Known in the medical world as mastopexy, breast lift surgery is a purely cosmetic operation designed to counter the gravitational drooping of the breast known as ptosis. This effect usually increases with age. Surgery therefore aims to return the breast to its original position, a procedure which can sometimes include the use of an implant in order to increase the size of the breast, otherwise known as a breast augmentation.

Procedure information
Breast lifts can come in numerous shapes and means. Generally they aim to manipulate the skin and connective tissue around the breast. A full breast lift requires an incision following the crease underneath, around the outside of the nipple or the areola and a final incision connecting the two down the middle of the underside of the breast. This allows the nipple to be raised and the cone of the full breast can be manipulated at the sane time.

A simpler operation known as the Benelli lift, or concentric mastopexy, involves just one incision around the areola, but results are less dramatic given that the full breast and its shape is manipulated to a lesser degree.

Recovery time
A full breast lift almost always requires a longer recuperation period than modified breast lifts, mostly because of the greater number of incisions and the fact that the breast tissue is manipulated more, meaning that soreness and swelling is more pronounced.

Generally a patient will be able to return to an everyday routine in less than a week following a partial lift, compared to about double that time for a full breast lift. The latter also incurs greater scarring than a concentric mastopexy although its long-term benefits in terms of correcting the original ptosis are almost always greater.