Is it true that anchor incisions for a breast reduction/lift makes boobs look square in the long run?

Hi macca00987

Breast Reduction with Lollipop Style Incisions – Breast reductions using a lollipop incision is designed for middle sized reductions or for patients who need the nipple to be lifted more than 2 cm.

Breast Reduction with Anchor Style Incisions – Breast reductions using an anchor-style incision is designed for larger reductions or for patients who need the nipple to be lifted more than 4 cm. For more information about this procedure, please visit our website.

Hi. It is really more about how you deal with the deeper breast tissues as well as specifics and particularities with how you actually do the design of the skin incisions that determines the end result and shape. The anatomy and tissue quality will vary from one patient to another, which certainly affects the end result as well. But you should be able to achieve a nice rounded result from a breast reduction with an anchor (also referred to as a Wise pattern) type of incision if designed and executed properly. In my opinion, if you have enough drooping and stretching of the breasts, and you try to do a breast reduction with shorter or less incisions than what is really needed, then I think you actually compromise your end result and shape. I have included some pictures and video in case that is helpful. I would recommend consulting with a board certified plastic surgeon with good experience with breast reductions to go through all of this with you in detail.
Good luck and take care,
Dr. Howell

Hello, thank you for your question. The vertical or lollipop lift can be used for severe droopiness and involves a vertical and periareolar incision. I recommend you to schedule a consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon.

Anchor incisions certainly can look a bit boxy early but often round out over time. Lollipop incisions may look a little to projecting early and then also round out over time. The best bet is to have the surgeon show you pictures of long term results (a year or more post op), so you can judge how the breasts look after all the settling has occurred. As always, please be sure to research who performs your procedure so you can increase the changes of having the best outcome.

The anchor technique depends on the skin envelope for holding the breast shape. If the skin envelope has inadequate strength then it will eventually weaken the shape and look more mechanical, perhaps even squarish. For these reasons, I avoid this technique. The technique I use is The Bellesoma Method. This will reduce and reshape your breast tissue creating upper pole fullness without implants, elevate them higher on the chest wall and more medial to increase your cleavage. The weight of the breast is transferred to the underlying pectoralis major muscle resulting in pain relief without excessive reduction. Vertical scars are avoided, nipple sensation (in 95%) and the ability to breast feed are maintained.

Best Wishes,

Gary Horndeski, M.D.

It all depends on who you ask. Larger lifts and reductions are more likely to be done with an anchor scar and more likely to be boxy. Not necessarily because if the procedure but because they are wider to begin with. Lollipop lifts are great but I have found they lack upper fullness unless an implant is used as well. Every surgeon seems to have a different take in this usually based on their personal experience.

Dear macca00987,
my preferred lift is a lollipop lift when a periareolar won't do (ie greater than 2cm lift required). The lollipop technique was created by a Canadian plastic surgeon named Elizabeth Hall-Findley and treats the breast as a three dimensional structure instead of two dimensions (anchor - lift). Most importantly it does not require the horizontal component scars that the anchor-lift requires and breasts appear much more natural, lifted, and less boxy. Lastly, the lift lasts longer because the lollipop doesn't rely on the skin to hold the breast up, its actually breast tissue thats being brought together to support the breast and hence improves longevity.
If you are considering a surgery, I would suggest you to consult a board-certified plastic surgeon. Only after a thorough examination you will get more information and recommendations.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

It is not the skin pattern that determines the breast shape, it’s the pedicle choice and therefore the internal arrangement of how the breast tissue is re-adjoined to heal. This selection is independent of one another.
You can design a beautiful surgery with a superomedial pedicle and shape the breast mound by how you rotate your pedicle and approximate the medial and lateral pillars to each other, and then first choose whether you deal with the skin as a vertical only (lollipop), a wise pattern (anchor) or you curve your lollipop into a “J”. Your choice of how you deal with the skin is not related to how your breast will be shaped.
If you choose to base your surgery on an inferior based pedicle, then your fullness is based on suturing something purely against gravity, the bulk of your weight is bottom-oriented. In the first example, the superomedial pedicle, the breast mound is suspended from a superior based structure which doesn’t even touch your inframammary skin repair rather than hanging from an inferior based one that sits on your inframammary skin.
Anytime you are using your skin as a “bra” for support, that’s when the shape becomes body and bottomed out. It is not the skin incisions but the pedicle that determines this.
In my hands, I prefer the anchor on almost all of the medium and large breast reductions because I get my most consistently superb result by setting the inframammary fold exactly where I want it rather than the relying on predictive healing of a long lollipop stick which unpredictably has to convert breast skin into chest skin and hide a dog ear under the breast. There is nothing wrong with either a circumvertical or a Wise pattern, again in properly performed breast surgery they do not dictate the shape of the breast mound or longevity of the result.

Choose a surgeon you will enjoy to work with, with terrific before and after pictures and is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. Let him or her decide what you need in order to achieve the best results for you.

The previous author’s answer about Elizabeth Hall Findlay’s landmark contribution to breast surgery is factually inaccurate.