Can you fix breast asymmetry?

Key takeaways

  • Breast asymmetry refers to when one breast is visibly different in shape or size from the other. It can cause self-consciousness and discomfort.
  • The main ways to correct breast asymmetry are through breast augmentation, breast lift, breast reduction, or a combination of any of these procedures. The chosen procedure depends on the type and severity of the asymmetry.
  • At Politis Plastic Surgery, they help women feel more comfortable and confident by fixing severe and modest breast asymmetry, using a combination of procedures to achieve optimal results. They recommend speaking with an experienced, board-certified plastic surgeon to determine the best course of action for the individual.

You’ve noticed it. Your breasts aren’t similar in shape or size. One is bigger than the other. And you don’t like it. In fact, you are increasingly self-conscious and uncomfortable about it.

Well the truth is no two breasts can match perfectly. There are usually slight differences in size and shape, with one breast often being marginally larger than the other. Fortunately, the difference is usually small enough to overlook.

But when the asymmetry is more severe, embarrassing you, or making you self-conscious, you may need to undergo a procedure to correct the visibly uneven breasts. At Politis Plastic Surgery, we help women feel more comfortable and confident by fixing severe and modest breast asymmetry.

How is breast asymmetry corrected ?

Asymmetry is corrected through breast augmentation, breast lift, breast reduction, or a combination of any of these procedures. The choice of procedure depends on the type and severity of the asymmetry.

Though the chosen procedure may be performed on only one breast, this is quite rare and done with more subtle degrees of asymmetry. In most cases, both breasts require surgery, particularly to address the amount of skin and location of the nipples.

(a) Breast augmentation

When one of your breasts is visibly smaller than the other, a surgeon will often recommend augmenting the smaller breast using saline or silicone implants.

During the procedure, the surgeon may opt to place breast implants in one or both breasts, depending on the severity of the asymmetry and your desired results.  It is common to have the breast implant placed in the smaller breast to increase its size.

(b) Breast lift

For breast asymmetry that occurs as excessive sagging on one breast, a breast lift (mastopexy) may be the best option. Your surgeon will remove the sagging and excess skin from one breast and tighten it to give it a more symmetric shape and to support a firmer contour complimenting the other breast.  The breast lift procedure is completed through several incision techniques but the choice of technique depends on your specific body.

(c) Breast reduction

When you desire to match your larger breast to your smaller one, your plastic surgeon may recommend breast reduction surgery. Excess breast tissue, skin, and fat are removed from the larger breast via excision or liposuction to reduce it to the size of the smaller breast, creating a contour closer in shape and size to the other breast. Breast reduction usually includes a breast lift, so the procedure may be done on both breasts even if there is only reduction on one side.

(d) Blending of procedures

Simply inserting implants under sagging skin may not give the lift you desire. And placing implants without removing excess, stretched skin may only result in larger, sagging breasts.

Likewise, when only a size boost is needed, in addition to firmer breasts, a breast lift alone may give disappointing results. A breast lift tends to work well for breasts that are fairly even in size and only unevenly shaped but often fails if the breasts are widely different in size.

So in many cases if your breast asymmetry is due to shrinkage, wide variation in size or massive difference in shape, your plastic surgeon will opt for a combination of breast lift, reduction, and augmentation to achieve optimal results. In fact, a breast lift combined with breast augmentation can work beautifully together to correct sagging, increase breast size, and yield shapelier, fuller breasts.

Are you unhappy with your asymmetric breasts? Would you like to fix the asymmetry but aren’t sure about the right procedure? Contact Politis Plastic Surgery today to speak with an experienced, board-certified plastic surgeon who fixes breast asymmetry on a regular basis.

Dr. Effie Politis will give you candid honest recommendations on whether a breast lift, breast augmentation, or a combination of procedures will give you the best results for breast asymmetry. She will also customize the procedure to meet your unique aesthetic goals ensuring you consider different looks and options before you make a decision. For more information on fixing breast asymmetry and other cosmetic issues, visit the site “Politis Plastic Surgery”.

