It takes so much effort, sacrifice, and sometimes even financial resources to lose a massive amount of body weight. If lately you have accomplished the herculean goal of getting rid of significant weight, then you deserve a pat on the back.
You must have done it through exercise and dieting or via bariatric surgery, or the combination of these three methods. Whatever exact path you have taken to achieve weight loss, however, you cannot seem to escape the effects of post bariatric loss: excess skin, loose and droopy skin, and stretch marks.
Excess Skin All Over
The drooping and extra skin after the dramatic weight loss can develop and appear at almost any part of your body: the face, neck, upper arms, breast, abdomen, buttocks, and thighs. In short, excess skin can be had from your face to thigh area. All these drooping skin and loss of skin tissue elasticity can render your body contour to look irregular and misshapen.
Hence, you need to consider undergoing a series of post bariatric surgery options intended to effectively eliminate excess skin and improve the droopy skin tissues.
The said options are basically body contouring procedures (which may be done at once or separately) aimed at fixing the extra and sagging skin problems in certain body areas, including:
- Tummy Tuck After Weight Loss. A little different than the standard tummy tuck (abdominoplasty), this surgery is designed to be much safer and the abdomen is tightened much more significantly if done alone (instead of being done together with a total body lift).
- Arm Lift After Weight Loss. The loose skin on the upper arms is removed with a brachioplasty operation.
- Breast Lift After Weight Loss. Massive weight reduction normally results to loss in breast volume. Thus, a mastopexy or breast lift can remove excess skin, as well as lift and reshape the nipple and breast tissue. Moreover, other patients also seek to have breast implants to restore their lost volume.
- Thigh Lift After Weight Loss. The outer thighs and inner thighs are often loose and droopy after a massive weight loss. Thigh left, if done separately, is generally considered a safe and effective way to improve these regions.
- Facelift After Weight Loss. The facial skin often deflates and becomes droopy, making affected patients look older after weight loss. The facelift removes this excess skin and restores facial soft tissue volume.
Staged Preference of Dr. Yates
Salt Lake City Plastic Surgeon Dr. York Yates prefers staging of the necessary post bariatric surgery procedures, instead of combining the surgeries and performing them at once. This procedural preference of Dr. Yates is in stark contrast with the other surgeons who want to combine the body contouring procedures in the hope of getting things done quickly and less costly.
For the skilled and experienced surgeon, he has observed that the costs to the patient of a combined procedure often end up being more than staged procedures due to facility fees. In his Utah office operating suite, he generally does not ask for additional facility fees on most of the procedures done.
More importantly, Dr. Yates’ experience has made it clear to him that separating surgery by stages can likely ensure greater safety and optimize outcome of each component procedures. Giving time allowance for the body to heal and recover after each procedure is helpful in achieving optimal outcome. Moreover, while getting surgical scar is a necessary tradeoff for these post bariatric surgeries, the Board Certified Plastic Surgeon will do his best to minimize and place the scars in well hidden body areas.
Schedule a personal consultation now with Dr. Yates, please call us at (801) 525-8741 or reserve a schedule thru this Online Contact Form.