Type of pain medication for after breast reduction?

I recommend Norco or Percocet.   I recommend an in-office examination as well as a detailed discussion with a surgeon who you are comfortable with.   Finally, make sure your surgeon is a Double-Board Certified Plastic Surgeon certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (ABPS), a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgery (ASPS), a member of the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS).Best,Dr. DesaiBeverly Hills Institute for Aesthetic Plastic SurgeryHarvard Educated, Beverly Hills & Miami Beach TrainedDouble Board-Certified Beverly Hills Plastic Surgeon

Dear JBS21,the recommended pain killers depend on the surgeon's preference. In my case, I use local anesthetic during the surgery to reduce the pain, and it provides painless 3 days after the surgery. After that most of my patients use Tylenol and it works well. I would suggest you to discuss this with your plastic surgeon. Daniel Barrett, MD, MHA, MS 
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery  
Member, Am. Society of Plastic Surgery

Pain tolerance is different from patient to patient.  Usually breast reduction patients may experience some discomfort and is mostly during the first few days.  Narcotics may help initially with this, if you get easily nausea you can ask your surgeon to also prescribe a medication that can help with this.  

Pain following breast surgery differs between individuals, however, overall the pain following reduction is not typically that bad. I usually suggest a multi-modal approach to pain management that includes Tylenol and an Anti-inflammatory for baseline pain control with a narcotic only to be used for pain above and beyond that. As for the specific narcotics, dilaudid can give less nausea than some of the others, however, all of the narcotics can cause some upset stomach. Typically you will only require the narcotic for a couple of days after surgery and then can scale back to the non-narcotic pain medications.

my patients get Zofran (anti-emetic), use a Transderm scopolamine patch for 3 days starting just before surgery, and can choose between Tramadol (weaker cousin of narcotics) or use Nucynta (like Percocet but doctored to diminish the nausea risk but also expensive).  Anti-inflammatories can be started the day after if there were no problems through the night.  You will get different answers here and you should discuss what you read here with your surgeon.

Hi and thanks for your questions.  Typically I prescribe a narcotic pain medicine (Percocet, Vicodin, Norco), an inti-inflammatory pain medicine (Celebrex), a non-sedating muscle relaxer (Robaxin), and have had patients have good success using Arnica Montana as an additional anti-inflammatory.  In addition to these medications also typically utilize a long-lasting injectable anesthetic called Exparel to keep my patients as comfortable as possible after their procedure.  If you continue to have questions, please ask your surgeon or their nurse to explain their pain control regimen to you in detail.  Best wishes during your recovery!

The good thing about breast reduction is that it is not a very painful procedure. This is in contrast to the greater discomfort experienced with breast augmentation, where the muscle is lifted off the chest wall. No muscle work is done in breast reduction so the recovery is easier. Most patients receive a prescription for either Percocet or Vicodin for about a 10 day course. However, you don't HAVE to take these meds if you are not having significant postop pain. Many patients take Tylenol or other OTC medications quickly after surgery, and many plastic surgeons (including myself) inject longer acting local anesthetics like bupivicaine (marcaine) into the incisions to minimize the requirement for narcotics. 

Requirements for post-op pain medication following a breast reduction are quite variable from person to person. I typically prescribe Tylenol#3, or something comparable, and most patients use the prescription for 1 or 2 days, however, many of my patients have been fine with just extra-strength Tylenol. Post-op discomfort and medication requirements are usually higher when liposuction is being done along with the reduction. Prior to surgery, you could ask a pharmacist whether which medication option would be easiest on you weak stomach.  

There are a number of narcotic and non narcotic medication which can help relieve/reduce pain following a breast reduction surgery.  The good news is that most patients are comfortable enough, within a couple of days following the procedure,  to not require the stronger narcotic medications.  If you have help for two weeks following the procedure, you shouldn't have any trouble managing.  Most patients can return to light duty work in two weeks following the procedure.  Check with your surgeon for their recommendations for pain control in your particular case.  Best wishes, Dr. Lepore.