References:

Working with Dr. Effie Politis

I love Dr. Politis, I think she’s amazing, I think she truly cares about her patients and wants to do the right thing and the best thing for them, and sometimes the answer to that is that we don’t do surgery on you. We’re not out to take money it’s not, you know, we want to survive but we’re not going to take somebody’s money if we don’t think we can provide them with the outcome that they’re looking for or if we don’t feel like that’s the safest thing for them medically. I always tell people she’s a mom who happens to be a surgeon because I do feel like she puts her family, you know, as a high level of importance in her life. And I respect her for that as part of why I enjoy working with her because I’ve worked with physicians in the past that maybe didn’t put their family first and I think that we all should put our families first that’s what family’s for. I love working with her I feel like we understand each other there’s mutual respect she is comfortable with what I tell her and i’m very comfortable with the responses I get back from her so I feel like we, you know, work really well in that respect

Saline vs Silicone Breast Implants

Hey everyone, it’s Dr. Effie Politis and I just want to compare and contrast saline versus silicone implants, as we know women often undergo breast enhancement surgery to get a breast volume and shape that is more proportional to their body.

So, let’s start out with saline implants: We all know that saline is a fluid that is placed in a silicone shell. It is an “uncontrolled” type fluid, so it doesn’t have a lot of structural support. So it often causes rippling and wrinkling and it stretches out women’s lower-poles.

The advantage of a saline is that if you have a rupture or a tear, your breast will deflate and you can just look in a mirror and see that almost immediately in your body [it] just resorbs the fluid.

Silicone implants that are now in the market are medical grade and they are very cohesive, so they have a nice gel-to-shell ratio and they really help your breast tissue respond nicely. I do enjoy the feel of a silicone implant on my patients because it almost acts as one with their breast tissue. It also provides better structural support in the long term.

However, the issue with silicone implants is that we don’t often recognize a tear. This is why you have to be aware of your body. You have to follow-up with your plastic surgeon at regular surveillance intervals. If you do feel like there is a compromise, most women complain of some breast pain [or] perhaps some scarring around the implant, and we have some imaging modalities to diagnose this, please call our office or DM me on social media if you have any issues with your implants as I am a plastic surgeon with an expertise on breast surgery. Thanks so much.

Do breast implants make you float?

Do breast implants make you float? Will it save you from drowning?

Those are some questions that a few may have wondered about breast implants at some point.

Here’s the thing, breast implants are NOT a floatation device. They will not make you buoyant, nor are they a suitable alternative for a life vest.

“Breast implants are different from the weight of the natural breast, but not by much. While fatty tissue weighs slightly less than water, saline will, as mentioned, weighs roughly the same, and silicone, slightly more. “

“The differences between the natural tissue and a breast implant are minor, and, to the untrained eye, virtually undetectable.”

While breast implants are naturally buoyant (as seen in the video), “when placed in the body, however, the buoyancy of breast implants demonstrated by benchtop testing becomes irrelevant. Post-surgery breasts are no more likely to drown you than they are to save you from drowning.”

So, to answer the question above, no, breast implants will NOT make you float, and it will NOT save you from drowning.

Now, if you know someone who says they want to get large implants to have a built-in life-jacket, you can conclusively tell them to take some swimming lessons instead. 😅

What happens when implants too large for your chest/thorax are placed?

 

 
 
 
 
 
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What happens when implants too large for your chest/thorax are placed?

Implant displacement, stretched-out thin breast tissue, and asymmetry.

This can only be fixed with revision, implant exchange, implant place change, and tissue scaffold for support.

Patients, do your homework. Implants need to be sized through tissue-based planning techniques by a board-certified plastic surgeon.

The 14-step plan is then initiated in OR to prevent contamination of implants leading to capsular contracture. Otherwise, tissue distortion and collapse as well as device malposition and capsular contracture are guaranteed down the road. This ultimately leads to more surgeries and low patient satisfaction.

What is the 14 Point Plan?

 
 
 
 
 
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During your consultation, an important question that you need to ask your surgeon is whether or not they follow the 14-Point-Plan. ⁣

What is the 14-Point Plan

The 14-Point-Plan is designed to minimize the number of bacteria that can contaminate breast implants at the time of surgery. It was first published in 2013 and has since been widely adopted all around the world. Bacterial contamination of breast implants at the time of surgery has been shown to cause capsular contracture – hardening, pain, and deformity following breast implant surgery. ⁣
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The 14-Point-Plan outlines strategies that can be incorporated into breast implant surgery that reduce the number of bacteria that can contaminate the breast implant surface. ⁣

Here you can see a funnel is being used to place the breast implant into the dissected pocket.⁣

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Can I Still Breastfeed with Implants?

