Plastic surgery abroad - Latvia

Mastopexy or breast lift surgery is a group of plastic surgical operations designed to lift or change the shape of breasts. Mastopexy operation may involve changing position of the areola and nipple, as well as lifting the breast tissue and removing skin. Mastopexy may be performed alone, or in combination with placement of breast implants; when implants are used, the procedure is usually called breast augmentation.

Looking for perfection

With time women can see skin is not so supple as earlier or having breast tissue has decreased (and replaced with fat). Although breasts shape and skin condition are individual, gravity will make breasts to lose their vitality.

There's no difference for breast lift operations whether breasts are large or small however smaller breasts usually stay firmer longer and large breasts tend to sag more quickly with time. Sun, gravity, loss of care about your breasts makes them sagging.

Sagging breasts are hardly woman wants, but are difficult to avoid. However, you can improve the way appearance of your breasts using correction surgery.

How breast lift surgery works

There are 2 techniques to make a breast lift operation.

Full breast lift

The full breast lift operations consists of:

• an incision along the crease underneath the breast,
• incisions around the areola
• vertical incision between the areola and the base of the breast.

This technique is traditional and is very popular because it produces consistent resulsts with the desired shape and position of the breast on the chest wall. This technique removes excess skin and elevates breast; frequently the size of the areola is reduced. This approach allows maximal change to the breast.

Modified breast lifts

Modified or limited breast lift technique was developed to avoid scarrs and uses fewer incisions. The potential drawback is that there can be less change made to the breast's shape. Modified mastopexies are frequently done together with breast augmentation (with the use of breast implants).

During operation, the nipple with the areola will stay connected with breast tissue, nerves and blood supply, so the breast will not lose sensitivity and breastfeeding possibility is not affected. Yet, it is still important to wait with the breast correction surgery, if you want to have more children and nurse them. Pregnancy will very likely stretch your breasts and create scars again and it will have a negative effect on your results and a new breast lift operation may be necessary.

Before and after breast lift operation

You have to inform clinics about chronic diseases, taking medications and general physical condition before taking the operation.
The surgeon might prohibit:

• taking some medications for a period of time (i.e.aspirin which predisposes hemorrhage)
• smoking (which hinders the healing of wounds and leaves larger and wider scars)
• specific food, and you'll have some dietary requirements.

You will also neet to make a mammogram before the surgery.

It would be more comfortable to find someone, who would take care about you for a couple of days after the surgery. You should also provide yourself with painkillers and the clinic will provide you with the necessary things to take care of your wound and painkillers for the first couple of days. It will probably be uncomfortable and painful to move a few days after the surgery, so your movements should be slow. You should avoid lifting heavy stuff, bending and strenuous activities for about a month, by that time it should be possible to return to your normal activities.

You should wear a supportive bra a few weeks, until the swelling goes down and the wound should be kept dry. The sutures will be removed during three weeks time; absorbable sutures will take at least six weeks. You should not be sexually active for a few weeks, since it may cause painful swellings in your breasts.

Care of your breasts

To keep breasts as firm and supple as possible, one should pay maximum attention to them. There are some periods in a woman's life when breasts need extra care:

• during puberty, when breasts may grow especially fast and there is the danger that your skin is not supple enough to catch up with the breasts
• pregnancy

After reaching the 30+, women's skin tends to become drier and the tissues start to lose their suppleness. Breasts need moisturizing, good support and care.

If your breast muscles are trained and in good shape, the breasts will also remain youthful and firm. A fit muscle makes smaller breasts look bigger and larger breasts more pert. Push-ups and swimming help to keep your breast muscle fit. You can use special lotions to keep your breasts fit and moisturized. Water procedures are easy and effective to make while taking a shower at home.

A right size bra,healthy diet and not smoking will keep shape of your breasts. However considerable weight changes stretch the symphyses, so you should keep your weight stable. Examining your breasts from time to time can help to discover breast cancer in time. Also, women, who belong to the breast cancer risk group, should have routine mammograms.