What is the best age to consider breast uplift surgery?

Women consider breast uplift surgery at various ages of their lives for the following general reasons:

Under the age of 25:
Women under the age of 25 do have breast uplift procedures and this is normally prior to having children. This is normally due to an abnormality of the shape or size of their bust as they develop. The conditions that cause this can cause breast droop which can occur without weight loss or pregnancy and can be due to conditions such as tuberous, tubular or constricted breasts. These conditions produce a low nipple position which can be corrected with a breast uplift procedure.

Many women as they develop do have significant differences between the size and shape of their bust.
Whilst many people will notice that one breast is slightly larger than the other this change can be very significant in some people causing great difficulty in getting appropriate clothing and in social interactions.
Abnormalities in the development of the breast shape are caused by a variety of factors including possible lack of blood supply to the area during very early development inside the uterus.
These abnormalities are often best treated with a breast uplift procedure under the age of 25.
 

Between the ages of 25 and 45:
This is the period where most women will have their children and this can produce significant changes to the bust .The changes do vary considerably between individual to individual but similar patterns tend to run in families. Whilst the degree of increase in volume in the bust whilst pregnant and breastfeeding varies considerably between individuals, as a general rule the larger your increase the greater will be your decrease. The greater increase in size produces more stretching of the skin which does not always fully contract. This can produce relative looseness in the skin of the breast with subsequent downward movement of the nipple.

Also following pregnancy and breastfeeding the breasts can return to different volumes. Some people return to similar breast shape and volume to what they were before pregnancy, whereas other people become smaller often losing significant amount of volume from the upper part of their breast producing a scalloped appearance.
Many women after they finish child bearing opt to have these changes corrected and these can involve breast uplift or breast implant procedure depending on the desired volume and appearance of the bust.

After the age of 45:
Unfortunately as we age our skin does lose strength and the texture also changes. This increase in elasticity and support offered by the skin, can produce further descent of the nipples after the child bearing years and the breast uplift procedure (mastopexy) can be used to tighten up the skin and elevate the nipples to a more normal position which should lie approximately halfway between your shoulders and your elbows with your arms straight down beside you.

Overall there are many reasons for having breast uplift procedures and if you are considering this treatment it will be worth listening to our free information CD on breast uplift surgery. Our free information CD can be obtained by clicking on this button and includes:
• a discussion of the reasons the breasts change with time
• the different mastopexy techniques and scars
• the pros and cons of each technique
• the likely results following each technique
• the recovery period
• tips to get as good a result as possible
• possible complications of surgery

2011 is the year of the War on Obesity. So the Big Buzz in Cosmetic Surgery is Fat Removal procedures: “We’re talking freezing fat, zapping fat, melting fat away, as well as vacuuming fat from places where it is plentiful (thighs, tummy and love handles)” says Denise Mann (ed. Ceatus Cosmetic Surgery Group).

This comes hot on the heels of news from the World Cancer Research Fund that women are at a particularly high risk of developing cancer if they are overweight or have large waist circumferences. Worryingly, 44% of women (WCRF found) have raised waist measurements, possibly correlating to the rise in newly diagnosed breast and endometrial cancers amongst women.

Men are also at an increased cancer risk if they allow their waistlines to balloon but, statistically, a smaller 32% of men are in this position. This is not because women are greedier than men: research by Slimming World found that having a baby is the most significant cause of weight gain – “perfectly understandable”, but still to be avoided considering the severity of potential consequences.

In December, the Public Health Observatories classed many Brits as dangerously overweight (obese) and found the UK one of the unhealthiest European nations. This is considered thanks to our love of junk food and aversion to exercise!  Anyone with a Body Mass Index over 30 is potentially at risk of damaging their health.

