
Pregnancy, nursing, excessive weight loss or gain, and the force of gravity can cause breasts to lose their shape and firmness, or natural elasticity, and begin to sag. A breast lift, or mastopexy, performed by Dr. Yessenow can take years off your appearance by correcting a drooping bust line and restoring your curves to their youthful state by raising and reshaping sagging breasts. The results of this surgery are not permanent because no surgery can permanently delay the effects of gravity. Mastopexy can also reduce the size of the areola, the darker tissue surrounding the nipple. If your breasts are small or have lost volume—for example, after pregnancy—breast implants inserted in conjunction with mastopexy can increase both their firmness and their size.
The most common procedure Dr. Yessenow uses in this surgery involves making an anchor-shaped incision along the natural contour of the breast. The incision outlines the area from which breast skin will be removed and defines the new location for the nipple. When Dr. Yessenow removes the excess skin, the nipple and areola are moved to the higher position. He then brings down the skin surrounding the areola and brings it together to reshape the breast. Dr. Yessenow makes stitches around the areola in a vertical line extending downwards from the nipple area and along the lower crease of the breast. Some patients, especially those with relatively small breasts and minimal sagging, may be candidates for modified procedures requiring less extensive incisions. One such procedure is the “doughnut (or concentric) mastopexy,” in which circular incisions are made around the areola, and a doughnut-shaped area of skin is removed.