Breast Lift Surgery in Miami

An internationally renowned surgeon, Dr. Sam Gershenbaum is known throughout Florida for his outstanding ability to create beautiful, shapely breasts. At his practice just north of Miami, he performs breast lift surgery for discriminating patients. A breast lift, or mastopexy, is a surgical procedure designed to perform the same role as a properly fitting bra, namely supporting the breast in an uplifted position – revealing more fullness, shape, and cleavage. A breast lift generally removes only excess and loose skin, as compared to breast reduction, which reduces the amount of actual breast tissue besides skin reduction.

Many women from the Miami area have chosen to undergo breast lift, particularly those whose breast shape and contour does not fit their self-image. Body image is an important part of feeling good, desirable, and normal. Most women compare themselves to a cultural idea of beauty. Commonly, women with sagging breasts and breasts with loose, stretched skin are dissatisfied with their physical appearance. These changes can be a result of genetics, pregnancy, weight loss, and aging or any combination thereof.

An ideal candidate for a breast lift procedure, or mastopexy, is someone who is uncomfortable with the amount of loose skin and sagging of her breasts. An ideal breast lift patient is also free of any complicating pre-existing medical conditions including heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, skin/connective tissue disorders, etc

Our Miami breast lift center offers several techniques to lift and reshape the breast and reposition the nipple. The size of the breasts and the amount of loose skin and sagging along with patient expectations will determine the extent of the mastopexy incisions. The size of the areola (the pigmented area around the nipple) would also be reduced during the procedure if desired.

The standard breast lift technique uses a "keyhole" pattern or "anchor" shaped incision. The incision/scars for this procedure extend in three basic areas:

• Entirely around the areola (the pigmented area around the nipple)
• From the areola in a vertical direction down to the fold or crease under the breast.
• Horizontally along the area of the fold or crease under the breast extending for a variable length.

A minimal scar breast lift procedure encompasses several newer techniques aimed at reducing scars. A "donut" or circumareolar mastopexy results in a scar only around the areola (the pigmented area around the nipple). The circumareolar-vertical mastopexy or "lollipop" type of incision results in a scar extending around the areola and vertically down to the crease under the breast.

Additional considerations must also be understood in deciding which particular breast lift technique will be used. The circumareolar or "donut" mastopexy is reserved for minimal type lifts and will tend to decrease projection making the breast somewhat rounder and flatter across the front. This may be especially desirable to breast lift patients with overly pointed or projected breasts to start with. The addition of the vertical incision, while mandatory in some cases, will tend to add some projection to the breast. Hence, the initial shape, projection, and amount of sagging of the breast must all be taken into consideration as well as the wishes and expectation of the patient before making a final decision as to which technique is to be used.

There are also those women who wish additional fullness to the upper aspect of the breasts, more than what can be achieved by breast lift alone and those who desire breast enlargement/augmentation concurrent with their breast lift procedure. For these women, a breast implant may be placed at the same time as the breast lift procedure. A smaller, more conservative implant would be used for additional upper breast fullness whereas a larger implant would be used for overall breast augmentation.

"Auto" breast augmentation with the breast lift procedure is a newer technique to help maintain fullness in the upper portion of the breast using your own tissues. One of the problems very common with many breast lift procedures performed alone is a flatness or lack of fullness in the upper area of the breast.

This deficiency in the upper breast area occurs gradually over several months as the repositioned breast tissue settles and succumbs to gravity. Some surgeons refer to this as "bottoming out" of the breast. "Auto" augmentation is a procedure that uses a portion of the internal breast tissue, left connected to the chest wall and its blood supply, which is then passed up and under a two-inch bridge of pectoralis muscle and secured. This acts to keep fullness in the upper breast and acts as a small, "natural" breast implant.