You can still breastfeed after breast augmentation surgery. A typical breast implant surgery involves an incision made in the inframammary fold (crease under your breast) to place the implant behind the pectoral muscle which is below the breast tissue. With this procedure, the implant is away from the breast tissue and does not interfere with breast ducts or mammary glands that produce milk. Even in cases where some glandular tissue is removed, enough tissue is left to facilitate milk production after the procedure.

Incision site

If you intend to breastfeed after breast implant surgery, the location of the incision matters. An incision made under the breast, in the armpit, or in the belly button is less likely to damage your milk ducts, nerves or glands.

But an incision made across or around the areola is more likely to damage nerves, affect the sensation of your nipple, interfere with the signals necessary for the letdown reflex, and reduce milk supply. Speak with your plastic surgeon about whether you might still have children so that an incision site is chosen that reduces the need for future adjustments to facilitate breastfeeding.

Implant location

Since breast implants can alter breast tissue, change the sensation of the nipple area, pinch or damage milk ducts, nerves, and milk glands, or reduce milk availability and release from glands, the location of the implant is critical. If you still want to breastfeed after breast implant surgery, you should make this clear to your plastic surgeon. To ensure implants do not interfere with breastfeeding, they can be inserted between your breast tissue and chest muscle or placed under your chest muscle.

Breast implants and milk safety

Breast implants do not make breast milk unsafe for your baby. Saline breast implants are filled with saline water, but there is no significant harm involved if the saline water mixes with breast milk. Likewise, silicone gel-filled implants are not harmful because the gel does not leak outside the implant shell.

There is no need to worry about chemicals in the implants mixing with the milk and making breastfeeding unsafe for your baby. Whatever implants are used, be sure to ask your plastic surgeon if it is safe for you to breastfeed after your implant surgery.

Reason for the surgery

Whether you can breastfeed after breast implant surgery also depends on your reason for the procedure. If your breasts are fairly symmetrical and regularly shaped and you only want a small boost, you are less likely to run into difficulties breastfeeding. But if you have flat or tubular shaped breasts before the procedure, you may already be at risk of low milk supply even without breast implants.

At Politis Plastic Surgery, we generally advise our patients to wait until they have had children before undergoing breast implant surgery. However, we do evaluate and recommend the procedure on a case-by-case basis after a personal consultation with each patient. If we find the procedure ideal for you, even when you still plan to have children, we will ensure that the incision site and implant location have the least possible effect on breastfeeding.

Would you like to enlarge your breasts and enhance your self-confidence but worry that it will affect you in other ways? Consider a private consultation with Dr. Effie Politis to discuss your specific goals and concerns. She will listen and guide you in making an informed decision about the procedure. For more information about breast augmentation and other cosmetic surgery procedures, visit the Politis Plastic Surgery website.

Removing Ruptured Historic Dow Corning Implants

 
 
 
 
 
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Removing ruptured historic Dow Corning implants in my patient after 30 years. She presented clinically with hardening of her left breast (capsular contracture). ⁣⁣
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Further workup including clinical and imaging examinations revealed extracapsular rupture which means the implant and the shell surrounding were compromised and needed to be removed. ⁣⁣
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These implants were taken off the market by the FDA in the 1980s. After the silicone implant moratorium in 1991, extensive premarket approval studies were required by the implant companies prior to the ban being lifted. This has resulted in extensive research and also produced much higher quality silicone cohesive or “gummy” implants with a much more stable shell and gel to shell fill ratio. ⁣⁣
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Today’s implants no longer demonstrate “gel bleed” and the increased silicone crosslinking adds stability and a higher safety margin. ⁣⁣
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The companies also provide short and long term warranty coverage and as board-certified plastic surgeons, we enter all implantable devices into a databank for better tracking. ⁣⁣

See a board-certified plastic surgeon to discuss treatment options regarding breast implants and safety profiles.⁣⁣
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#tbt #implantremoval #explant #capsularcontracture #siliconeimplants

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