Nipple Reconstruction & Correction

What Is Nipple Reconstruction Surgery?

Nipple reconstruction is a surgical breast procedure performed for a variety of reasons to rebuild or fix the appearance of your nipples and areolae. It’s often the last step in a breast reconstruction. Nipple reconstruction at New York Breast Surgery Center provides breast reconstruction nipples after mastectomy, as well as other plastic surgery treatments to achieve the look you desire, whether for aesthetic or medical reasons.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, nipple reconstruction is the final but most meaningful step in the breast reconstruction process for many women. Under the Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act, if your insurance covers your mastectomy, it’s legally required to cover your nipple reconstruction as part of that process.

Talented plastic surgeon Dr. David Shokrian and board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Mohamed Elfar operate in Midtown Manhattan and Great Neck, Long Island. “I see patients all the time who had no idea nipple reconstruction was covered by their insurance,” says Dr. Shokrian. “They’d been putting it off for years.”

What Are the Reasons for Nipple Surgery at New York Breast Surgery Center?

The reasons you may want nipple surgery are as varied as the patients treated at New York Breast Surgery Center. You don’t need a cancer history or previous breast surgery. You may have a congenital issue with the size or placement of your nipple-areola complex. You may decide to make changes to the area while you have other plastic surgery procedures.

Your nipple-areola complex is as unique as your fingerprint, but unlike your fingerprint, you can opt to change aspects of your breast, including the nipple-areola complex, to suit your desires. Nipple reconstruction and correction procedures include:

• Inverted nipples correction for nipples that extend inward instead of outward and need to be released
• Areola reduction when your areolas are disproportionately large or have stretched over time due to pregnancy, weight fluctuation or aging
• Nipple enlargement for nipples or areolas that are proportionally too small for your breasts

Dr. Shokrian adds, “I build a surgical plan around your anatomy and your goals. Where you’re starting from determines everything. One thing you need to understand is that surgery brings back your nipple’s shape and projection, but can’t restore sensation if you’ve had a mastectomy.”

How Does Nipple Reconstruction Surgery after a Mastectomy Work?

The goal of nipple reconstruction surgery is to provide breast reconstruction nipples after mastectomy, which puts the finishing touch on your reconstructed breasts. This step rebuilds your boobs to resemble what you had before you lost them preventing your breast cancer from spreading. The resulting nipple has no sensation, but it provides emotional support because it looks natural on your breast.

“A breast without a nipple looks as odd as a belly without a belly button,” says Dr. Shokrian. “My patients tell me, after they get breast reconstruction nipples after mastectomy, that it’s the moment they stop feeling like a cancer patient and start feeling like themselves again.”

Once your breast mound is in place, which can happen immediately following your mastectomy or at a later date, your experienced NYC plastic surgeon builds your nipples to sit correctly on each breast, sized and positioned the way a natural nipple does. Dr. Shokrian uses a local flap technique, which involves:

1. He folds and sutures small sections of your own skin at the nipple site into a projecting shape.
2. In cases where local tissue is insufficient, he harvests a skin graft from a donor site on your body, which provides material for areola reshaping.
3. Medical tattooing follows at a separate appointment. That appointment restores your areola’s color and definition to match your other breast.

Your breast mound needs to reach its final settled position before Dr. Shokrian places the nipple. You must complete your breast reconstruction recovery before scheduling this step. If you also had a mastopexy revision or secondary breast shaping, those results need to fully settle first as well. While you may be impatient, you can’t rush this step if you want it to turn out well.

What Are the Options for Inverted Nipple Correction?

Your nipple is inverted when it sits at or below the surface of your areola, rather than projecting outward. Fibrous tissue bands tether it inward, and the severity of that tethering is classified in three grades, including:

1. Grade 1 nipples come out with pressure, but go right back on its own.
2. Grade 2 nipples stay inverted most of the time, but are still barely accessible.
3. Grade 3 nipples stay fully inverted no matter what you do and won’t correct without surgery.

A plastic surgeon performs inverted nipple correction while you’re under local anesthesia. He makes a small incision at the base of your nipple. The whole procedure takes under an hour, and your result is visible the same day. Surgery for Grades 1 and 2 release the fibrous bands, but leave your milk ducts untouched, so breastfeeding stays possible. The surgery for Grade 3, however, requires releasing those ducts entirely. Full correction means breastfeeding is no longer possible.

What Does Areola Correction Involve?

Areola correction at New York Breast Surgery Center addresses the size, shape, symmetry and proportion of the pigmented skin surrounding your nipple. Areola reduction is the most requested procedure, which removes a section of tissue from the outer edge of your areola and sutures it closed. Your areolae look smaller and in better proportion with your breast. Mild incision scars form at the natural color border between your areola and surrounding skin, so it’s not noticeable.

