How Painful Can Breast Lift with Implant Be?

I place a large amount of long acting, local anesthetic in the wound after virtually all of my operations and thus 95% of my patients never take pain medicine. Instead, we recommend Valium, with or without Tylenol.

While you will be sore for 1 to 2 days, it's tolerable and most patients return to an office job in 3 to 5 days.

It’s not unusual
for patients to experience pain following combination breast
augmentation/breast lift surgery. This
pain is usually related to elevation of the muscles during sub-muscular breast
pocket formation. In addition, spasm of
these muscles can contribute to postoperative discomfort, as well.The pain associated with this
combination procedure is severe in the first 24 hours following surgery, but
rapidly diminishes with time. We
typically use a synthetic Codeine derivative called Hydrocodone, which has a decreased
incidence of nausea compared to Codeine.We replace narcotic pain relievers with Tylenol as soon as possible
following surgery, to avoid the potential for drug problems.We also use muscle relaxants in the immediate
postoperative period.Pain tolerance varies from patient
to patient following surgery.If you’re
considering this procedure, it’s important to discuss pain management with your
surgeon prior to surgery.

Use of Exparel, a local anesthetic injected or placed into your implant pocket greatly diminishes your discomfort for the first 3-4 days, By then you should be in minimal pain. See the below link for more inforation:

My colleagues have done an excellent job of discussing the many considerations that relate to pain following breast augmentation. In addition, it is important to note that pocket placement can make a mjor difference, Lastly the use of post operative exercises has been usef ul to minimize pain following the surgery.

Certainly, you would be the one to make the decision. Breast implant and lift is very common procedure. As far as pain goes, it is very patient dependant. Most of my patients take pain medications for 1-2 days. There are some that dont take anything but tylenol and some that need it for 4-5 days. But the majority are using pain medications for 1-2 days.
As far as complications go, the risk of capsular contracture in general is around 5-7 % nationwide. So the risks are low. As fas as scarring the ultimate scar is depend on the patient and how you take care of it, i.e. minimize sun exposure, scar massage.
Hope that helps.

Any decision for surgery is a serious matter, and your concerns are certainly valid. However, patients almost universally say that it was worth the post-op discomfort. There are options for managing the pain after surgery, including things such as the On-Q pump which blocks most of it with numbing medication infused directly into the surgical site. In any case, it usually resolves in a matter of days. A good surgeon will go over risks of complications with you in detail so that you can make an informed decision.

There certainly is some discomfort after surgery more so from the augmentation than the lift.  The amount you will feel depends upon your pain threshold and the pocket placement of the implants.

First let me say it sounds like you have more concerns than just pain. You'll have to come to grips with the reality that complications can happen-not often for most experienced surgeons but they do happen. Capsular contracture is becoming a fading complication since implants have been placed in the subpectoral position.
As far as pain goes most of my patients are off all medications by 3-4 days after surgery. Virtually all of my patients describe the "pain" as more of a soreness, like after a really hard workout at the gym. I give my patients Valium to help reduce the muscle spasm that occurs after the implant is placed under the muscle.
It does surprise me how relatively little pain there is with breast surgery. Some surgeons use the On Q pump which infuses a very small amount of local anesthetic into the breast. I find that it's an unnecessary added expense.

The post-operative discomfort can be effectively managed and is a short term issue. The more significant aspect of your question is your concern about the possible complications. While complications rates are low, the possibilty exists. Before undertaking any surgery, you must understand the possible risks and accept them. As an informed patient, you will seek a board certified plastic surgeon. Your board certified plastic surgeon will take steps to insure you do not have a complication. However, we cannot eliminate the possibility altogether. If you are "scared to hell" and my patient, I would not perform the surgery. You must feel very positive about your decision.

All the previous expert posters have tried to address the issues of pain degrees and possible complications in quite good detail. My feeling is the Internet is NOT the forum to try and convince you that there are no risk, no pain, no complications in having ANY cosmetic surgery, especially breast implants + lifting. You NEED to see in person at least 3 board certified plastic surgeons so you can get a three dimensional experience of a real hands on evaluation and develope a relationship with these surgeons. Over the Internet, this one dimensional experience, does you an injustice and also us, the expert posters. Regards.