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New plastic surgery statistics released 3/31/14 by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) show that breast lift procedures are growing at twice the rate of breast implant surgeries. Since 2000, breast lifts have grown by 70 percent, increasing from 53,000 in 2000 to 90,000 in 2013 vs only a 37% increase in breast augmentation surgery over the same time period. Breast implants are still by far the most performed cosmetic surgery in women, but lifts are steadily gaining. In 2013, 70% of these women were between the ages of 30 and 54.
At a young age the breast skin is taut and elastic and the ligaments holding the breast tissue to the chest wall are short and tight. With aging, exposure to gravity, weight changes and pregnancy the ligaments and skin are stretched and disrupted leading eventually to drooping sagging breasts, especially after breast involution following pregnancy and breast feeding. Surgery to correct this drooping is termed a mastopexy or breast lift and involves surgery on the breast skin and/or deeper breast tissue. The pencil test is a simple way for a woman to assess if breast lift surgery could be beneficial. A pencil is placed under her breast. If the breast tissue holds the pencil in place against the chest that implies that there’s a hanging nature to the breast that may be improved with a lift. In assessing these patients the surgeon needs to know the history of breast sizes with changes in weight or pregnancy, breast measurements (breast volume, amount of breast skin envelope filling, nipple position on the chest, distribution of breast tissue, skin quality and amount, areola size, amount of skin show below the nipple on standing and asymmetry/symmetry).
