Difference between Chest Reconstruction and Breast Reduction?

Is there a major difference between chest reconstruction and breast reduction? I'm FtM, and a supportive parent and I are trying to get insurance coverage. It would probably work for breast reduction. I know they reposition your nipples in reconstruction, and I'm trying to gauge how weird it would look if they didn't, and if there's anything else that's really different. Sorta weird, I know.

Others have explained the technical aspects, but don't forget another important reason:

WOMEN get breast reductions

MEN get chest reconstruction

A reduction won't remove all your breast tissue and it will not give you a male appearing chest. It will only give you a flatter torso. And you are right about the nipple reposition. If you just deflated the breast tissue without lifting the nipples, you will have a very odd result. Unless you are pretty huge up top, no insurance is going to cover it as a breast reduction (I worked for a health insurer for 20 yrs). The surgery you actually are wanting can be done for 5-6K. Well worth it to wait and continually save, even if it is just a dollar here and there. Messed up plastic surgery that has to be redone can be a really big issue.

Reduction will leave you with a "female looking" chest. Reconstruction is designed to give you a more masculine look. Each surgery is designed for different needs. Reduction for women, reconstruction for transmen. They don't look the same.

Trans friendly doctors always have a way of making insurance cough up some, if not all, of what you would be covered for. You could at the very least get the anesthesia and surgeon's fees covered.

Ask about, are their any transguys in your area who have had top surgery? They'd know where your best chances lay.

If I'm not mistaken, breast reduction is where they just make them smaller, but you still will end up with "man boobs".

You will need reconstruction for them to remove the breast and all the fatty tissue, reshape the skin so that it looks like it's over the the pectoral muscle of an adult male, and to reposition the nipple.

I'm not a doctor, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night. :D

There is a major difference. Any plastic surgeon can do a breast reduction, they are all pretty much trained for it. But very few are trained for chst reconstruction.
Reconstruction costs about $9,000. Two of my friends have had it done. One in San Francisco and one in Los Angeles.