A reduction mammaplasty, or breast reduction, is a plastic-surgery procedure to make the breasts smaller. This treatment literally and figuratively lifts a weight off your chest and leaves patients healthier and better proportioned.

The tissues in the breasts are the main culprit in this condition. Situations such as pregnancies and hormonal fluctuations can result in hypertrophy of either the milk glands or adipose tissue.

How Can a Breast Reduction Help?

An excessively large chest can hurt a person’s health if left unchecked. Bigger isn’t always better, and many women find that they are subjected to unwanted social attention, can’t engage in physical activities easily, and develop problems such as:
• Nerve pain
• Neck pain
• Back pain
• Shoulder pain
• Posture issues resulting from improper curvature of the spine
• Inflammation resulting from chafing
• Infections from chafing

A breast reduction removes excess tissue from the breasts in order to address all of these issues.

Ideal Candidates for This Procedure

If you find that constant backaches are taking over your life or you are experiencing numbness due to nerve damage while you sleep, you should seriously consider a mammoplasty.

There are only two situations where you should hold off on a breast-reduction surgery:
• You’re planning to start a family and will become pregnant soon.
• You’re planning for significant weight changes.

Before Your Breast-Reduction Procedure

Prior to surgery, other methods can also be tried to decrease your breast size and address the symptoms of oversized breasts. Exercise and physiotherapy can help. These should be attempted first, since they are natural methods. If they do not provide satisfactory results, only then should you get breast-reduction surgery.

What Does the Process Involve?

This can be an inpatient or outpatient procedure depending on your needs. Dr. Lee will first put you under anesthesia. General anesthesia is most commonly used, but in some cases, local anesthesia with sedation may be an option.

After this, incisions will be created. For those with a great deal of excess tissue, an inverted-T, or anchor, incision will be used. This involves an incision around the areola, a vertical incision down to the breast crease, and a curving horizontal incision across the crease.

For those with a moderate amount of excess tissue, a lollipop incision can be made. That requires an incision around the areola and another incision coming down from it to meet the breast crease.

For removal of a smaller amount of tissue, the donut incision is used. This involves two concentric circles around the areola.

The excess fat is removed with a safe process known as liposuction. It is suction away through a tube called a cannula. The excess glandular tissue is excised with a scalpel, as is the excess skin. The remaining breast tissues left behind are reshaped, and the areola may be moved or resized as needed to fit the new dimensions of the breast.

Dr. Lee will ensure that symmetry is present in both breasts. It’s important to remember there may be minor variations between both breasts, as absolute perfectly symmetry might be impossible. Your treatment takes anywhere from two to five hours, and you’ll need weeks to completely heal.

During recovery, you’ll be advised to avoid underwire bras and told to wear a post-surgical bra instead to protect your breasts.

Your Breast-Reduction Results

Even though it will take weeks to fully recover, you will notice other immediate benefits after your surgery. Back problems will soon begin to diminish due to less weight strain. The same goes for your neck and shoulders, and any chafing will begin to heal.

Contact Us for Your Breast Reduction

If you’re looking to get a more rejuvenated appearance with a breast reduction, double-board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Wayne Lee can help. Dr. Lee will be happy to get you the aesthetic results you’ve been looking for. Contact our office to schedule your initial consultation today.