Loose Skin After Weight Loss Surgery
Can Be Tighten Through Plastic Surgery
Published On : Thursday ,
September 10,
2009
 Joseph
Michaels, a plastic surgeon, explains that the patients of weight
loss surgery can have loose skin after losing weight and several
surgeries are present for helping in tightening this loose skin.
The patients of weight loss have extra skin after rapidly losing the
extra pounds. This skin can be removed through plastic surgery and
in this way; the patients will achieve the body that they had
wanted. But many people have queries about how and when this plastic
surgery can be done and what type of scars are left behind.
Dr. Joseph Michaels, surgeon with the Belmont Aesthetic &
Reconstructive Plastic Surgery of Maryland and Virginia, said that
scars are a sure thing, but after weight loss surgery, the time is
not set for the plastic surgery to take place. He said that it may
be different from patient to patient and generally, the weight of
the patient should be stable for about 3 months. Depending upon what
kind of weight loss surgery they had gone through, it may be
anywhere between one to two years. No set point is determined but
being metabolically optimized is very important for the patient
before the surgery.
Whenever we hear about these kinds of surgeries, the phrase ‘tummy
tuck’ comes first to our minds. But Michaels said that the range is
much beyond that. He mentioned several areas, driving attention to
the fact that apart from abdomen, women also want tightened skin
around their breast, thigh, buttock and arm regions. Men having
loose skin request surgery to be done in their chest area. Every
patient is different and surgeons give due consideration to what
they want from the surgery.
Michaels added that scars are inevitable. Patients of weight loss
surgery lose several pounds of weight and production of excess skin
can have the skin tightened, but one of the side effects of this
kind of surgery is scars. They can be hidden with the help of
surgery, but they are not possible to be avoided. He said that
scarring history and genetics also play an important role in the end
result.
He said that they try to put the scars in the places where they are
minimally visible or noticeable. There are techniques that can be
used to hide the scars under bikini or bra lines, if possible. And
all these options are discussed with the patients at the time of
consultation itself.
Another question that is commonly asked is how the patients can pay
for this. Some people try to get insurance for their plastic
surgeries. Michaels says that insurers generally pay only for tummy
tucks and sometimes for conditions like panniculitis only if it is
deemed necessary in medical terms. He added that surgeons may offer
information regarding financing and lending services which can be
helpful. |
