Who does it?
Plastic Surgeon
Breast Surgeon
What is Nipple Correction Surgery?
Inverted nipples are actually incredibly common – affecting up to one in ten women in the UK – but rarely talked about as they can cause great distress to sufferers.
The problem is caused by the milk ducts being too short, which affects the muscle within the nipple that usually works to pull the nipple outwards.
Who is suitable for Nipple correction Surgery?
It is very important to see an experienced practitioner who can determine what grade of inverted nipple you suffer from – see
below – as there is a non-surgical alternative that might be worth investigating before going down the surgery route.
The Niplette suction device is a pump – available from your local chemist – which gently stretches the milk ducts so your nipple can sit in an everted position. That’s ‘sticking out’ to you or me.
This device can be of great benefit for those with grade one inverted nipples but rarely works satisfactorily with grade two and three cases, so surgery may be the best option.
Don’t be worried though; nipple correction surgery is a simple, low risk procedure with little downtime and a very high success rate.
What’s Nipple correction Surgery like?
Nipple correction surgery is generally performed under
local anaesthetic, and lasts approximately 30
minutes. The milk ducts are either released or divided, which allows the nipple to evert.
Incisions are either made around the areola or can be
made within the areola (the former will leave more of a visible scar). The milk ducts are then either divided or freed – this is done internally – and the incision closed with stitches.
What happens after Nipple correction Surgery?
Any risks associated with this surgery are very rare. There may be a small amount of bleeding and bruising post procedure, but any discomfort will be mild and can be controlled with painkillers.
Infection can be a possibility as there may be some leakage from the milk ducts while they are being divided and stretched. This
may cause some inflammation but this can be treated with antibiotics.
Will I have a scar?
You will be left with minimal scarring after this procedure
– in fact the main downside
of nipple correction surgery
is that you will be unable to breastfeed afterwards.
Your surgeon should explain this to you beforehand and you may wish to delay surgery until after you’ve had a family, although
it is worth bearing in mind that breastfeeding can be more difficult anyway with grade two or three cases.
