Is Body Contouring Loose Skin Worth It

Posted on: Aug 4 2017

The increment in bariatric or weight loss surgery has had a straight outcome on the increase in torso contouring procedures. In 2014, nearly 45,000 patients who experienced massive weight loss opted to undergo plastic surgery to reshape their bodies, according to data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

Procedures specifically associated with massive weight loss, including tummy tucks, thigh lifts, breast lifts and upper arm lifts, grew at their fastest rate in four years, according to 2014 data from ASPS.

"Information technology's ever a wonderful accomplishment to lose that much weight. With that, comes improved health and an overall sense of increased energy," says plastic surgeon Dr. Orna Fisher. "It is life-changing and highly rewarding for most people to finish the process with the surgeries that decrease the excess skin and allow improvement in body contour and confidence."

Developing an expertise in the mail service massive weight loss body contouring field, Dr. Fisher treats patients who have lost anywhere from 50 to 150+ lbs. from bariatric surgery or sustained lifestyle changes.

What to Consider Before Post-Massive Weight Loss Surgery

When considering post weight loss surgery, Dr. Fisher first recommends that the weight of a trunk contouring candidate be stable for at least six months prior to surgery. "At some point the weight loss plateaus and there is often considerable loose skin in various areas of the body. That's when it'due south time to beginning planning for body contouring surgery," suggests Dr. Fisher.

She besides recommends that patients exist in skillful wellness. "The amazing thing about massive weight loss is that information technology really cures multiple medical weather and diseases. Patients are typically healthy by the time they get to me, many of them have been cured of their diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and/or articulation bug," explains Dr. Fisher.

Surgery planning is a big pace as at that place are many possible options for post massive weight loss procedures. Whatever surface area where there is hanging skin can exist lifted. The spectrum of procedures may include abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), arm lift, thigh lift, dorsum lift, breast lift, facelift, necklift, and some others. Just like with individual patterns of weight proceeds, weight loss happens in dissimilar distributions too. "The areas where people can have loose skin vary from person to person. For example, some people have hanging or loose skin on the abdomen and arms, simply not the neck or the thighs, while others may be bothered by hanging back rolls, chest, and thighs," explains Dr. Fisher. "It but depends on the person's problem areas and priorities as to the combination of procedures they will need."

The post massive weight loss body contouring procedures are then scheduled in stages. "I typically offset with what bothers the patient the most. If at that place are a couple of areas that bother the patient then I determine if those are procedures nosotros can practise at the same fourth dimension," explains Dr. Fisher. "If we are going to be doing their legs, for instance, they need to be able to use their arms, so we can't do the arms at the aforementioned time. Also, doing surgery on multiple areas at once tin can increment the risk of having healing complications, and so we also need to weigh what combination of procedures should or should not be done at once for each individual."

Staging the procedures is important not only for reasons of recovery but besides because patients tin can't or shouldn't be under general anesthesia for every bit long every bit some surgery combinations may require while in an outpatient setting.

Recovery After Body Contouring

Standard recovery fourth dimension between operations is 3 months so it could accept upwardly to a twelvemonth or more than for a patient's trunk contouring procedures to exist completed. Although it takes three months for recovery between procedures, preliminary recovery tin can vary from iv to viii weeks. "They volition see results right away because their excess skin is gone immediately. We aren't talking almost a little bit of tissue, we are talking well-nigh a lot of tissue that hangs downwards so equally shortly as that surgery is over, it'southward gone," says Dr. Fisher.

Setting realistic expectations is one of the most important pieces of communication that Dr. Fisher dispenses regarding body contouring. "Certainly, the results are life changing and at that place is a huge improvement from body contouring surgery but expectations must exist realistic," she cautions. "I have met with people who had unrealistic expectations and thought that once they lost all their weight that their peel could exist made to completely conform to the shape underneath. That just isn't true and information technology'south important to understand that.

"There is a typical fashion in which the tissues look and experience in somebody who has undergone massive weight loss. At some fourth dimension during weight gain, the peel stretches beyond a certain bespeak, where information technology tin't recoil back and information technology is no longer elastic. No matter what we do, people who have lost massive amounts of weight permanently lose these elastic properties in their skin. As a result, equally tight as nosotros exercise the surgery, there is ever a recurrence in some of the laxity. 1 tin never have the peel or contour of a billboard model even if the tone underneath is platonic."

Laxity of the skin is non the merely effect with regards to realistic expectations. Patients likewise need to exist able to consider the tradeoffs of scarring. "With any of the body contouring procedures, and, in fact, any plastic surgery, you are trading in poor shape, poor contour and excess tissue for an improved profile, better shape and scars. Regardless of what procedure it is, there are always going to be scars. The tradeoff should be worth it, and in the example of massive weight loss, it seems to always exist worth it," notes Dr. Fisher.

In the end, all the hard work spent losing weight, undergoing procedures, and getting a few scars should not dampen the excitement of such a major accomplishment. "Torso contouring is sometimes a long undertaking performed in stages, and information technology's important to be positive and optimistic about simply how much it changes your life," concludes Dr. Fisher. "And once it'south done you can gloat the weight loss achievement even more than and move frontward with life in your new body!"

Posted in: Body Contouring, Tummy Tuck