Are you considering liposuction to reduce unwanted fat deposits — but worried about how treatment will affect the tone of your skin? It is common for candidates to ask Los Angeles-area plastic surgeon George Sanders about the possibility of loose skin after liposuction. If you have questions or concerns, this blog post is for you.
Difficult to Tell without Consultation
Whether you will have loose skin left over after liposuction is hard to determine in a general sense. Every patient’s anatomy is a little different, so it is difficult for Dr. Sanders to confidently predict your results without meeting you. He must perform a physical examination, noting the quality of your skin and other factors, before he can give you an idea of what to expect after surgery. This takes place during the preoperative consultation and discussion of your treatment goals. Dr. Sanders always does his best to be candid and realistic with liposuction candidates in order to set proper expectations (though it is not always possible to predict the exact results).
Contributing Factors
There are a few elements that come into play when discussing the possibility of skin laxity after liposuction.
The first (and most important) element is the patient’s natural skin tone and laxity. Some people have naturally firm and elastic skin that is more likely to retract over the smaller treated area after surgery. Other patients have existing loose or redundant skin that won’t improve after fat has been removed. In fact, removing excess fat would only exacerbate the appearance of loose, sagging skin. In that scenario, the skin should be surgically tightened or removed to achieve the desired body contour and appearance.
Another important element is age; younger patients tend to have more elastic skin, whereas many older patients have inherent skin laxity problems. After the age of 40, the skin loses some of its ability to recover after liposuction.
The third element is how close the patient is to his or her ideal body weight. A patient that is significantly over their target weight doesn’t have a good chance of seeing his or her skin retract in the treated area after liposuction. (Not to mention, someone that is significantly overweight is not a good candidate for body contouring.) If you are substantially heavier than you would like to be, you should try to lose weight via healthy lifestyle habits to reduce excess fat and give you a better idea of how your skin will respond to fat removal with liposuction.
Contact Dr. George Sanders
If you have additional questions about liposuction and its results, feel free to contact Dr. Sanders and arrange a consultation at his Los Angeles-area plastic surgery practice. Call 818.981.3333 or email us today.
