Nipple Correction Surgery

Serving Boston, Wellesley & Sudbury Patients

• General Procedure Information
• Reducing Nipple Size
• Correcting Inverted Nipples
• Recovering From Nipple Correction Surgery
• Find Out More

Women with overly elongated, excessively wide or inverted nipples are often self-conscious about these issues and hesitate to seek surgical correction due to their embarrassment. However, unusually sized or shaped nipples are more common than many people think. At Accurate Aesthetics, Dr. William E. LoVerme offers nipple repair surgery for women in Boston, Wellesley and Sudbury to shorten or narrow the nipples, or to correct inverted nipples, which often restores the ability to breastfeed.

General Procedure Information

Nipple reduction or inverted nipple repair surgery can be performed alone or in conjunction with breast augmentation, breast lift or breast reduction surgery. When performed alone, the procedure can be done with the use of local anesthesia. When combined with another breast surgery, general anesthesia is generally needed. The details of the procedure vary, depending on the state of the patient’s nipples and her surgical goals.

Reducing Nipple Size

When nipples are overly elongated, they have a dramatic degree of outward projection; some even droop down due to their excessive length. To shorten the length of the nipple, your plastic surgeon typically removes the tip of the nipple and closes the end with sutures. Sometimes, the strategy for nipple reduction surgery involves removing some of the skin along the neck of the nipple and suturing the tip of the nipple to the bottom of the nipple to create a shorter length.

When nipples are too wide but not overly elongated, your plastic surgeon may remove a pie-shaped wedge from the base of the nipple, allowing the surgeon to “take in” the nipple and reduce its circumference. The surgeon then uses dissolvable sutures to close the incision.

Correcting Inverted Nipples

Inverted nipples may look flat or like a slit or depression in the breast. Nipples can be inverted in varying degrees. The exact details of the surgical procedure differ based on the degree of nipple inversion.

In general, the surgical goal of correcting inverted nipples includes reshaping the nipple and areola (the darkly colored skin encircling the nipple), so the nipple projects outward from the breast. Dr. LoVerme takes care to improve the appearance of the nipple-areola complex while preserving nipple sensitivity, whenever possible. Typically, with nipple inversion surgery, women are not able to breastfeed afterwards. It is possible that the nipples may not fully evert or reinvert after the operation.

Recovering From Nipple Correction Surgery

When nipple correction surgery is performed alone, the recovery period should be relatively quick, and patients should be able to return to work within one to two days following the procedure. In the meantime, patients should take short walks around the house as soon as they are able. They may be advised to avoid sexual activity for one to two weeks and strenuous exercise for about three weeks. Patients are generally able to resume all their normal activities about one month after surgery.

During the first few days following the procedure, the treatment area may be bruised, swollen and sore. Any discomfort can be alleviated by taking oral pain relievers, as directed by Dr. LoVerme. Any stitches that do not dissolve on their own will be removed about one to two weeks after surgery, during a follow-up appointment at Accurate Aesthetics. Patients should avoid exposing the resulting scars to the sun for a minimum of six months, as this can cause the scars to become discolored or raised from the surface of the skin.

Find Out More

You no longer have to live with overly elongated, excessively wide or inverted nipples. To schedule a private consultation with Dr. LoVerme, a compassionate plastic surgeon, please contact Accurate Aesthetics by calling (877) 603-7874 toll-free today.