“Areola correction is one of those things patients are almost apologetic about bringing up,” says Dr. Shokrian. “Like it isn’t serious enough. Your areola is central to how your breast looks. Proportioning it correctly matters.”

You can pursue this after a breast reduction or a fat transfer breast augmentation that changes your areola’s size or shape. Some women need this procedure due to natural asymmetry. Weight changes stretch areola tissue in ways that don’t reverse. Your areola may need to be enlarged, tool, if they’re too small for the breast they sit on. Your areola must work with your nipple and breast, not just by itself.

Does Nipple Surgery Address Tubular Breast Deformity?

Tubular breast deformity starts beneath your areola, where a band of tissue prevents your breast tissue from spreading out the way it normally should. That tissue pushes through the areola instead, making your areola look puffy or enlarged as a result. Your nipple sits the way it does because of what’s happening in the tissue underneath. Fix the nipple without addressing the structure beneath it, and the result doesn’t look right.

Tuberous breast correction at New York Breast Surgery Center addresses the underlying cause of your breast condition in one procedure. Your surgeon releases the constricting band and redistributes your breast tissue. Your areola gets resized at the same time.

Dr. Shokrian adds, “After tuberous breast correction, you may need volume or lift to make your breasts more attractive. If so, I add a breast lift to your treatment plan. In the end, your nipple ends up where it belongs on a breast that looks the way it should.”

What Are the Options for Nipple Asymmetry Correction?

Nipple asymmetry comes in more forms than you realize. One areola may be larger. One nipple may be inverted while the other projects normally. One side may have healed differently after a previous surgery. Your specific concern shapes your correction plan. No two plans look the same.

If one areola is too large, your plastic surgeon adjusts its size to match the other side. If your nipples sit at different heights, he repositions one until both sides align. If nipple projection differs, each side is corrected so they too match. Breast asymmetry correction handles structural breast asymmetry. Nipple asymmetry correction is performed alongside or following it when needed.

Extra nipple removal falls under this category as well. Polythelia, the presence of a supernumerary nipple, produces a small nipple-like structure along the embryonic milk line on your chest or torso. Men have it more often than women. Your surgeon may build the excision into a coordinated plan alongside gynecomastia treatment for male patients, addressing multiple concerns with one surgery.

What Does My Recovery Look Like after Nipple Reconstruction Surgery?

Recovery from nipple reconstruction surgery moves faster than you’d expect. A protective dressing covers your nipple for the first several days, which keeps pressure and friction off while the area heals. Swelling and soreness in the first week are expected. Shooting or burning sensations at the nipple are also common and settle on their own. Recovery includes:

• You can return to desk work often within a week, with confirmation from your surgeon.
• Stay out of underwire bras and anything fitted tight against your chest for two to three weeks.
• You must wait to do physical work, like lifting and anything that creates chest pressure, for explicit clearance, which may take up to a month.
• Surface healing wraps up within four to six weeks.
• Your final result, including settled projection and the appearance of any tattooing, takes three to six months.

Recovery timelines at New York Breast Surgery Center outlines your post-procedure care across every stage of your breast surgery. Patients finishing breast reconstruction nipples after mastectomy follow a staged sequence that begins well before the nipple step and continues well after it.

What Risks and Results Are Associated with Nipple Reconstruction?

Expert plastic surgeons in New York City perform your procedure in a safe, accredited surgical suite, with board-certified anesthesia professionals on site for every surgery. Nipple reconstruction surgery, like any surgical procedure, carries some minor risks, which you can minimize by choosing the experienced experts at New York Breast Surgery Center. Risks include:

• Infection at the surgical site
• Partial or complete loss of nipple projection
• Changes to your nipple sensation, including numbness or hypersensitivity
• Asymmetric healing between the treated and untreated side

If you’ve had capsular contracture treatment or breast implant removal surgery, the tissue environment around your nipple is different from a patient with no prior breast surgery. Your surgical team factors your full surgical history into your correction plan before the first incision. You can expect nipple reconstruction results that include:

• Your nipple projection stabilizes within six months.
• Your areola reduction scars settle into the natural border and fade throughout the first year.
• Your nipple holds its outward position once healing is complete.

Your treatment plan is built entirely around your anatomy and your specific goals. Dr. Shokrian and Dr. Elfar deliver results that feel complete and look natural. Schedule a consultation for nipple reconstruction surgery in the Manhattan or Long Island location today.

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