Is it possible to augment the breasts during a breast lift – without implants?
Some women want a more natural way to enhance breast size and want to avoid placing synthetic implants. Nothing is safer to place in the body than your own tissue – your body recognizes it. Dr. Rand can perform a groundbreaking surgical technique, using your own tissue to create more volume. In a breast lift, some skin is removed to lift the breasts higher. Rather than discarding the skin, Dr. Rand can process it and place it within the breast mound to add volume. It will look and feel completely natural and has the added benefit of providing a longer lasting lift.
Why choose Dr. Richard Rand?
The quality, talent, and surgical skills of your surgeon are the most important part of a successful breast augmentation with lift. Dr. Richard Rand is one of the most respected plastic surgeons in the Seattle area, with a background that includes serving as Chief of Plastic Surgery at the University of Washington Medical Center.
A focus on patient health and safety
Dr. Rand focuses on patient safety, quality of results, and performing the most advanced surgical techniques in breast surgery, including auto-augmentation. Dr. Rand has established a state-of-the-art, private surgical facility, with world-class service. He has achieved acclaim for his outstanding surgical results.
What are the risks of a breast lift with augmentation?
All surgeries carry some risk – it is critical that you are under the care of a qualified, board-certified plastic surgeon, and your surgery performed in an accredited facility that provides modern equipment and technology. The standard surgical risks include:
- Reactions to anesthesia
- Excessive bleeding
- Infections
- Slower healing
- Excessive scarring
- Asymmetry
You are safe under the care of Dr. Rand and his team of medical professionals. Risks or complications are rare, and Dr. Rand has performed thousands of successful surgeries. He and his entire team focus on patient health and safety.
Award-winning breast surgeon: Dr. Richard Rand.
Dr. Rand’s surgical skills, artistry, and meticulous techniques have brought him acclaim from his peers, and he is the recipient of the 2018 MyFaceMyBody National Award for the top plastic surgery practice as a result of his many positive patient reviews.
A Note from Dr. Rand
Augmentation mastopexy surgery combines both a breast lift and breast implants for the patient who needs both size and shape correction. This is a very complex subject and requires the care of an experienced expert to get the best result with the fewest complications. The combination of a simultaneous breast implant and breast lift can have the highest risk and revision rate of any cosmetic breast surgery - so decisions need to be made carefully and choices weighed with thorough discussions between the patient and surgeon.
I will explain my general guidelines from 30 years of practice. These are concepts I have synthesized over caring for thousands of breast patients. An in-person consultation for an hour is critical to discuss all issues and explain all possibilities including risks and benefits.
The first thing to ask is whether the patient’s greater concern is with their shape or their size. Shape correction comes from a breast lift. Size correction comes from an implant. So, knowing which is the higher priority can guide the patient in selecting the correct pathway to follow. Sometimes one is more important than the other and sometimes both are equally important.
If only a minor periareolar lift is required, this is virtually always done in one surgery combining the implant and lift.
Staged Lift and Implant Surgery: If the top priority is shape, the lift can be done to correct that. Especially with the auto-augmentation technique, over 90% of patients in my experience will never proceed to add an implant if they didn’t wear padded bras preoperatively. But implants can always be added at any time after 4 months of initial healing have taken place and the tightening of the lift has healed. Virtually all complications related to implants and lifts come from the implants and therefore placing implants should not be taken lightly. If you can be happy with a lift alone, you will never have long term problems.
If the top priority is size, implants can be done and leave the lift for later. Breast augmentation surgery is done with implants that I place under the muscle, chosen to match the patient’s chest dimensions and with a “profile” of fullness to create the “look” that they are seeking. This can result in an acceptable result for some patients if they are not too critical of nipple paosition. But it can also result in an outcome called a “Snoopy nose” deformity which has a nipple pointing down off a fuller breast mound. Those patients will usually want to complete the lift to fix this and get the best result.
Combined Lift and Implant Surgery: If the patient desires BOTH augmentation and lifts, this can sometimes be done in one operation. Other times, it should be split into two surgeries for optimal safety. If the patient wants a full augmentation, the stretching of the larger implant makes this process more prone to complications to perform the tightening of the lift at the same time. Significant tightening and stretching of tissues at one time obviously can create problems. In these cases, the implant is usually done first and occasionally the patient never proceeds to the lift. But the lift can safely be done after 4 months of healing from the augmentation. The lift can also be done first and the fuller implant placed after 4 months.
If the desired augmentation is more modest, the lift may be performed at the same time because the stretching – tightening conflict is less dramatic and the risk of complications is less. Only under these circumstances will I combine a breast lift and implants in one surgery. These decisions are based on my years of experience and my ultimate goal of making plans with my patients which are all about safety and minimizing risks and complications.
