This question comes up often among women seeking to enhance the appearance of their breasts. Breast augmentations and breast lifts are commonly performed together, but not every woman needs both procedures.
Are you wondering if you might need a breast augmentation and lift? Let’s look at various situations, goals and solutions to help you get the results you desire from your breast surgery.
Breast Lift and Breast Augmentation: How Do They Differ?
A breast lift alone (called mastopexy) can raise and reshape breasts that have sagged, making them firmer and higher.
- A breast lift can make the breasts look more youthful, firmer, higher and perkier.
- A lift cannot make breasts bigger and fuller overall. (Breasts may look a bit larger—or smaller – after a breast lift because they will sit higher on the chest. The outcome depends on the amount of sag, amount of natural breast tissue and your anatomy.)
- A breast lift will reposition the breast tissue and nipple higher on the chest, which breast augmentation alone will not do.
- An extra scar is typically involved in a breast lift, which runs from the breast crease up to the nipple. The scar continues around the nipple, but that portion can be hidden at the edge of the areola.
- In some women, a breast lift alone can leave the upper breast area flatter than she might like.
- If a lift alone won’t meet your goals for the outcome of your breast surgery, your surgeon may suggest a combination procedure with breast lift and augmentation.
A breast augmentation alone (augmentation mammoplasty) will make breasts fuller, larger, more rounded and may add cleavage.
- Breast implants always make breasts larger.
- Breast implants usually do not lift natural breasts as much as we would like them to.
- If you have some natural sag, your nipples may appear too low (or the upper breast area too flat) with breast implants alone.
- Other important variables like surgery technique and choice of implant (shape, size and material/composition) also affect the final height and profile of your breasts (the result) after breast augmentation.
- Your surgeon can advise you of the likely outcome in your case and help you understand your specific options.
Breast Implants and Breast Lifts: Generalized Scenarios, Examples and Solutions
Remember that the scenarios described here are very general, and may not apply to your specific case. Breast implants are sized by volume in ccs (cubic centimeters) and come in a variety of shapes and materials.
What looks like a large implant on a smaller woman may not look so large on a taller woman or one with a larger bone structure; wider shoulders and larger ribcage.
Your body and frame size are completely unique—no one is really typical or average. (That is a good thing, but makes it harder to generalize.)
To learn what the ideal surgical solution might be in your case, you need a personalized consultation with an expert breast surgeon. He or she can assess your individual situation and your goals for larger and/or higher breasts. Based on your anatomy and goals, your surgeon will make a recommendation as to which surgery option may be right for you.
Younger Woman Desiring Larger Breasts
If you have no sagging and your goal is breast enlargement, you may need just a breast augmentation alone.
This often means you are on the younger side, with good skin elasticity and no sagging (called ptosis) caused by aging, weight loss, genetic factors or prior pregnancy and breastfeeding).
Woman With Saggy Breasts, Desiring Higher, Firmer Breasts and/or Larger Breasts
In this case, you might get by with just adding implants (breast augmentation alone) to “fill up” the sagging skin. In many cases, however, this could lead to a less-than-satisfying result.
For instance, if your nipples are pointing downward or sitting lower on your chest before surgery, adding a breast implant may still leave the nipple lower than you might like. If you have a lot of sagging, the augmentation alone might leave you with breasts that appear to “hang” from the implants.
Your surgeon might suggest a breast lifting procedure (in combination with the augmentation) to make sure your breast enhancement result is attractive from both front and side view, with and without clothing.
What if I Just Want a Lift?
If you want to avoid implants, a breast lift alone will firm your breasts and make your breasts and nipple sit higher, for a youthful look. (Nipples are repositioned during a breast lift, but not in a breast augmentation).
Your surgeon would explain to you how much smaller, if any, your breasts might be or appear to be after your breast lift. If higher, firmer, perhaps a bit smaller breasts will meet your goals, you may opt for a breast lift alone.
Benefits of Breast Lift and Breast Augmentation
Some women may need both procedures to:
- Enlarge the breasts.
- Provide youthful, perky and firm breasts.
- Make it easier to find clothes that fit in the bust.
- Boost social confidence or confidence when wearing swimwear and low-cut tops.
- Restore breasts to former size and volume (fullness) prior to weight loss and/or pregnancy.
- Correct breast asymmetry.
- Improve breast shape to patient’s liking, for example: making breasts rounder overall, adding fullness above the nipple or increasing projection out from the chest wall.
Will It Cost an Arm and a Leg to Get a Breast Lift with Implants?
If you do opt for both procedures (breast augmentation and lift combined) to achieve your goals for larger and/or more youthful looking breasts—an expert breast surgeon will not charge you double for two procedures. (This is part of the reason that surgeon selection is important.)
The combination procedure will take longer and require more planning along with more precise surgical technique. However, you’ll typically only be charged a bit more to cover the additional time in surgery.
You will be in the surgery center operating room for a while longer and need anesthesia for a slightly longer time as well. Some surgeons may charge a significant fee for both procedures done at once, rather than seeing it as a combo procedure—so be sure the costs are explained to you before you agree to surgery.
Deciding if You Need Both: Breast Lift and Breast Augmentation
In most cases, there is a clear advantage to choosing a single procedure (breast lift or breast augmentation) or opting for a combination procedure, depending upon your anatomy, goals and other details involved in your specific case.
Your surgeon will let you know if doing only one procedure will achieve your goals and recommend which would have the best outcome. If yours is a case where the choice is not so obvious, your surgeon can help you to weigh the pros and cons carefully.
Remember that your plastic surgeon will always hope to avoid adding the extra scarring of a breast lift if it is not necessary, but that avoiding scars in someone with real sag will usually result in a very unsatisfying outcome. Your plastic surgeon can explain to you the likely result of each alternative in your surgical consultation.
If you are on the fence about whether both procedures, breast lifting and breast implants, are needed in your case, your surgeon may recommend that you start with the procedure you desire most.
No harm will come from just augmenting breasts that are sagging or just lifting breasts that are small, but you should understand what the outcome will be and decide if you want to make that compromise.
It is certainly possible to do the second surgery at a later date, if you desire, but you’ll have all the additional costs and healing time of a second surgery.
Discuss Your Goals and Learn Your Options in a No-Charge Consultation
When you are ready to learn which option might be best for your needs, breast augmentation, breast lift or both, contact Cohen/Winters Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery.
We are dedicated to helping our patients improve their bodies and their lives. If you and your surgeon decide to go forward, we’ll partner with you for a successful result. To make an appointment, contact our offices in Bergen County.
