I breast lift (mastopexy) is often combined at the time of an explant procedure. It is done for three main reasons:

  1. The nipple position is too low – The nipple can be too low on the breast mound for several reasons. It could be due to natural aging and sagging, breast feeding, or weight changes. A grade of sagging (or ptosis) is determined by measuring where the nipple position is in regard to the inferior fold of the breast (inferior mammary fold). If the nipple is too low a breast lift will help raise it to be more central on the breast mound.
  2. The areola is too wide – The areola is the pigmented skin around the nipple. Over time due to breast feeding or stretching of the skin the areolar skin can stretch out. A breast lift will resize the areolar to a smaller, more proportion size.
  3. There is excess skin at the bottom of the breast – Sometimes, the nipple might be in a normal position on the breast, but the breast tissue itself has sagged significantly below the fold of the breast. This causes the breast to appear droopy. During the breast lift procedure, the skin at the bottom of the breast is removed and the breast tissue at the bottom is repositioned and pushed higher to fill the breast.

If one of the above criteria isn’t met, then a breast lift might not be advisable.

What is an auto augmentation mastopexy (breast lift)?

An auto augmentation breast lift is when the skin is removed from the lower pole of the breast. No breast tissue is removed. The breast tissue that remains at the bottom part of the breast is folded on itself and pushed higher in the breast to fill the breast as much as possible. This allows Dr. Rai to use all the breast tissue possible to fill the breast as maximally as possible. Dr. Rai performs this auto augmentation mastopexies for all explant with lift surgeries. But those patients with more natural breast volume will have a more dramatic result than those that have a small amount of breast tissue.