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Visitors' Stories -- Lowering the Areola - A reverse crescent lift "In January 1999 I had a breast augmentation to replace the breast tissue lost from breast feeding two children as well as give me the breasts I had always wanted. I received McGahn 330 ccs, smooth, round saline implants placed under the muscle. Despite my skin below the aerola stretching more than anticipated (and thus causing my nipples to sit high on the breast mound) I was really happy with my implants. They were (and still are) very soft and natural feeling and I pondered whether or not to mess with a redo. My original PS was not very helpful. For whatever reason, he did not want to acknowledge that my nipples sat too high, then when he did he tried to convince me that a redo was not worth the risk. After much consideration, I decided to consult with new surgeons about my options. The first option was to go thru the original crease incision, raise the implant and close the pocket with permanent sutures. This is the standard fix for "bottoming out," a condition where the crease fails and the implant falls below the intended pocket. For several reasons, I did not believe this was a good resolution to my situation. First, the procedure would raise my implants and I felt they were in a natural position. Second, my scar was still in my crease, indicating that it did not fail, but that my skin below the aerola had simply stretched too far. And, third, the procedure was over $4,000 and was not guaranteed to prevent my skin from stretching again thus solving nothing. I had almost given up hope when I met with a wonderful surgeon right here in my home town, Boulder, Colorado. I don't know how I had overlooked him in the search for a PS for my oringal BA! He agreed for the same reasons for not wanting to raise the implants and offered a new option that he called an aerola bilateral lowering. If you are familiar with a crescent lift, it is basically the reverse. An incision is made along the lower outside edge of the aerola, skin is removed directly below this incision, and the aerola is reattached with dissolvable sutures. My PS thought he could move the aerolas down only approximately 1/2" in a single procedure by stretching the aerola down and pulling some of the lower breast sag. This would not be enough to fully center my nipples on the breast mound, but it may be enough to live with or I could go back for a second, even third procedure if necessary. Additionally, he assured me that I would not loose the slight ptosis (the sag w! hi! ch hides the crease scars and gives a more natural look) and he would not make it any worse. For $1000 total fee, I felt it was worth trying. Immediately post-op, I was very pleased with the results. My nipples were no longer pointing to the sky, seemed to be lower and I still had my sag. And, I felt pretty good. At 4-mos post-op, I am absolutely happy with the results. The scars are very minimal and healing well. I must admit that originally I was feeling like the change was not as much as I had hoped for. But, then I uploaded my 4-mos pictures and was stunned! The breast shape has remained pretty much the same since the redo and the nipples are still pointing mostly forward. It was a real wake up call to me on just how overly-critical I have been. Looking back to the original pre-BA photos through the redo, I must say the transformation is 1000x better than what I began with. For that I am very grateful. Overall, I feel like the redo procedure was successful in what the PS said it would do. Although he could do additional procedures, I think I am happy with them at this point. I feel an additional procedure would most likely over-enlarge the aerola too much and then the nipples themselves would be awkwardly placed too high. Well, if it isn't one thing... An interesting thing is a change that I noticed with a pesky little hair I plucked every month from my right nipple. Normally it grows in on the side of the aerola, but the last two times it has appeared towards the top! While the majority of change resulting from this procedure has occurred from the aerolas being stretched downward and some of the lower breast sag removed, the top of the aerola did moved down slightly. I don't think I could of asked for more."
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