A breast reduction or reduction mammoplasty removes excess tissue and/or skin and tightens the surrounding tissue to reshape and support the new breast contour. With a reduction, shape improves and the cup size is decreased for a more desirable profile. This will eliminate uncomfortable back pain, improve posture, and allow you to move more freely.

When your neck and back hurt, it reduces your quality of life. When you are in pain, your movements are limited, your posture is slumped, and you generally do not feel well. Women with large breasts experience this on a daily basis. Some women, through no fault of their own, cannot correct this issue with diet and exercise alone. If you experience the following symptoms from large, heavy breasts, you may be an ideal candidate for breast reduction surgery:

Irritation and rashes on the skin underneath the bra
Diet and exercise unsuccessfully decreasing the size of the breasts
Disproportionate breasts to the body frame
Weight of the breasts causes pain in the neck, shoulders, and back
Bra straps grooves in the shoulders
Limitations on activity because of the size of the breasts
Poor posture

The cause varies but is generally associated with genetic pre-disposition, hormone fluctuation (e.g. puberty, pregnancy, or menopause), or marked weight variation.

Breast Reduction is a surgical method of size reduction of the breasts, relieving the weight burden, and usually producing an improvement in breast shape.

While this surgery can be performed at any age, most doctors recommend their patients to wait until they are at least 18 years old, a stage in which their breasts are fully developed. Most experts also advise women to postpone breast reduction if they are considering having children in the future since their ability to breastfeed may be compromised.

Because breast reduction is relatively extensive, Dr. Smiley often performs this under general which can put a patient to sleep during the entire operation. However, the surgery is typically conducted in an outpatient basis which means that a woman can return home on the same day of the procedure.

Dr. Smiley uses different incision patterns and techniques in order to achieve the most desired outcome. But for women with excessively large breasts, the most ideal is the standard approach which involves an anchor-shaped incision—one around the perimeter of the areola, another cut that travels vertically from the nipple down to the breast crease, and a third one that horizontally covers the crease.

In some cases, the horizontal incision is removed particularly when only a small amount of tissue and skin is removed from the bust.

Once the incisions are made, the extra tissue, fats, and skin are excised in order to reduce the size of each breast.

In many cases, the nipple and areola remain to their original position. However, when treating women with inordinately large, heavy breasts, Dr. Smiley will have to remove and reattach this area to a higher position in order to achieve a more natural result. And if needed, the sized of an enlarged areola is also reduced.

One major downside of detaching the areola and nipple from their original nerves and blood vessels may result to reduced or permanent loss of sensation. In some cases, this procedure may also lead to a woman’s inability to breastfeed.

After a breast reduction surgery, the incisions are closed with tiny sutures and the chest is then covered with an elastic bandage or gauze dressing.

Mastopexy or Breast Lift is a similar but distinct technique, designed to cosmetically restore a youthful breast shape and tissue firmness, but not remove any breast tissue.