposition Your Nipple and Areola
In addition to surgically lifting the breast tissue to a more youthful and perkier position, this procedure also involves surgically repositioning your nipple and areola.
You will be awake but unable to feel pain. The surgeon will make 1 to 3 surgical cuts (incision) in your breast. Extra skin, and sometimes some breast tissue, will be removed and your nipple and areola may be moved. Sometimes, women have breast augmentation (enlargement with implants) when they have a breast lift.
Don't lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk (including your children), as you could strain your healing breasts and cause swelling. Along the same lines, don't push anything heavy, like a stroller or a large grocery cart. Don't smoke after surgery, as it can interfere with your body's ability to heal.
In most cases, patients continue sleeping on their back for at least 2 – 4 weeks after breast lift surgery to minimize discomfort. Some patients are able to resume side-sleeping comfortably after 1 – 2 weeks, though stomach-sleeping may remain uncomfortable or painful for much longer.
As with any procedure, the details of a breast lift recovery can vary from patient to patient. In general, most women can expect to feel well enough to return to work after 1 – 2 weeks, with the majority of their swelling resolving in about 3 – 6 weeks.
You should avoid going braless before the six-week mark after your surgery. Dr. Howland requires patients to wear their compression bra for several weeks at all times except when bathing to aid the healing process.
A breast lift, or mastopexy, is performed as an outpatient procedure under general anesthesia. The procedure typically lasts one to three hours. After one or two hours in the recovery room, the patient is discharged to home.
The truth is that the nipples are kept on what we call a pedicle – a blood supply with an artery and a vein to allow the nipple and areola to get blood and oxygen. So, the nipple and areola are moved upward with breast tissue and soft tissue surrounding it. The entire mound gets elevated. There is no “cutting off”!
As a general rule of thumb, there is no best age for a breast lift. However, we would like to make a couple of caveats. First, you should understand that it is important for a woman's breasts to be fully developed before she considers this procedure. Some women's breasts develop fully while they are in their teens.
Breast lifts are safer than breast implants. There has been increasing awareness among women about the advantages of breast lifts. There has been an increase in the number of combination procedures that involve both breast lifts and breast implants.
What will my breast lift scars look like? As your incisions heal after surgery, your scars will initially appear as raised, red lines. They will eventually fade, flatten, and lighten to become even less visible.
Breast lift surgery is an excellent way to raise the breasts to create a more youthful silhouette. However, like any other surgery, its results don't last forever. Skin continues to stretch as we age, and breasts gradually begin to sag.
Breast Lift and Cup Size
Breast lift typically reduces bra size by one full cup. However, in a study featured in Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, it was suggested that this has less to do with a loss of volume than with a restoration of comfort.
Cost Difference
Breast Lift: The average price of a breast lift is about $5,000. Breast Augmentation: The average cost of breast augmentation surgery is $4,516.
An auto-augmentation breast lift, unlike a traditional breast lift, uses the excess tissue to and repurposes it to reshape, volumize and retain the patient's current breast size. This procedure is subtler but has a nice end result. Auto-augmentation is a great option for breast augmentation without implants.
You will need to wear a sports bra with no under wire for 6 weeks, or until the doctor says you are clear to start wearing a regular bra. You can take a break from wearing the bra while you are in the shower, but it is very important to put it right back on after you dry off from the shower.