Can I get away with implants, but not a lift?

Thank you for the question and photo. You appear from the limited exposure of the photo to be okay with the implants only without the lift. A moderate plus style implant will most likely give you natural looking breasts. Good luck with your surgery!Dr. Khuthaila 

One of the more common scenarios that we as aesthetic plastic surgeons deal with in cosmetic breast surgery is the patient from either weight loss, or post pregnancy has a little bit of drop of the breast off of the chest wall that we call ptosis. The question then becomes in the patient's mind, can we just fill the space with an implant and create a youthful looking breast. It all depends on what the patient's perception of youthful is. My patients, more than likely, would like to have upper pole fullness of the breast without the necessity for wearing a push-up bra. In these situations, a breast lift plus an implant both centers the nipple and areola complex on the breast while replacing the lost volume with an implant. Most patients’ hesitation in doing the breast lift as well as implants, are the potential for bad scars. In my experience, we talk a lot about the scars of a breast lift preoperatively, but hardly ever in the postoperative phase. It seems to me, that when the breast is up high on the chest wall, youthful and perky, that one does not even see the scars. Most of the time, these incision lines heal uneventfully anyway. In the small chance that the scars are more red or thicker than one would like, we have many options in lasers, light sources, and laser assisted drug delivery techniques to mitigate against unsightly scars. Sometimes, patients who I've seen have seen other physicians who have recommended simply placing a large implant to "fill the space". This seems to be a very temporary fix for the situation in that the stretched out soft tissue that the implant is placed into, usually will allow very rapid descent of the breast, such that in just a few months, it looks like a bigger version of the breast that they first started with. They will then sometimes have a secondary mastopexy, and at that time, I would often recommend that they replace the very large implant with a smaller one. In my opinion, a large lift, meaning taking out as much of the stretched out skin as possible, and placing a more modest size implant will make a breast that will remain perky and up on the chest wall for a long period of time. In my opinion, perky breasts, not necessarily large breasts, look youthful. Patients will then ask, "why then does Dr. so-and-so tell me that I can just have implants?" My answer to this is very simple. It is far easier in most plastic surgeons’ skill sets to place a large implant then do a breast lift with an implant. The simultaneous lift and implant procedure is a little more challenging in that you're trying to do opposite things at the same time. One, you're trying to make the skin envelopes smaller and at the same time make the breast larger. One easy way to decide whether a lift is good for you, is to see your image in 3-D on a Vectra camera system. In our office, we can then compare two images: one with mastopexy with implants and the other with implants alone. In that way, both the patient and plastic surgeon can see what the difference in the look of both procedures are. Usually when implant is placed only, and a breast lift was really needed, what the patient will see is a breast that is falling off of a properly placed mound that's higher in the chest wall than the breast is. The breast seems to be falling off the implant. They will commonly squeeze the end part of their breast and ask,  “why hasn't the implant filled this space out?” For me, the in between operation is to use a tall shaped implant. These anatomically shaped implants can create the illusion, that although the nipple has not really been raised, that the nipple is now more centered on the breast. While these implants do cost more than round implants, it still less expensive than adding a breast lift. All things considered, it's best to consult with a few talented and busy cosmetic breast surgeons to get different opinions. Good luck with your decision.