Rox Center Beverly Hills’ Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Jay Calvert discusses different approaches to Mastopexy.
Dr. Jay Calvert:
Mastopexy, which is the proper term for a Breast Lift, is really a common operation in my practice. For whatever reason, my patients who’ve kind of have grown up with me and are now done having babies and they are ready to rejuvenate their breasts, so… part of that is lifting the breast. And that can be done with or without an implant and there are lots of ways to do it.
One of the things I do for breasts that really need the anchor scar, the traditional mastopexy scar, is I do what is called the “lateral breast flap”, where we use the lateral skin of the breast to support the inframammary fold, and that’s the fold where the breast meets the chest wall. And a lot of the times that have traveled south down the chest wall, down the ribs, and, to bring that up and just stitch it to the chest wall, well, that can work sometimes, but if you use the tissue from the breast from that skin that you would normally throw away, to support it it’s kind of like an auto aloe derm or an auto dermal matrix (if you want to bring the other companies on board… and I have no financial interest…) but, the reality is that those stitches being held with the lateral breast flap really make supporting the inframammary fold effectively.
We published a paper on this in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, and over time, people have really adopted this technique and they like it, it works and that’s what you want, especially if you are going to put in an implant; you need something to hold the implant and so creating that lateral breast flap, bringing up the inframammary fold and supporting the implant is really effective.
One of the other methods for mastopexy that people talk about is the periareolar, or, doughnut mastopexy. This procedure is really limited, it’s good really for patients that only need a centimeter or two of lift and it tends to cause a little bit of flattening of the breast. You are taking circles and bringing them together in a cone shape or round shaped structure, it’s just going to, by the nature of it, flatten the projection, so, if you’re using it with an implant, I think its fine. I think if you are to do a doughnut mastopexy or a periareolar mastopexy without an implant, you will probably not get shapes that are really attractive, and the reason women are coming for mastopexy is to have beautiful breasts. So we want to do the most effective breast lift and yes, the scars are real, but we want the breasts to be beautiful. The scars can be managed. Using the right implant or no implant at all really depends on the women what they are really looking for as a result.
To discuss a procedure for yourself, contact Dr. Jay Calvert by calling 310.777.8800 to schedule a consultation or make an appointment. For more information, go to drcalvert.com
