Body Procedures

An Enhanced You Cosmetic Surgery Offers Body Contouring – Palo Alto & San Jose Area

Thigh lift and arm lift procedures can provide targeted improvement to specific problem areas of the body, improving definition and overall body contouring. Palo Alto and San Jose area cosmetic surgeon Dr. Robert Lowen carefully tailors these procedures to the unique needs of his patients to achieve beautiful, natural-looking results.

An Enhanced You Cosmetic Surgery Offers Body Contouring – Palo Alto & San Jose Area

• Thighplasty Overview
• Thighplasty Recovery
• In-Depth Thigh Lift Discussion
• Thigh Lift Risks
• Thigh Lift Summary

Body Contouring Palo Alto-Thighplasty Overview

If you have sagging or lax skin of the buttocks and lateral thighs, you may be a candidate for a thigh lift. The thigh lift procedure is also known as a thighplasty, which lifts and tightens the buttocks, giving a smoother, tighter, and more youthful body contour. When receiving any form of body contouring, Palo Alto & San Jose area patients recommend Dr. Lowen.

When skin and fat sag, creating dimpled, wrinkled skin, a lifting procedure can dramatically restore tightness and contour. An analogy would be the difference between a fitted sheet and a top sheet. By reinforcing the attachments of the skin and counteracting the effects of gravity, the wrinkled skin is unfurled, tightened and restored to the contours enjoyed in youth. Excess fat alone is not an indication for a thigh lift, but when laxity is accompanied by excess fat, liposuction is used for the fatty component of the problem.

You can judge if you are a candidate for a thighplasty by holding the skin of your lateral thigh firmly, pulling up, and seeing how you look on direct examination and in a mirror. If you see a significant change that is pleasing to you, you may be a candidate for thighplasty or another type of body contouring. Palo Alto patients frequently combine thighplasty with abdominoplasty, sometimes done at the same time, but more often as separate procedures.

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Body Contouring Palo Alto-Thighplasty Recovery

Thighplasty, like abdominoplasty, is an excisional procedure and one of the body contouring, Palo Alto options. Skin is removed and the skin flaps are sutured together under significant tension. Recovery takes into account the need to relieve tension on the wound by keeping the thighs bent and the knees about shoulder-length apart during the initial healing period of one week. Recovery for social activities and work is about three weeks, with gradual decrease of swelling and bruising in that time.

Recovery for lateral buttock/thighplasty and many other types of body contouring, Palo Alto surgeon recommends aftercare in a surgical facility is required for two to three days. Activity is minimal during this time. At An Enhanced You Cosmetic Surgery Center personal needs are cared for by professional nursing personnel. A catheter is usually left in the bladder for several days to minimize the need to get up to use the bathroom. The patient then recovers at home with some assistance for the next week. Dissolving sutures are usually used for the skin closure, so removal is not needed.

Recovery from a medial thigh lift is much quicker. Most patients are up and about in two days, and discomfort is minimal. Care must be taken not to part the legs more than about shoulder width for one month to minimize tension on the incisions in the groin crease. Sutures are removed in about seven to ten days. Drains are used for at least one week to remove fluid that will accumulate under the skin.

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In-Depth Thigh Lift Discussion-Body Contouring Palo Alto

Lateral thigh lifting is a formidable surgical procedure. It is a long and tedious operation, but can be rewarding to both patient and surgeon if careful attention is paid to suturing the flap margins using the superficial fascial system.

Lateral thigh lifts can easily take eight hours and longer if combined with abdominoplasty. That is why they are often staged. It is best if the procedure is done in a facility where the patient can stay after surgery. This is not an outpatient procedure.

Pre-operative markings are done with the patient’s assistance, wearing typical underwear, so that the final incision location can plan to be hidden beneath them.

As previously mentioned, women are often disappointed when after their liposuction, they still have bulging at the lateral hip area and waviness or wrinkling of the skin of their thighs. They sometimes seek more liposuction and the problem of deflated, wrinkled and unsupported skin is made worse. By doing the lifting test, you can tell if the problem is because the skin has fallen down. When you lift the lateral thigh skin, if the bulges that concerned you are almost gone, then further liposuction will not remove them. If you have not had liposuction, and the bulges are substantially corrected by lifting up, then the body contouring, Palo Alto procedure called thighplasty will be needed to correct the problem.

The idea of having a long scar is not that appealing. That is why not many of these procedures are done. However, using the technique of multiple-layer suturing of the superficial fascia system, the die scar quality can be good. When it fades to a fine line, assuming it does, it may be an acceptable trade-off for a major change in skin tightness and restoration of youthful contour.

Concerned about wound healing for body contouring? Palo Alto surgeon says problems can occur from localized infection, exposure of one of the permanent, buried sutures that come up close to the under surface of the skin, or from suture breakage, allowing a portion of the skin edges to come apart. Should this happen, healing will proceed more slowly, and that area of the incision will have poorer scar quality.

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Thigh Lift Risks

Risks are similar to those for abdominoplasty and other types of body contouring. Palo Alto surgeon Dr. Lowen says risks include seroma, infection, blood accumulation under the skin, also called hematoma, wound opening, also known as dehiscence (de- hiss’- ence), and asymmetry. Failure to meet the goals of the operation is also a risk, and partial revisions for further tightening should be accepted ahead of time since they could be necessary. Body contouring, Palo Alto, revisions would not usually be as extensive a procedure as the initial procedure.

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Summary of Body Contouring, Palo Alto Thigh Lift Procedures

Circumferential body-lifting, including lateral and medial thighplasty and abdominoplasty, give the most dramatic changes in body contour and body image. They can be combined as needed with localized liposuction. The lateral thigh lift is a major procedure that is time-consuming and correspondingly expensive and requires a three-week recovery. For the motivated patient, the long incisional scar is a satisfactory trade-off for the results obtained.

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For more information about procedure terms, click here for the Cosmetic Surgery San Jose glossary.