As discussed in the previous blog, many Cosmetic Surgeons advise patients to get their weight down to this level and stabilised before having surgery. However, the good news is there are plenty of weight-loss surgery options available if you would like to further shape up for 2011:

Liposuction and Abdominoplasty (Tummy Tuck) surgery are the most popular cosmetic surgery procedures for individuals with a relatively high BMI. Gynaecomastia (male breast reduction) procedures can provide a great confidence-boost for men carrying surplus weight in this area. And for those who have managed to shed a lot of weight but now have lots of excess skin, Body Lift, Breast Lift (Mastopexy), Thigh Lift, Arm Lift, Face Lift and Flank Reduction surgeries can be a godsend. And if you want to re-shape the contours of your waistline, how about the revolutionary new, less invasive, VASER-Lipo?

At Aurora Clinics, we are proud to offer these fat-fighting surgeries with our great team of highly trained surgeons, including Mr Prashant Govilkar (who specialises in all cosmetic weight loss and body contouring procedures) and Dr Alexandra Chambers, who offers VASER-Lipo. For a free consultation, please call one of our friendly patient co-ordinators on 01844 214 362.

Following significant weight loss, the skin does not naturally recoil to its appearance prior to surgery. This is because the skin has been stretched beyond its natural ability to recoil.

The small collagen fibres within the skin form a structure to help support it.

If these small fibres are stretched this results in the breaking of it and it means they are unable to recoil naturally.

Generally, it is more likely to recoil in youthful thicker skin but less likely to do so in thinner older skin.

Once the fibres are broken they are unable to naturally recoil after a weight loss and the excessive skin will not be taken on naturally in the body.

After weight loss the only real option for reducing the excess skin is to remove the skin by operation.

The type of operation varies according to the area of skin to be treated and can include:

• tummy tuck or body lift procedure for the abdomen
• thigh lift procedure for the thighs
• breast augmentation procedure for the chest
• arm lift procedure for the arms [brachioplasty]
• neck lift procedure for the neck.

I will be discussing in future blogs what’s involved in these procedures but for more information please visit bodyliftsurgery.co.uk which is a specialist website providing information on treatment following weight loss.

 Excess skin in this area is normally located in the front of the tummy. However, unlike pregnancy when the skin of the tummy is mainly stretched in the front as for weight loss the excess skin often extends round the flanks and in some cases to the back.

After weight loss the excess skin in all of these regions can br removed and  the best option is often either an extended abdominal plasty or a body lift procedure.

In an extended abdominal plasty the skin of the flanks is removed together with the excess skin of the front of the tummy.

However, no excess skin is removed from the back or the thighs.

This option would be appropriate for you if the main area of excess skin is in the front of the tummy and the flanks.

If you would have excess in the thighs and back region a better option maybe a body lift procedure.

In this procedure,  excess skin is removed from all around the body including the back resulting in a scar wrapped around the body.

The body lift procedure has the advantage of reaching excess skin in the front of the tummy, flank and also the back and will lead to the best results following weight loss.

In addition it include a thigh lift, elevating the inner aspect of the thighs and the outer aspect of the thighs.

At Aurora clinics we have special surgeons that can concentrate on the body lift surgeon and if you are contemplating this form of treatment I think it would be worth scheduling a consultation with one of our specialist surgeons.

People who have lost a lot amount of weight will often have excess skin in various regions.

The common areas are the tummy, the breast, arm, neck and thighs.

This excess skin in these areas following weight loss is common and the only real way of treating these is by removing the tissue with surgery.

Surgical removal of this tissue is becoming more and more common as the number of people losing this weight either by weight loss surgery or diets such lighter life are becoming more common.

As more surgeries are being performed the results are getting better and better and I will discuss the areas of options for treating excess skin  in each individual area in future blog posts.

Following weight loss, one of the most common areas to develop excess skin is the inner arm regions.

This is manifested by skin which can hang down on the inner arm areas producing arm side cleave bulges.

Unfortunately, this skin will not tone up following exercise as it has been stretched beyond its capacity to recoil naturally.

The best option for this area is often a brachioplasty procedure which is also known as an arm lift operation.

In this procedure the excess skin is removed from the area by surgical excision leaving a scar up which lies up in the inside of the arm and into the armpit region.

The scar is placed so that it lies on the arm against the body so that it is not visible from the behind or in front when you have your arm by your side.

This form of surgery is very effective at reducing excess skin in the arm region.

