Texas Lap Band Surgeons Talk With You

A few more thoughts on loose skin after bariatric surgery.

There will be times when a patient has done all the right things: lost weight slowly (1-2 pounds per week), took vitamins, exercised, stayed hydrated and took care of their skin.  But they may still have more loose skin than they feel comfortable with or that keeps them from wearing clothing that would fit the “new” them.  For these folks, there are several more serious options to consider.

For arms, chins and some abdomens SmartLipo laser therapy can help tighten skin and get rid of remaining excess fat under the skin that prevents it from tightening.  While it is a surgical procedure, it is much less invasive with a dramatically shorter recovery time than major surgery.  SmartLipo patients can expect about 50-70% of the results they might see with traditional surgery, although with only about 5-10% of the recovery time and discomfort.

However, there will be some patients who simply have too much loose skin to be addressed by the SmartLipo laser alone.  For them there are more agressive surgical options such as arm lifts (brachioplasty, which requires an incision from the elbow to the armpit), abdominoplasty or “tummy tuck” (incision from hip-to-hip, sometimes all the way around the body), face lift, mastopexy or “breast lift”.   All of these are major operations requiring general anesthesia and weeks of recovery time and resulting large scars.  However, there is no substitute for the amount of skin tightening and body contour change that can be achieved with these operations.  I like to tell patients that they will look dramatically better in their clothes, although without clothes will have some fairly dramatic scars.

Some insurances will pay for some of these operations.  Mastopexy (breast lift) and panniculectomy (surgically removing the apron of skin at the bottom of the abdomen) are the most commonly covered by insurance companies, although there is no guarantee that an individual policy will pay.  Rarely, I’ve seen insurance pay for brachioplasty (arm lift), but neck/face lifts are almost never covered.  Look in your insurance manual or on the insurance company website to see what benefits your plan has to offer.

Last, I want to caution you against all of the silly and non-effective therapies out there.  Sandra, our nurse practitioner, just showed me the other day an ad about a compression garmet that allegedly reduces your clothes size and tightens skin – permanently!  That’s nonsense.  And let me state for the record that there are NO therapies for cellulite approved by the FDA specifically for cellulite.  You can pay thousands of dollars for endermologie, body wraps, massage, creams and lotions, but within a few hours, your cellulite will be right back.  Please be skeptical when you see these ads by major cosmetic companies or pharmaceutical companies – none of their goops or potions work for fat or cellulite, so save your money.

If you ever have any questions on a product or service, I’d be happy to discuss it at your office visit or I’ll try to respond to your questions posted here.