Given the cost, the required break from one’s daily life, as well as the brief but nevertheless necessary recovery process involved in any plastic surgery, it would be nice if a single procedure could correct everything that we feel can be improved about the size, shape, projection, and appearance of our breasts.
But can it? Strangely, yes and no. A single plastic surgery procedure cannot, however, a single surgical session often can. The ultimate answer to this question depends on each patient’s own unique concerns, their cosmetic goals and ideals, and, of course, their current physique.

Key Takeaways
- Women who want larger breasts require augmentation (fat transfer, or implants).
- Women who want less saggy breasts require breast lift surgery.
- Breast lift surgery won’t increase breast size to any appreciable degree.
- Breast augmentation surgery won’t fix sagging breasts to any appreciable degree.
- If you find that you need both a breast lift and a breast augmentation, both of these procedures can usually be done in the same surgical session.
Breast Augmentation Does Provide a Very Minor Visual Lifting Effect
For patients who have only a mild amount of sagging, getting breast implants may also visually correct minor sagging. This is true as the breast implants themselves may occupy a sufficient amount of space to fill the chest wall and put to use some of the excess tissue that is currently a factor in the degree of sagging. Breast implants can also fill the upper pole of the breast, thus visually reducing the appearance of mild sagging.
This of course assumes that the breast implants selected by the patient are of sufficient size to produce that subtle lift. If a patient with minor sagging in the breasts opted for implants that weren’t large enough to make any visible difference in the degree of sagging, a breast lift could simply be done in the very same surgical session as the breast augmentation/implants are done in.
To FIx Moderate to Severe Sagging, You Need a Breast Lift
Breast lift surgery is the only way to remove the excess skin tissue that is contributing to or causing the breasts to hang unflatteringly low on the chest wall. This makes the breast lift a popular procedure for women who have just given birth and finished nursing their baby, since these two exciting events in life, unfortunately, produce an excess of breast tissue necessary for milk production, but unnecessary thereafter.
What a Breast Lift Will and Will Not Do
The entire purpose and outcome of a breast lift surgery is to correct the sagging of the breasts caused by excess skin tissue. During the procedure, this excess skin is carefully excised in a manner that will produce the least visible scarring, and the contents of the breast skin envelope are thus physically lifted higher on the chest wall.
After a breast lift, the breasts won’t droop or hang unflatteringly low. With that said, a breast lift can not increase the size or volume of the breasts. Only a breast augmentation surgery can do that, whether that augmentation is done through a fat transfer or with the use of saline or silicone breast implants.
Thankfully, although we are discussing two very different procedures, they can usually both be done during the same surgical session, thus reducing the costs, downtime, and recovery period associated with the surgeries. For more information or to schedule a personal consultation where we can answer this question for you for certain, please contact our office