If you are still in the process of trying to lose weight, why not check out: http://www.calobonga.com/ (Calobonga Calorie Counter). Please note: this site is not affiliated with Aurora Clinics in any way, merely a relevant resource which we thought could be of interest to you to help with your weight loss before cosmetic surgery.

Thigh lifts can either concentrate on the inner thigh region or the outer thigh region.

Thigh lifts are surgical procedures which elevate the thigh tissue producing a more youthful rejuvenated look to the thigh region.

Thigh lifts are often incorporated into body lift procedures.

In a outer thigh lift, skin is removed from the outer hip region which elevates the skin of the outer thigh.

In an inner thigh lift, the scar is concealed in the natural fold of your groin and elevates the skin in the inner thigh region.

These procedures have a similar effect to pulling up the skin of your legs of either side producing a more youthful appearance to the legs.

Both of these procedures can be incorporated in a body lift operation. (www.bodyliftsurgery.co.uk) which is a surgical procedure in which  thigh lifts are incorporated with excision of skin from the front of the tummy,  legs and back.

For people who have lost a significant amount of weight or who have developed lose skin in the thigh region, a thigh lift procedure can be performed and can a be very effective treatment for these regions.

Aurora Clinics has a number of specialists surgeons who have concentrated on this field and they will be delighted to see you for a free consultation to discuss the best way forward for you if you felt this was appropriate.

So here she is actually in theatre, that’s my lower incision, this is all the skin I’m going to remove.  So you can see she’s been so much bigger and there’s so much excess skin.  So I’m going to aim to remove all of this.  Here I am, the first stage is really just to cut around the tummy button so I’m making a mark around the tummy button and then I’ll cut around the tummy button, I’ve shown this on other videos, and leave the tummy button on a stalk there.  There you can see there’s the stalk and the tummy button will have its own blood supply.  So you can see there’s the tummy button on the stalk and I’ll shorten that tummy button to give a nice natural curve to the tummy button area.

So here I am making a lower incision, so I’ll do that with the knife as you can see here.  She’s had spinal anaesthetic so it won’t bleed very much and she’ll have good pain relief.  Here I’ve just elevated that excess skin so you can see that’s all the excess skin I’ve removed and I’m just going to divide it in the middle.  I like to remove the skin in two parts so I’m dividing from that lower incision, right up to the tummy button, remember where there’s a stalk on the tummy button so I’m going to remove right up to there.  In this case, there’s really quite a lot of skin, much more than is usually found in these cases.  So you can see I’m going really right up there to the tummy button, still a bit of a way to go to the tummy button but I’m nearly there now. 

So this is up to the tummy button, this is the skin I’m going to remove, this is how far I’ve elevated the skin and then the skin’s going to be pulled down in this area.  Here you can see from the other angle, that’s the tummy button I’m just holding in my left hand there, I’m going to shorten that.  You can see how big she was by how long the tummy button stalk is.  Here I am just cutting, this is the upper incision here so very careful to keep the midline.  I do everything here cutting down the middle so everything’s going to be nice and accurate and then this is just cleaning up either side.  Then really the next stage is to just remove that excess skin.  So you can see that’s where the tummy button is, I was indicating with my left hand that’s where it’s going to go, that’s the tummy button and that’s going to come through the skin there.

So the next stage is really to bring the tummy button through that hole that I’ve created there and sew it in with absorbable stitches and then to remove the skin.  So in this case, I’m removing approximately 30cm of skin from that area vertically.  So here we go, I’m just going to cut through the skin here, you can see we’re holding it down, this is the skin I’m going to remove.  As I said, 30cm of skin in this case because she’s really lost so much weight and it’s almost as if the skin doesn’t fit her adequately now.  So this is the skin I’ve removed, you can see here, from either side.  In total, I removed almost three kilos from this lady and you can see that’s the skin from the front and I’m going to perform a very similar procedure on the back, removing skin from the back.

So I hope you’ve found this video interesting, if you’d like any information about this type of surgery following weight loss or any other type of treatment, please visit our website or give us a ring on our phone number.  Thank you very much for watching.

Body Lift Interview