How Does A Breast Lift Affect The Recovery?

Most patients believe that undergoing a breast augmentation with a breast lift will result in more pain and downtime as compared to undergoing a breast lift alone. It only makes sense. There is a lot more incision with the combination of the two procedures than with the one procedure alone.

Post surgical pain is really not related very much to the actual incisions. While cutting skin without anesthesia is painful, once the skin is cut, the nerve endings are cut as well and there really is not much discomfort in the incision per se. Some discomfort, but not a significant amount in most cases. In my experience, patients who experience discomfort after surgery relate that discomfort to the deeper tissues, not the skin. So if you are asleep when the skin is cut, then when you wake up, there is not much incisional discomfort.

A breast lift in most cases is a very superficial procedure. What I mean is that we are tailoring excess skin, so there is no need to go deep into the breast. Rarely is the surgeon any deeper than 1 - 2 cm down from the surface of the skin, and certainly, nowhere near the deeper tissues like the muscle and chest wall, whose disturbance during surgery is much more likely to result in post-operative discomfort.

So in my experience, I really do not see any significant difference post-operatively in those patients who have undergone a breast lift and augmentation versus a breast augmentation alone.

The only difference in my post op instructions is that when I perform a breast augmentation without a lift I have my patients lie on their breasts after surgery and when I perform a breast augmentation with a lift, I do not have my patients lie on their breasts after surgery.