After Weight Loss New Jersey Cosmetic Surgeons
“You’ve lost a ton of weight!”
Those words are music to your ears right? Losing weight is a major accomplishment and if you have made it to your goal weight and took the journey to a healthier you, then you should feel proud. However, some individuals that have accomplished such a goal still do not have the self-confidence that they thought that they would. Why is this? Because now, they must deal with sagging skin. Your skin has to stretch to accommodate the weight that you add onto your body frame, so when the weight is lost, the skin has nowhere to go. Yes, diet and exercise can help some with the sagging skin issue, but if you have loss an excessive amount of weight, sometimes it just isn’t enough. This is where our East Coast Plastic Surgeons in Monmouth County, New Jersey become an option for you.
What Procedures Can Help Me?
Did you know that you could have more weight to lose? Yes it’s true! All the excess skin that is still lingering around on your body is extra weight that’s just sitting there. With plastic surgery, there are procedures that you can do, either all at one time, or separately and they can be done on any part of your body. The excess skin from your arms, thighs, breasts, face, buttocks, and abdomen, where most of the weight is usually accrued.
Body Contouring
A body lift surgery, also known as body contouring, is probably one of the most common weight loss procedures. The body lift’s main design is to improve the body’s overall appearance. This surgery will also last a long time, but only if you continue to put forth the effort to keep your weight stable and in check. With this surgery, East Coast Plastic Surgeons make incisions along your abdomen and remove the extra saggy skin. Next, our surgeon will also lift the other areas of your body included in the surgery – your buttocks, waist, hips, thighs, and arms and tightens them. After the tightening, liposuction is then performed. This removes any fat that has been left over from your weight loss. Usually, our surgeon will then close up the incisions and finish the surgery, but in some cases, a patient may also ask for a buttocks augmentation. This is because usually with extreme weight loss, the buttocks suffer the most and the shape will tend to flatten out, which is not attractive for most.
Tummy Tucks and Liposuction
Tummy tucks are really common after weight loss and they are also a part of the body lift surgery. A tummy tuck is designed to help flatten your stomach, but only when diet and exercise have not been enough to help in the first place. It’s not the same as liposuction, although most people think that they are. However, liposuction will need to be performed in order for the individual to receive the tummy tuck. The full tummy tuck procedure happens when our East Coast Plastic Surgeons make a large incision around your belly button and runs the cut to your hip bones on either side. Next, our surgeon will begin to manipulate the skin and muscles, helping to strengthen and repair the otherwise weakened abdominal muscles. Our surgeon will most likely have to move your belly button a little bit in order to suit your new body shape. In a few cases, our surgeon may also have to make another cut to remove more excess skin from the upper abdomen to get a better flatten abdominal area. You will experience some scarring with tummy tucks, but they will usually fade over time.
The liposuction procedure will remove the fat that is not able to come off of your body with diet and exercise. Liposuction will not remove cellulite, so you will still have to keep exercising regularly to fix that problem. There are several different types of liposuction, including tumescent liposuction, ultrasound-assisted liposuction (UAL), and laser-assisted liposuction (SmartLipo). Tumescent liposuction is the most common of these three, because it is the easiest of the three to perform. There is an injection of a sterile solution into the area of the fat. The solution is made up of saltwater, lidocaine, and epinephrine. This helps our surgeon be able to suck the fat out of the target area without a lot of blood loss and less pain.
Breast Lifts
Most of the time, when there has been excessive weight lost, the breast will suffer from some sagging as well. If this is the case for you, a breast lift would be appropriate for you to consider. When East Coast Plastic Surgeons perform a breast lift, he will remove excess skin and tissues from the breast that are causing the sagging to happen. Our surgeon will have to reposition the nipple a little higher on your chest, and usually most patients will also get breast implants along with this surgery to help improve the shape of their breasts. This type of surgery has a high touch-up rate, though. If the breasts do not look symmetrical after the first surgery, there may have to be another surgery to fix any problems.
Arm Lifts
Upper Arm Lifts are also a fairly common procedure for those who have lost an excessive amount of weight. In this type of plastic surgery, East Coast Plastic Surgeons will make a cut under the arm, most likely from the elbow to your armpit. Next, he will remove the excess skin and fat. Afterward, he will close up the incisions in a way that the scar will be less likely to be noticeable later on in the healing process. Usually for the first 10 to 14 days after the arm lift procedure, your arms will be tired and still somewhat swollen. Supportive wraps, like ace bandages, will need to be worn for at least six weeks while the swelling is trying to improve. Sometimes there will be few side effects or complications, but they are really rare. Bleeding, infections, fluid build-up and some permanent numbness in the inner arm area are all complications that can happen with any arm lift.
Thigh Lift
When East Coast Plastic Surgeons conduct a thigh lift procedure, he makes a cut on the upper and inner thigh and remove any excess fat and skin from that area. Our surgeon will then complete liposuction before, during and after the procedure is completed. Thigh lifts are pretty simple and they are considered an outpatient procedure. The surgery is relatively short – it only takes about four hours to complete. When your thigh lift is completed, you will have bruising, swelling and numbness after your surgery. These conditions usually disappear within several weeks to a few months. In very rare cases, there a risks of infection, bleeding, fluid build-up and open wounds can occur. It usually takes about two to three weeks to get yourself back on track for your daily activities. You should be back to your normal self in about six weeks. There will be scarring on the incision area, so you may want to invest in scar-healing products to help the scar fade.
Schedule Consultation
If you have lost an excessive amount of weight and you are considering plastic surgery as your way to get excess skin off of your body, call Rowe Plastic Surgery at 732.335.6736 today and set up a consultation. Our Red Bank, New Jersey surgeons will help you figure out which treatment option is the best for you and answer any questions or concerns that you may have. You can also send us a message using our online contact form.