Seattle Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder, braves the crowds at Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale.
Bra shopping can be an exercise in frustration.
Nordstrom’s Anniversary sale is a great time to buy life’s little necessities, like well made bras at a price that doesn’t totally blow one’s clothing budget. I was recently participating the lingerie department scrum and heard so much grumbling about how hard it was to find bras that comfortably fit the mature and , er, fuller figured woman and how darn expensive these large cup bras were.
Just looking at some of those G cup bras made my back ache and made me wonder if most women who suffer in the fitting room know how much benefit they could obtain from a breast reduction. I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about breast reductions. Reductions are often thought of as a purely unloading procedure rather than a nice shaping and lifting procedure. Also, breast reduction doesn’t get nearly as much media attention as breast imlants do.
I think of breast reduction not as an unloading procedure but as a mission to find the smaller, perkier breast in the overly large and saggy breast. It is really about the closest procedure to sculpting that I perform. Breast reduction is an operation that helps ladies feel and look better and may also make that spent in the fitting room a little less frustrating.
Seattle Plastic Surgeon discusses the limitation of cosmetic breast surgery.
Seattle is a very high tech city and I often have patients requesting breast implants bring in photos they have found on the internet. Internet photos can be very helpful IF the woman on the internet is in the same ball park as the patient in my exam room as far as age, height, weight, breast shape, breast size, nipple position, nipple size, skin elasticity and rib cage anatomy. Finding your breast doppelganger on the internet can be a very, very time consuming task.
Several years ago I had a 50 something lady bring in a Playboy centerfold as her desired look. That consultation required a rather difficult conversation about what plastic surgery can and cannot do and also the fine art of photographic lighting and airbrushing.
So click away on those before and after photos but keep in mind that what you end up with has a lot to do with what you and I start with!
One thing that is easy to find on the Internet are examples of what a patient does not want. Those photos are very, very valuable and help determine if the patient and I are “on the same page”.
The industrial strengh bra, not a great look for a teenager
Seattle Plastic Surgeon Discusses Teenage Breast Reduction
I received an email last week from a mother who was wondering if her 14 year old daughter could possibly be considered for a breast reduction. Her daughter is a dancer and has a really tough time with her large breasts. They cause her discomfort – both physical and mental.
My age spread for breast reduction is 14 – 68 years of age. That’s the biggest age spread for any of the many procedures I perform.
Almost all the teenagers who have had breast reduction were athletes or dancers. They all felt that they had stopped growing and had reached their full breast size. They all were embarrassed about the attention they received from guys because of their breasts.
I’ve been in practice almost 20 years so I’ve had the pleasure of seeing some of my young patients years and years after their surgery and none of them have regretted it for one minute.
There are a couple of downsides to having a reduction at a young age. Women who have had a reduction will not likely be able to breast feed a baby and younger women tend to have more obvious scars than older women. Also, with time and pregnancy, the reduced breast may have a change in size and/or shape over the years. I have done a handful of “re-dos” on women who had reductions decades ago.
The ideal time for a reduction is after a woman is done with childbearing. That being said, I think that certain really, really over endowed young ladies are very well served by this surgery. As with all procedures, it comes down to patient motivation and expectation and a good understanding of the risks and benefits involved. And many young women are emotionally mature enough to make the decision, especially if they have a good and open relationship with their mothers.
Seattle Plastic Surgeon Discusses the Wide Variety of Breast Size and Shape.
I saw a patient recently that brought this cartoon to mind. She was requesting breast surgery and knew just what she wanted to look like; like a playboy centerfold. The problem was that she was over 50, a little overweight, and a lot saggy. I had to tell her in the nicest possible way that there was no way I could make her look 20 something, nulliparous (meaning not having given birth), naturally gorgeous and, to top it off, airbrushed! We plastic surgeons call this “deflation of expectations”. I have a jillion before and after photos of patients I have operated on and I arrange them by age and by body mass index. When I see a patient for surgery, I show them examples of patients who resemble them, not some idealized nymph. If I don’t do this little reality check, I can be assured that the patient will be unhappy with their outcome and unhappy with me and behind every unhappy plastic surgery patient is an unhappy plastic surgeon.
Seattle Plastic Surgeon discusses her very favorite operation.
“Dr. Sowder, what is you favorite procedure?” That is a question patients frequently asked. The answer, hands down, is breast lift a.k.a. mastopexy. I really love doing breast lifts because the patients get a lot of benefit for little risk and very minimal pain and suffering and for most patients, it’s affordable.
I often see ladies who think they need implants but really they just a little boost to improve the position of the nipple, decrease the diameter of the areola (it makes the breast look bigger) and tighten the skin and raise the breast mound.
After all the healing is done, the breasts look a little bigger and oh so perky. And there is no implant to maintain.
Implants are great for ladies who are really small busty but lots of ladies are plenty big but they just don’t realize it.
I also love the breast lift patients. They are usually middle aged moms who are so happy to get a few days off from family demands in addition to their new look. It’s a win, win, win.
@lisalynnsowder
