If you are unhappy with your appearance and experience physical discomfort as a result of large, heavy breasts, then you may be a good candidate for breast reduction. This procedure takes the excess heft away and restores your ability to move freely and live fully. To learn more about it, please call the practice of board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Ronald Schuster at 410-902-9800.
On this page, we discuss:
- How Large, Heavy Breasts May Affect Your Lifestyle and Self-Esteem
- Breast Reduction Before And After
- What To Expect From Breast Reduction
- What About Insurance Coverage for Breast Reduction?
- Breast Reduction Recovery
- Combining Breast Reduction with Other Procedures
- Consult Dr. Schuster For Breast Reduction in Lutherville-Timonium!
How Large, Heavy Breasts May Affect Your Lifestyle and Self-Esteem
Known clinically as reconstructive mammaplasty, breast reduction involves the removal of tissue and skin to reduce the size of large breasts and otherwise improve their overall shape and/or position. It can alleviate a large number of problematic issues that go hand in hand with having breasts that are too big and/or too heavy.
Patients undergo breast reduction for many reasons related to breast size but also to improve their overall comfort and appearance. Reasons for a breast reduction may include:
Physical discomfort: The awkwardness and weight of large breasts can cause discomfort in many ways and often become debilitating enough to significantly affect your daily life activities.
Chafing and rubbing: As skin rubs against skin and clothing, the subtle friction can cause chafing and painful skin conditions. Extremely large breasts can create skin folds that can greatly aggravate these conditions.
Back, shoulder, and neck aches: Carrying extra weight in the upper torso can put tremendous strain on the body when standing or walking upright. Over time, this strain can produce chronic pain in the back, shoulders, and neck.
Redness, irritation, or grooves where bra straps dig into your shoulders: While wearing a good brassiere can reduce the severity of back, shoulder, and neck aches, the weight of extremely heavy breasts can cause its straps to dig uncomfortably into your shoulders. If you wear your bra regularly, this digging can begin to damage your skin.
Difficulty maintaining good posture: Due to the strain they put on your body when you are standing upright, overly large breasts can begin to bend your back and give you a stooped posture.
Discomfort when exercising, running, and generally being active: From placing you off-balance to causing significant pain, large breasts can certainly get in the way when it comes to exercising and living an active life.
Difficulty finding tops and dresses that fit your bust and look flattering: You should never underestimate the power of healthy self-esteem and the many benefits that go along with it.
Large breasts often run in the family. If your grandmother, mother, sisters, and aunts are large-chested, you may have that same predisposition. On the other hand, some women develop these breast characteristics after they’ve been pregnant and breastfed or are overweight.
Good candidates for reduction mammaplasty are in good general health and have realistic expectations of what the procedure can achieve. While reduction can address some degree of unevenness and asymmetry between the breasts, it’s normal for some amount to remain. No breasts are exactly identical to one another.
A consultation is necessary to determine if this procedure is appropriate. Dr. Schuster will listen to your concerns and perform an exam of the treatment area. For some women, options like weight loss or liposuction may serve as an alternative to breast reduction. More often, they may be utilized as a companion to the procedure. In fact, some women are advised to lose weight before undergoing the procedure so that their breast size can be brought as close to ideal through weight loss before surgical reduction. Weight loss and liposuction do not tighten the skin the way that this procedure does, however.
Breast Reduction Before And After
What To Expect From Breast Reduction
Like all breast procedures, reduction mammaplasty does leave visible scars. Dr. Schuster makes every effort to hide scars in natural creases when possible. You can get an idea of what the resulting scars look like by visiting our before-and-after gallery.
Breast reduction cannot correct generalized obesity or remove stretch marks on the breasts. It won’t eliminate back, neck or shoulder pain that is caused by arthritis. It will create breasts that are lighter, shapelier and in proportion to the rest of your body.
“What About Insurance Coverage for Breast Reduction?”
Health insurance often covers breast reduction. Usually it depends on whether the procedure is deemed medically necessary by your policy. Pre-authorization will be obtained by the staff before proceeding with the procedure. That way you will know exactly what you can expect to pay or not pay when you opt for breast reduction.
Dr. Schuster believes every woman unhappy with having large, heavy breasts deserves to have breast reduction if they want it. We make sure you know what it will cost, and what payment and financing options are available to you.
Breast Reduction Recovery
Breast reduction is an outpatient procedure, which means you will go home the same day, once Dr. Schuster has made sure you are ready to leave. You will have pre-arranged for someone to bring you to surgery, drive you home and stay with you for 24 hours after surgery (often a spouse or family member).
Take time to rest when you get home, but get up to walk around intermittently. We provide complete instructions for how to shower, how to care for the treatment area and what to eat as you recover from surgery.
Breast reduction results are long-lasting. You can expect to see breast changes as a normal part of getting older, and your breasts may enlarge or sag again if you get pregnant and breastfeed; however, the overall lighter, shapely results of the procedure will persist through the years.
Breast Reduction Before And After
Combining Breast Reduction with Other Procedures
Surgeons commonly combine breast reductions with other cosmetic procedures when a patient needs it. In addition to reducing breast size, surgeons may also reshape and lift the breasts during the breast reduction procedure. A study in the clinical journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery-Global Open showed that adding breast implantation to a breast reduction causes no increase in overall recovery time.
Breast cancer patients in need of a lumpectomy can pursue an oncoplastic breast reduction. This procedure removes cancerous tumors and reduces breast size simultaneously.
In truth, breast reduction surgery can be combined with a number of other procedures, cosmetic and otherwise. If you have multiple concerns to address, combining procedures can save you considerable amounts of time, money, hassle, and pain.
Consult Dr. Schuster For Breast Reduction in Lutherville-Timonium!
Your next step is to consult experienced, caring and board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Ronald Schuster. To arrange your breast reduction consultation at our Baltimore practice, please call us at 410-902-9800, or contact us online.
INSURANCE USUALLY COVERS BREAST REDUCTION. PRE-AUTHORIZATION WILL BE OBTAINED BY THE STAFF AT OUR BALTIMORE CENTER BEFORE PROCEEDING WITH BREAST REDUCTION SURGERY.
*Individual results may vary
