Don’t you love the ads, “Wake up looking as though your make-up was freshly applied” or “never put make up on again”? Whatever. Obviously they weren’t referring to my face in the mornings. I assure you, even with permanent makeup, I don’t look like Jane Diva when I crack my eyes open for the first time each day.
Having had 3 Benelli Lifts I feel I can offer a bit of advice on this procedure. Firstly, I am sure you are wondering, “Why THREE??” Well, I had rather large implants (past tense for now) and the pressure exerted on the incision line by the weight of the implant would re-open the wound. Long story short, it just kept happening. I finally had to remove my implants and get another Benelli and lo and behold the result has remained.
Not everyone is a candidate for a Benelli and not every plastic surgeon is willing to perform one. A Benelli lift is also called a peri- (around) areolar (the disk of colored skin around the nipple), circum- (around) areolar mastopexy (masto = breast, pexy= skin lift), and even a donut breast lift. The breast lift utilizes incisions which circle the border of the areola and a donut of skin is excised. The skin is then sort of ‘bunched’ up and sewn back to the areola, creating a tighter skin envelope. However, there is normally some puckering of the skin left over, and depending upon the amount of skin excised, it will either go away, or not. I still have some puckering, although when I am re-implanted the puckering will go away when the implant takes up the slack.
While, the Benelli creates the least amount of scarring of any breast lift, if you need a considerable amount of correction, the Benelli is not going to give you what you need. If you have heavy breasts or implants, the risk of the incisions stretching can be an issue as well—even with permanent sutures like I have.
Am I glad I got this lift 3 times over a standard mastopexy? Yes. The time, effort and pain were worth not having the anchor scar. The scars I have now are practically non-existent. They are fine, white lines around the areola and if I had implants, they’d be perfect. Although, I might consider micropigmentation on the fine scars and areola to make them look even better, better is the enemy of good my friends.
Talk to your plastic surgeon about your options. He may not feel the Benelli lift is an option for you. However, I had 32F’s before my explant and Benelli Lift, I came out fine. My breasts were a little slack at first, but the skin tightened up and now they look pretty good (although they need volume). Just know going into it, you may need a revision and your skin laxity, breast weight, and after care will affect your outcome. Surgeons may also tell you that you cannot raise a breast crease with a Benelli, but this isn’t so. I had my crease raised internally for symmetry and it came out fine. If you can get away with a lesser scarring procedure, go for it. I just don’t see a point in scarring up breasts which really don’t require a more invasive approach.
