A Guide to Breast Reconstruction in Atlanta, GA

Breast reconstruction is one of those topics that carries weight long before you ever sit in a consultation room. It’s tied to your story, your healing, your identity, and your relationship with your own body after breast cancer. Many women describe it as a turning point—one that has nothing to do with vanity and everything to do with feeling whole again.

At Evelina Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics, breast reconstruction in Atlanta is approached with a rare blend of surgical expertise and genuine compassion. Dr. Katherine Santosa understands that reconstruction isn’t simply a procedure. It’s a deeply human decision made at a time when you’ve already walked through more than most people will ever know.

This guide is here to slow everything down, answer questions you may not know how to ask yet, and help you feel supported as you explore your breast reconstruction options.

What Breast Reconstruction Really Represents

Women often come into the office carrying years of emotions. Strength, exhaustion, fear, relief, hope. Reconstruction doesn’t erase what you’ve been through, but it can restore a sense of comfort and confidence that cancer tried to take. It can help your reflection feel familiar again. And for many, that alone is an extraordinary relief.

Some women pursue breast reconstruction immediately after mastectomy so they never see a chest that feels incomplete. Others wait months or years and choose delayed reconstruction because they need time to heal, to process, or to move through chemotherapy or radiation without worrying about surgical recovery. Neither path is better or worse. Both are brave. And both are deeply personal.

Immediate vs. Delayed Breast Reconstruction

Immediate reconstruction happens during the same surgery as your mastectomy. It allows you to wake up with the beginnings of a breast mound, which can be emotionally grounding during a time when your body feels like it’s been through enough.

Delayed reconstruction gives you space. Space to complete treatment. Space to regain strength. Space to choose reconstruction because you are ready, not because the medical timeline said so. Women in Atlanta, Georgia, choose this route for many reasons, and every reason is valid.

Reconstruction follows you, not the other way around.

Understanding Your Breast Reconstruction Options

Your breast reconstruction is shaped by your anatomy, your medical history, and the desired size and feel that you see when you look in the mirror afterwards. That’s why Dr. Santosa offers a wide range of breast reconstruction techniques, ensuring that every patient has options that reflect her goals, not anyone else's.

Let’s walk through them in a way that feels clear and empowering, not overwhelming.

Implant-Based Breast Reconstruction

For many women, implant-based reconstruction offers a gentler recovery and a sense of familiarity. The process often begins with tissue expanders, which gradually create room for a breast implant once the breast skin has healed and stretched enough to hold the final shape. Whether it's a saline or silicone implant, this method can reconstruct the breasts to carry more natural-looking volume, especially if you do not have enough tissue for a regular reconstruction (or if you would just prefer implants--- it's all up to you!).

These implant-based techniques can be especially helpful when reconstruction is performed on one or both breasts to maintain symmetry. It can also be a strong option for women who want to avoid more extensive flap surgery or who don’t have enough extra tissue in the abdomen or other areas to use for reconstruction.

This method restores volume, yes, but it also renews balance, proportion, and confidence.

Autologous Reconstruction: Using Your Own Tissue

There is something uniquely meaningful about rebuilding a breast using your own skin, fat, and sometimes muscle. Autologous breast reconstruction feels natural, ages naturally, and moves with your body in a way implants cannot always duplicate.

Different procedure techniques allow different forms of reconstruction, depending on where new breast tissue is taken from:

• The DIEP flap uses abdominal skin and fat while preserving abdominal muscle, offering a soft, natural feel.
• The latissimus dorsi flap uses tissue from the back and may be combined with an implant if more projection is desired.

These aren’t just surgeries. They’re ways of giving back something breast cancer took, using your own body to reconstruct what feels lost.

Many patients choose autologous reconstruction because they want the most natural texture possible or prefer to avoid long-term implants. Dr. Santosa helps each woman understand the nuances of each option so she can make a grounded, confident decision.

Nipple and Areola Reconstruction

This is a highly personal choice. Some women feel complete without a nipple, preferring a smooth contour beneath clothing. Others want a nipple reconstruction or medical tattooing to restore every detail of the breast they lost. Both choices are deeply personal. Both create beautiful results. Reconstruction is about wholeness—not perfection.

When Only One Breast Is Reconstructed

When breast cancer affects only one breast, symmetry can become part of the conversation. Some women opt for a lift, reduction, or small implant on the opposite breast to create balance. Others prefer to leave the natural side untouched.

This is where personalization matters. Reconstruction should meet you where you are, not ask you to adjust to it.

What Breast Reconstruction Surgery Feels Like

Most women imagine reconstruction as one long, overwhelming surgery. In reality, breast reconstruction surgery is often done in stages that respect your physical and emotional bandwidth. Some reconstructions are completed in one operation. Others unfold gently over time, first creating the breast mound, then refining shape, then completing the aesthetic details.

What you will feel, more than anything, is supported. Dr. Santosa’s patients describe their experience with words like “seen,” “heard,” and “held through every phase.” The entire process is paced around your comfort, not a rushed timeline.

Healing looks different for every patient. Some women move through recovery quickly; others need time. There may be swelling, tightness, or the quiet ache of overuse, but all of it gradually softens. What matters most is that you never go through any of it alone.

You will know what to expect before surgery, you will know who to call afterward, and you will know exactly what your next step is, every step of the way. Breast reconstruction is just as emotional as it is physical, and both parts deserve care.

You're more than just another patient.

Breast reconstruction is not an obligation. It’s not a replacement for what breast cancer or a mastectomy changed. It’s an opportunity. A chance to feel comfortable in your body, aligned with yourself, and confident again.

Your experience does not have to look like anyone else’s. Your reconstruction does not have to follow a prescribed path. Whether you're drawn to implants, flap-based reconstruction, or simply exploring your options for the first time after your mastectomy or in preparation for one, you have time, choices, and support.

At Evelina Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics, you’ll never be rushed toward an answer to please someone else. You’ll be supported toward your own answer, one that lets you reclaim your breasts the way you want.

You’ve already carried so much; now let’s rebuild. On your terms, in your time, with the care you deserve.