Losing weight can offer many health benefits, allowing you to feel and look better. In some cases, losing weight can leave you with sagging, unattractive skin along certain areas of your body. These areas of skin and fat deposits can be troublesome, especially if they don’t respond to diet and exercise, and can impact your appearance.
For those who have recently lost weight but suffer from excessive fat deposits and sagging skin, body contouring can be used to improve your overall shape, giving you back the smoother, more natural contours you’ve worked hard to recover.
What is Body Contouring?
Body contouring is a multi-treatment plan that attempts to address multiple issues, targeting areas of sagging skin and stubborn fat deposits to rejuvenate your figure. Body contouring includes several procedures, including tummy tucks, arm lifts, breast lifts, and body lifts, to address cosmetic concerns. As a suite of treatments, body contouring integrates multiple surgeries to completely transform your appearance back to a toned, natural figure.
Body contouring isn’t intended to assist with weight loss but is used as an alternative for removing fat deposits and sagging skin not affected by diet and exercise. Candidates for body contouring are adults who have undergone dramatic weight loss and are at a point of weight stabilization. Candidates should also be a non-smoker and should have realistic goals with their results.
Body Contouring Recovery at Real You Plastic Surgery and Wellness
When meeting with Dr. Smith and her team, she will discuss your personal goals and needs as a patient, as numerous factors can play into the overall results of your body contour surgery. During your consultation with our clinic, we will evaluate your general health, discuss any medical conditions you may have and any previous surgeries, and discuss your body contouring options as well as risks and complications.
Prior to body contouring, you will need to be cleared for surgery by your bariatric surgeon or primary care doctor. You may be asked to complete lab tests, medical evaluations, and recommendations to avoid possible negative outcomes. These include taking medications to prepare for your surgery and avoiding medications such as aspirin, anti-inflammatory drugs, and herbal supplements.
For your comfort and well-being, Dr. Smith will go over the procedure in further detail, outlining the procedure through the following steps:
- Anesthesia: Dr. Smith will administer intravenous sedation or general anesthesia for the duration of your surgery. Your choice of sedation method will depend on the areas requiring excessive fat/skin removal and your overall health.
- Incision Procedures: The doctorwill create incisions depending on the areas chosen for surgery. Each surgical site will be diluted with anesthesia to reduce the risk of bleeding and trauma, and the length and pattern of the incisions will depend on the location and personal preference of the doctor.
- Fat Deposit and Skin Removal: From there, she will work with advanced techniques to remove the excess fat deposits and excess skin, planning incisions in strategic locations so they can be out of sight and easy to manage.
- Suture and Closing: Once the fat deposits and excess skin are fully removed from the chosen areas, the incision areas are closed with sutures and wrapped in garments or elastic bandages for healing. In some cases, temporary fluid drains may be placed to remove any signs of excess blood or fluids.
At Real You Plastic Surgery and Wellness, Dr. Smith will monitor your progress, providing detailed instructions on how to care for your surgical incisions after your body contouring procedure. To learn more about what body contouring can do for you, request a body contouring consultation today!
