Choosing Which Breast Surgery Recovery is Best: Breast Augmentation or Breast Lift

When you are considering any sort of breast surgery, one of the first and foremost things that comes to a woman’s mind is the recovery. Typically, a woman wants to know what she will expect during her recovery including her limitations, guidelines to follow, when she can return to normal activity and how her body will look immediately after surgery.

Discomfort and Pain

Unlike the breast augmentation surgery, the recovery period for a breast lift can be longer. This is because the surgery to lift the breasts is more involved than a breast augmentation surgery. However, the plastic surgeon can prescribe a pain medication to help ease the discomfort associated with both surgeries. Breast augmentation recovery has mild to severe pain level depending upon whether or not the implant was placed above or below the muscle. A woman having breast lift surgery typically only reports mild pains after a breast lift surgery. Both surgeries can cause some nausea as well.

Likewise, swelling is a common byproduct of both surgeries and can vary on the type of surgery. Breast augmentation reports swelling to last anywhere from four days after surgery to two weeks, again depending upon whether the implant was placed above or below the muscle. However most breast surgery patients report swelling to last on average from two to three weeks.

Getting back to a Normal Lifestyle After Breast Augmentation

A patient having breast augmentation can usually return to a normal routine shortly after surgery. Among the activities that can be resumed within a week or two are:

*Work (without heavy lifting)
*Walking
*Light Jogging

This list is similar for breast lift surgery, but there are some slight differences in what constitutes normal activity. Breast lift patients should avoid strenuous activity and therefore should hold off on exercising for about three to four weeks. Breast lift patients will also make more follow up visits to the surgeon after surgery than those having breast augmentation surgery since there is more suturing involved and careful monitoring is needed.

Scarring and Other Issues

One of the benefits to breast augmentation is that the scarring is usually minimal. There are fewer incisions made and most incisions can be hidden. A breast lift, however, can have more extensive scarring that may be difficult to hide depending on the number of incisions that needed to be made and the amount of skin that was tightened.

A woman considering breast lift surgery should also wait until they are finished having children as the results of pregnancy and breastfeeding can cause breast sagging to reoccur. However, the procedure should not interfere with a woman’s ability to breastfeed. Conversely, with breast augmentation there can be a higher rate of insufficient milk supply, which can lead to poor weight gain in infants.

For the first few weeks and possibly even months, women receiving breast augmentation and breast lifts will notice that there is some bruising associated with the surgery. Their breasts will also sit higher and tighter until the breast become accustomed to their new form and settle into a normal position. Women who have breast lift surgery may also notice that there may be a difference in size and shape more than those women who undergo breast augmentation surgery.