A woman’s breasts may change over time, losing their youthful shape and firmness. Such changes, with their resulting loss of skin elasticity, can result from pregnancy, breast feeding, weight fluctuation, aging, gravity, and heredity. While not all women are troubled by such changes, they can be a psychological burden to those whose self-image is adversely affected.
Also known as a mastopexy, a breast lift can restore a more youthful breast profile by removing excess skin to elevate and firm the breasts. This may include reducing the size of the areola, the pigmented skin surrounding the nipple, if this area has enlarged. Breast lift surgery alone usually does not round out the upper part of the breasts but simultaneous breast augmentation can be performed in women seeking more fullness in addition to better shape.
The trade-off for this improvement is the creation of scars on the breasts but “scars” don’t mean thick, red noticeable marks. For most patients scars soften and fade over time and in many individuals they become barely noticeable after six months to a year. Breast lift surgery can be achieved through a variety of incision patterns but significant sagging has traditionally been addressed through an “inverted T” or “anchor” incision similar to the one used for breast reduction. This leaves a potentially thick scar in the fold under the breast.
To address this concern, I developed the Helium Balloon breast lift which gets its name from the allusion to the lifting of the breasts as well as the pattern of the closed incisions, which avoids a scar in the crease under the breast. The Helium Balloon lift, which was published this year in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, also allows the breasts to be custom tailored when breast implants are inserted, solving the dilemma of enlarging the breasts with implants while tightening them with a lift.
As with all surgical procedures, complications such as breast asymmetry are possible and revisions are sometimes necessary. Nevertheless, the response from patients having a Helium Balloon lift has been overwhelmingly positive and the reduced scarring is encouraging more and more women to have their breasts lifted with or without implants or to replace or even remove their old breast implants. Some representative before-and-after photos are available at www.drpechter.com .
Fore more information, please call Edward Pechter, MD at 661-255-2151, e-mail drpechter@aol.com or visit www.drpechter.com . Located 25880 Tournament Road #217 in Valencia.