Serving Knoxville, Sevierville, Knox County & Nearby Areas of Tennessee
Over time, factors such as pregnancy, breastfeeding, weight fluctuations, gravity and the aging process will cause your breasts to undergo some changes. One of the more common changes experienced by many women is sagging. If you’d like to correct this sagging and restore a perkier, more youthful breast appearance, then a breast lift may be a great option for you.
Dr. Dean Kleto has been performing breast lifts for women in the Knoxville area for more than 25 years. He has extensive experience performing these procedures, and he will work closely with you to devise the right plan to achieve your unique aesthetic goals.
You can find out whether a breast lift is right for you and receive individualized treatment recommendations by speaking with Dr. Kleto in person. Please call 865.524.2442 today to schedule a consultation.
Am I a Candidate for a Breast Lift?
Ideal breast lift candidates would like to improve one or more of the following issues:
- Sagging breasts
- Flattened or elongated breast appearance
- Nipples falling below the breast crease
If you are considering having more children, you should discuss these plans with Dr. Kleto during your consultation. A breast lift will not interfere with your pregnancy, but the changes that occur during pregnancy may negatively impact the results of your breast lift and potentially cause additional sagging. For these reasons, Dr. Kleto typically recommends waiting until after you’re done having children to undergo a breast lift.
In addition, if you are a smoker, you must be willing to quit prior to your breast lift and throughout the recovery process. Smoking can potentially have a negative impact on healing and your overall results.
Your Breast Lift Procedure
During your consultation, Dr. Kleto will carefully evaluate the appearance of your breasts. Based on the amount of sagging, your current nipple position, your skin quality and skin elasticity, he will devise a customized procedure to address your unique needs and goals.
Dr. Kleto uses three different incision options for a breast lift. He’ll recommend one of the following based on your individual needs:
- Periareolar – Incision is made around your entire areola
- Lollipop – Incision will go around your areola and vertically down to your breast crease
- Anchor – This incision is identical to the lollipop incision, but it also contains an additional incision along the breast crease
Once the incision has been made, Dr. Kleto will restore a more youthful breast appearance by:
- Removing excess skin
- Tightening the remaining skin
- Reshaping the skin and breast mound
- Repositioning the nipple and areola to bring them into perfect alignment with your newly firmed breast
Recovery after a breast lift generally takes 1-2 weeks, and you should be able to return to work about a week after surgery. However, it may be as long as a month before you can resume all activities, including strenuous exercise.
You can learn more about your procedure by reading our Questions about Breast Lifts page.
Breast Augmentation with a Breast Lift
In some instances, Dr. Kleto will perform breast augmentation in conjunction with a breast lift for more effective results. This is an excellent option if you want to increase the size of your breasts or restore lost breast volume in addition to correcting sagging issues. Breast augmentation is also effective if you’re looking to improve breast asymmetry.
Dr. Kleto will look at your body as a whole. Enhancing one area will ultimately impact the appearance of other regions of your body. With this in mind, he will suggest the best procedure or combination of procedures to provide you with the beautiful, natural looking results you desire.
The mastopexy procedure typically takes between 1-3 hours to complete depending on the exact steps planned. This duration doesn’t include the time to check in and prep for surgery, and the time to recover after you awaken from surgery.
A breast lift is often completed under general anesthesia, in which the patient is basically “sleeping” for the duration of the procedure. Their consciousness is lowered to a sleeplike state in which they don’t feel the procedure being performed. In certain cases, local anesthetic along with oral sedation may be an option. You’ll discuss your anesthesia options with Dr. Kleto during your one-on-one consultation. He will make sure that you are comfortable with the final anesthesia choice and that you know what to expect.
A breast lift is very beneficial to women interested in rejuvenating their busts. Some of the benefits include:
- Elimination of breast sagging and elongation
- Firmer, rounder, shapelier breasts raised higher on the chest
- Reduced areolas, if the areolas have become stretched out and enlarged
- Nipples that are perkier and no longer pointing downward
While these are the overall benefits of a breast lift, we look forward to helping you decide if it’s right for you. Each person has different goals when they come in to ask Dr. Kleto about breast lift surgery. We want to make sure that the results will align with your goals and expectations.
You will notice somewhat of an immediate difference, although the results will at first be obscured by swelling and post-surgical healing. Over the next 2-3 weeks, a lot of swelling will dissipate and you will start to see your final results. Take note that it can take a few months for swelling to completely subside and for the breasts to settle into their final position.
Like all surgical procedures, a breast lift does carry the possibility of certain complications. Dr. Kleto is an experienced, skilled plastic surgeon who has been performing breast lifts and other breast surgeries for decades. He does everything he can to prevent risks and produce beautiful results. The first step in reducing risks is making sure you are a good candidate for surgery. He will carefully review your medical history and ask you questions about your goals, allergies, medical conditions, etc. He recommends surgery only if he knows you are a candidate for it.
Some of the potential risks associated with a breast lift include:
- Asymmetrical results
- Bleeding
- Infection
- Poor wound healing
- Scarring
- Allergic reaction
Many people are nervous about these risks, which is completely normal. It’s important to understand the risks that are possible as part of making informed consent to surgery. Dr. Kleto can discuss with you the rate of different complications and what specific steps he takes to ensure beautiful results and reduce the possibility of adverse events.
The shape of the scars depends on the incisions used. There are different incisions based on how much tissue needs to be removed and reshaped. The scar may be made right at the perimeter of the areola, where it will be well hidden. It may also extend down the front of the breast, and may further extend horizontally along the crease between the breast and the chest. In all cases, Dr. Kleto makes the incisions as small as possible. We also provide you with detailed aftercare information to promote proper scar healing. Over time, the scars should fade significantly and become much less noticeable.
Contact our Knoxville Plastic Surgeon in Breast Lift!
Please contact Dr. Dean Kleto using the form on this page or call 865.524.2442 today to schedule your breast lift consultation. We serve patients in Knoxville, Sevierville and throughout Knox County, Tennessee.