Let us see how skin looseness affects the treatment:

For patients who have loose skin after a lot of weight loss or weight gain or for females who have loose skin after multiple pregnancies, liposuction is not the right treatment because you will only get the best results of liposuction when the skin will shrink. That's why unfortunately, the only treatment for skin looseness is skin excision.

Mini tummy tuck with liposuction or standard tummy tuck surgery is suggested depending on how loose your skin is. In tummy tuck, along with removing fat from liposuction, the recti muscles are tightened so that you get a good shape and your extra skin is cut.

Then who is liposuction for?

Patients in whom the skin is not too loose and the muscles are not loose are candidates for liposuction.

What is the difference between Liposuction and Tummy Tuck?

Liposuction is a daycare surgical procedure with a short recovery time. The scars are also much smaller when compared to tummy tuck. The patient is discharged in the evening after the surgery. After liposuction, there may be complaints of mild soreness and pressure garments have to be used for 6 to 8 weeks. The recovery time ranges from 10 to 12 days.

Those who need a tummy tuck have a longer recovery time of 2 to 3 weeks and it depends on which tummy tuck procedure you have done. You are discharged along with the drain. Many times, liposuction is a part of tummy tuck.

Patients who do not want scars at all opt for liposuction despite having loose skin. It is important for them to understand that after liposuction your skin will become looser and usually you will have to do tummy tuck surgery. My advice is that you should listen to the right opinion of your plastic surgeon and choose the right procedure in the first place because if the skin is not shrinking properly then there may be irregularity along with looseness which will not suit you at all. If you accept this then you can undergo liposuction.

Ideal patients for liposuction are those who are young, have no loose skin and only have excess fat, or who do not need scars at all.

Ideal candidates for tummy tuck are those who are middle age or old-age patients who have loose skin and muscles and especially women who have gone through multiple pregnancies and have stable weight loss, and a minimal amount of excess fat.

A lot of patients are not ideal. Very often it happens that the skin of the patients is more or less loose, there is only a little fat and the muscles are a little loose, such cases come in the gray area. In such cases, it is a bit difficult to choose between tummy tuck or liposuction, although it will not be so difficult for an experienced plastic surgeon. In such cases, mini tummy tuck and liposuction can be safely combined.

How do we decide this at Arra Aesthetics?

I check the detailed history of people who come to me for body contouring. I listen to their primary concern. I assess their lifestyle so that I can understand their weight pattern. Those patients who follow a healthy lifestyle have good results for many years.

I analyse the patient's expectations and how the procedure will be done with them and discuss the postoperative course in detail. I inform the patient of alternative methods of fat loss like cryolipo, laserlipo, injection lipolysis with their expected outcome. Only after this do the patient and I take a mutual decision so that the patient can understand correctly that if we are doing liposuction then why are we doing it or if we are doing tummy tuck then why. I believe that patients have a right to the correct information. The right information is a right of patients and for this reason, patients are more satisfied.

I hope that you are sharing my blogs with those who need them.

Always stay fit and take care of yourself.