Your Guide to Breast Surgery in Portland

One of the most popular types of cosmetic and plastic surgery, breast surgery can involve many different techniques and goals – including augmentation, reduction, or lift, or a replacement or removal of implants. If you’re considering breast surgery, then you have many different options. As you schedule a consultation with your board-certified plastic surgeon, it can be helpful to learn more about breast surgery and what to expect. Here’s a quick guide to breast surgery with Dr. Fichadia.

Am I a Good Candidate for Breast Surgery?

Determining whether you’re a good candidate for breast surgery is your first step. With the help of your plastic surgeon, you should consider factors like your overall health, your goals, your reproductive status, and your expectations for surgery. Since breast surgery can require downtime, it’s important to have a schedule that can accommodate you taking time to rest for 1-2 weeks.

How Do I Choose My Surgeon?

Since plastic and cosmetic surgery is such a personal choice, it’s vital you select a plastic surgeon you know and trust. In the case of Dr. Fichadia, she not only has years of experience producing excellent results for her patients, but is also double-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery. A well-known presenter of research at international surgical meetings and conferences, Dr. Fichadia offers compassionate and personalized care, taking the time to answer questions and help patients realize their goals. Make sure to meet with a few different plastic surgeons to find one that makes you feel comfortable and heard, as well as offers the expertise needed to achieve your goals.

How Long is Recovery from Breast Surgery?

This can depend on many factors, including the type of surgery performed. For example, if you have breast augmentation surgery, you’ll need to take 2 or 3 days off from work or school. Generally, a majority of recovery occurs within 2 weeks following surgery, though depending on the surgery done, 3-4 weeks of avoiding strenuous activity may be recommended. It may take several months for your augmented breasts to completely heal and achieve their final appearance.

How is Gynecomastia Surgery Performed?

For men who have enlarged breasts and opt for gynecomastia surgery, it’s usually performed either by using surgical incisions, liposuction, or a combination of the two. While liposuction can remove excess fat, a surgical incision may be needed for men who have excess glandular tissue. Though results will be noticeable immediately after surgery, some swelling will still be present for a few weeks. A normal routine can be resumed within 2 weeks but it can take up to 3 months for final results to settle in.

What is Breast Reconstruction?

Though similar to breast augmentation, breast reconstruction focuses on enhancing the shape and size of a woman’s breasts after she has undergone a mastectomy. It offers many psychological benefits to women who have fought cancer. Reconstruction can be done using breast implants or with the patient’s own body tissue. An important step in helping women rebound from cancer, Dr. Fichadia is heavily involved in the Providence St. Vincent’s breast conference, where individualized cancer treatment plans come to fruition.

Schedule Your Consultation

There’s a lot to learn from breast surgery and your plastic surgeon. Dr. Fichadia is a double-board certified plastic surgeon located in Portland, OR. To get started, we invite you to contact our office to schedule a consultation with our team. Call or fill out our online contact form to get in touch.

Your Guide to Breast Reduction Surgery

We think of breast augmentation as the most popular breast surgery, and it might be. However, there are some women who are seeking to surgically reduce the size of their breasts instead. There are options to do this safely if a woman’s large breast size is negatively impacting her life.

What Is Breast Reduction Surgery?

Breast reduction surgery is a procedure that removes excess skin, fat, and glandular tissue to decrease the size of a woman’s breasts.

There are three main options for this surgery. The methods used will depend on the body composition and goals of the patient. Surgery methods include:

1. Liposuction:

When a patient doesn’t suffer from sagging skin or asymmetry and their excess breast tissue is largely made up of fat, liposuction could be an option. It leaves fewer scars and is much less invasive than some other options.

2. Vertical Breast Reduction:

This procedure uses two incisions. One follows the outline of the areola and the second goes from the bottom of the areola to the breast fold at the chest. This option is available to patients who have moderate sagging they want to correct.

3. Inverted-T Breast Reduction:

This option is the most intense. It is used when patients have a large size correction or have a large amount of excess skin and tissue to remove. It uses three incisions. One incision is around the areola, the second goes from the bottom of the areola to the breast fold, and the final incision is made along the breast crease.

Why Do People Get Breast Reduction?

Most women who seek this procedure are suffering from various physical or emotional issues due to their breast size. Some reasons for this procedure are:

  • Neck pain
  • Shoulder pain
  • Shoulder grooves from bras
  • Inability to exercise comfortably

Whatever the reason, breast reduction surgery can help.

breast reduction dr. ficahdia portland

Benefits Of Breast Reduction

Breast reduction surgery has numerous advantages, including:

  • Improving silhouette
  • Improving bodily proportion
  • Making it easier to find and fit clothes
  • Reducing pain
  • Making it easier to be active or work out
  • Improving the look of large or stretched areolas

It’s said that patient satisfaction after breast reduction surgery is among the highest among the various elective procedures. Patients feel reinvigorated. They feel better mentally and physically.

Recovery

Recovering from surgery is different for each patient, but here are things you will probably experience after breast reduction:

  • You will be bandaged after surgery
  • You will be advised to wear a support garment for the first couple of weeks
  • You will probably be prescribed pain medications
  • You may be able to return to a desk job within a week
  • You will have temporary activity and lifting restrictions

Recovery is a process and the final results of surgery may not be apparent until the swelling has gone down. This may take weeks or months. Heeding your surgeon’s advice will speed healing and ensure safety after the procedure.

If you’re considering breast reduction, call Dr. Fichadia and her staff at their Portland, OR office today to book a consultation.