Tyler Plastic Surgery

While women with naturally small breasts often seek breast augmentation surgery to increase their breast size, women with overly large, pendulous breasts wishing to decrease their breast size may opt to undergo breast reduction surgery, or reduction mammaplasty.

About Breast Reduction

• The Best Breast Reduction Candidates
• Breast Reduction Surgery
• Breast Reduction Scars
• After Breast Reduction

The Best Breast Reduction Candidates

The best breast reduction candidates are adult women whose breasts are fully developed. In severe cases, or in instances where significant breast asymmetry is present, breast reduction surgery may be performed on teens, although this is not generally recommended.

Patients who decide to have a breast reduction are usually not only unhappy with the large size of one or both breasts, they also experience back, neck and shoulder pain in addition to embarrassment and emotional anguish as a result of their heavy, overgrown breasts.

Breast reduction surgery is the only safe, effective way to decrease breast size, and non-surgical or natural breast reduction methods like breast reduction pills and creams are not only a waste of time and money but may also pose a health risk.

For men who wish to get rid of man boobs or decrease enlarged male breasts, a male breast reduction or gynecomastia surgery may be recommended.

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Breast Reduction Surgery

A breast reduction typically involves removing fat, skin and glandular breast tissue and occasionally is combined with liposuction in the chest area. The procedure is generally performed under local anesthesia with sedation or general anesthesia and lasts about 2-4 hours.

In addition to decreasing the overall size of one or both breasts and improving breast firmness and shape, breast reduction surgery may also involve a breast lift to improve breast positioning on the chest wall and an areola reduction to decrease the amount of dark skin surrounding each nipple.

The cost of breast reduction is often covered by insurance, particularly in cases where very large breasts are causing your bra straps to groove into your shoulders and resulting in significant upper body pain.

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Breast Reduction Scars

The incisions for breast reduction surgery are made in a lollipop pattern around each areola and extending vertically down the bottom of the breast to the breast fold. In the most severe cases, another incision may be made along the breast fold, resulting in an incision pattern that resembles an anchor or inverted-T.

Lollipop incision

Inverted-T incision

Although scars are an inevitable part of breast reduction surgery, following proper aftercare instructions can help you minimize breast reduction scars. Don’t smoke, avoid the sun while your scars heal and use ointment or silicone sheeting as directed after breast reduction surgery.

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After Breast Reduction

The recovery period after breast reduction is usually around 1-2 weeks, after which time most normal activities may be resumed and discomfort, bruising and swelling that has occurred as a result of surgery disappears. Most patients return to work in 3-4 days, however arm movements should be limited for at least a week. Strenuous activity, including exercising and heavy lifting (more than 25 lbs.) may be resumed after about 3-4 weeks following breast reduction.

You will generally need to wear a surgical bra for a portion of your breast reduction recovery period (about one month), and it is important for you to follow all post-operative care instructions and keep all follow-up appointments with Dr. Motlagh, so he can monitor your recovery.

Tyler Plastic Surgery serves breast reduction patients in northeastern Texas, including Tyler, Dallas, Plano and Fort Worth, as well as breast reduction patients in Shreveport, Louisiana.

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