Plastic Surgery Options to Correct Breast Symmetry
For women who cannot easily hide their unevenly shaped breasts behind clothing, special bras, or even prostheses, a more permanent solution is available via corrective surgery. Asymmetrical breasts cause self-consciousness, insecurities, and overall dissatisfaction with your body, both in and out of clothing.
At North Raleigh Plastic Surgery, our board-certified Raleigh plastic surgeon wants you to know that you have options as an alternative to hiding behind baggy tops or stressing over the uneven shape of your breasts – we’ve put together a guide to the best procedures that improve breast symmetry so that you can feel comfortable in your own body, just like you deserve.
What Causes Asymmetrical Breasts?
Most women’s breasts are not perfectly symmetrical. In fact, having two breasts the exact same size, shape, and placement, with perfectly symmetrical nipples, is much rarer than it is to have asymmetrical breasts. However, while a majority of women have slight differences from one breast to another, some women suffer from more noticeable breast asymmetry that they may want to fix through a breast surgery procedure.
So, what exactly causes breasts to be different sizes? Breasts can be shaped differently as a result of:
Normal anatomic variations: Just like our legs, ears, or eyebrows might not perfectly mirror one another- when our bodies have two of something it is possible for them to differ slightly.
Changes in hormones: During puberty as hormones change, breasts may naturally grow at a different rate than each other.
Traumatic injuries: Women who experience trauma to their chest region from accidents, sports injuries, burns, abuse, or mutilation.
Medical or skeletal conditions: Some conditions like Juvenile Hypertrophy cause the breast tissue to grow rapidly or at different rates from one another, often leading to asymmetry.
Deformities: Chest deformities can lead to differences in the size, shape, and projection of the breasts.
Scoliosis: A curved spine can cause the rib cage to expand on one side of the body and not the other, which can lead to the appearance of uneven breasts.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding: A woman’s body undergoes many changes throughout pregnancy, and particularly the breasts are affected while breastfeeding. Sometimes, this can cause long-term or permanent cosmetic differences from one breast to another.
Breast cancer surgery: For women who have had one breast removed as a result of combating breast cancer, the mastectomy procedure leaves them with the challenge of living with uneven breasts.
Former breast augmentation failures: Women who had prior breast augmentation surgery that gave them undesirable results may suffer from asymmetry.
Whatever the cause of your breast asymmetry, there are many procedures you may consider to help restore confidence in your body.
Procedures to Improve the Symmetry of Your Breasts
If you are unhappy with the shape, size, or positioning of your uneven breasts, you are not alone. Many women suffer from feelings of insecurity and dislike for their bodies due to asymmetrical breasts. The good news is that Dr. Ortiz, our Raleigh, NC board-certified plastic surgeon has performed numerous surgeries to improve the symmetry of breasts in order to help women become happy with their bodies.
Breast Reduction
For women with breasts of different sizes, breast reduction surgery is a good choice to improve symmetry. The surgeon can match the size of the larger breast to the smaller one, removing fat and tissue from one breast to be the same size as the already smaller one.
A breast reduction is the perfect symmetry solution for women whose main complaint is the difference in size from one breast to the other, but who would be happy with the size and shape of their already smaller breast.
Breast Augmentation
Using silicone or saline implants, breast augmentation surgery increases the volume and changes the shape of the breasts, resulting in a dramatic improvement in the symmetry of the breasts.
If you are happy with the size of your larger breast, an implant can be used to make the smaller-sized breast the same size. Alternatively, the shape, size, and volume of both breasts can be evened out by the use of different-sized implants.
Breast Lift
All breast asymmetry issues do not necessarily have to focus on the shape of the breast. Sometimes, a woman’s breasts may be the same size in appearance, but they lack symmetry because one breast sags more than another, or one breast leans in a different position than the other.
In cases where breasts are asymmetrical because of shrinkage from breastfeeding, uneven sagging or leaning from aging or weight loss, or differences in breast positioning, a breast lift is the ideal surgical choice. Breast lifts can create a youthful, rejuvenated look that places both breasts in the same position and facing direction without changing the overall size or shape of the breasts.
Fat Grafting
For slight cosmetic differences between the two breasts, fat grafting can be used as a part of your breast asymmetry corrective surgery. During a fat graft, fat is removed from one location in your body, usually the buttocks, hips, or stomach, and injected into another place in your body- in this case, the breasts. Your surgeon will carefully inject the fat into places in the breasts to create an even, symmetrical appearance. Fat grafting is only an option for candidates with very minor differences from one breast to another.
Nipple Reconstruction or Replacement
For women whose breasts appear to be the same size, but the nipples are different sizes or placed in asymmetrical locations on the breast, a nipple reconstructive surgery can be performed. There are a variety of techniques that can be used depending on your breasts and nipples, but some patients benefit from having a nipple reduction procedure in cases where the sizes of each nipple are different. Other patients may find that nipple reshaping is a good solution for inverted nipples or nipples that fall in different positions on the body.
Schedule a Breast Augmentation Consultation with Our Board-Certified Raleigh Plastic Surgeon
Do you have asymmetrical breasts and want to find a solution so that you can love your body like you deserve to? Our Raleigh board-certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Ortiz, has performed many breast augmentation corrective procedures to create symmetry in breasts. We understand how having uneven breasts can affect your self-esteem, confidence, and overall happiness.
If you have questions or want to explore the possibilities of improving the symmetry in your breasts, call us today at 919-532-2270 to make an appointment for a breast augmentation consultation, or fill out the form below to get started.
