Breast Reconstruction Enhancement
in Pacific Palisades, CA
Breast Reconstruction Procedure
There are many things in life we can’t control, but if you have lost breast tissue in an automobile or other accident or from a mastectomy, you can get that confidence back with breast reconstruction. For many people, this is a crucial part of starting life anew after a traumatic experience.
How can breast reconstruction impact your life?
It’s not unusual for women who have undergone a mastectomy to feel a sense of incompleteness or to miss their body’s former state. Not only that, but mastectomy scars can be an unwelcome reminder of a very difficult time in a woman’s life. Moving on from the painful experience of breast cancer can be helped along by breast reconstruction.
Breast reconstruction procedures have come a long way, which means you have a lot of options and should consider them all going forward. In consulting with your surgeon at Pacific Palisades Plastic Surgery, it’s beneficial to be open about your hopes and desires with regard to your breast reconstruction surgery so our surgeons can provide you with the best possible results.
You shouldn’t have to feel like breast cancer has ended a part of your life. Rather, recovery from cancer ought to spark a new beginning.
What is Breast Reconstruction?
Because breast reconstruction is a more extensive process than other surgical procedures involving the breasts, the surgery is usually completed in more than one stage. That way, your body will have plenty of time to heal and adapt to the changes it’s undergoing. Furthermore, moving through this process slowly is a good way to make sure you are pleased with the final result.
We think it’s important for women to be able to decide when they are ready for breast reconstruction, whether it’s during their mastectomy, shortly after it, or even months or years later. This choice should be based on your knowledge of your own physical and emotional well-being, since it can be taxing to endure two major surgeries in a short period of time.
Our focus a Pacific Palisades Plastic Surgery when working with patients who need breast reconstruction is on providing every patient with the care and compassion necessary in a time that can be very emotionally and physically trying. We will care for you in a way that is specific to your personal needs and desires. You should not feel pressured to undergo surgery at the “right time,” and there is no one-size-fits-all procedure for breast reconstruction.
What are your options?
You have several options for how to proceed, including procedures that use implants containing saline or silicone and procedures that use tissues from your body to create new breasts.
Implants can increase the size of your breasts and be tailored to your desired size and shape. Other types of procedures, such as flap reconstruction, use excess skin and fat from other parts of your body — such as the back, chest, stomach, and rear — to sculpt a new, natural-looking bust. Techniques including DIEP and SGAP create stunning results.
In situations where a patient does not have enough excess tissue to re-form the breasts or does not wish to take such significant measures toward reconstruction, another great option is tissue expansion.
During this process, a surgeon will place temporary, expandable implants in your chest where your future, permanent breast implants will be placed. Over a period of months, these temporary implants will be slowly filled with a substance that will expand the surrounding tissue. Once the breast tissue has expanded to a size with which you are comfortable, your surgeon will replace the temporary implants with permanent ones, forming your ideal breasts.
What will recovery look like?
Because breast reconstruction is a complex surgery, the body will need time to recover. Swelling, lack of sensation, and marks from surgical incisions will slowly fade over time. If you are interested in this procedure, we will schedule you a consultation with our highly skilled surgical experts, who will take your desires and expectations into account and help you plan a procedure that’s right for you.