Example of breast ptosis
Women with breast ptosis have an excess of breast skin in comparison to the amount of underlying breast tissue. The skin is lax and does not support and shape the breast.
In this type of breast the nipple often falls below the inframammary fold or at very best is right at the fold line. In this situation simply placing an implant behind the breast to try and lift it and increase the volume does not work well.
Instead of getting a nice shape with the nipple in front of the widest part of the implant and above the fold, we end up with the implant sitting behind the breast but with the nipple still too low. When seen from the side this looks just like a Snoopydog. This type of breast needs some type of skin tightening procedure (MASTOPEXY), not a bigger implant.
Example of augmentation without mastopexy
Example of augmentation with mastopexy
Before
After
This patient's breasts have lost their volume and the skin envelope is too big for the contained breast tissue. Therefore the breasts sag and the nipple has descended below the fold. This is called PTOSIS and requires both a skin tightening procedure (MASTOPEXY) as well as an Augmentation as was done here.