Body Contouring - One Path to Beauty After Weight Loss

With the rising popularity of the gastric bypass procedure in order to address obesity (from its milder forms to morbid obesity), plastic surgeons are now intently focusing as to how to beautify a person after all those pounds are gone from the body.

Extreme weight loss often involves the massive displacement of fat tissue from just beneath the human skin. Rapid fat loss means that loose, extra skin is left where the fat used to be.

This poses many problems for patients who would like to look good after the weight loss, but can't because of the loose skin around their arms, their abdominal region and their legs.

For all its elasticity, the human skin cannot completely cope with expansion (extra weight) and sudden contraction (loss of weight). The general shape that we want the skin to take is no longer found.

The answer to this conundrum is of course constructive aesthetic surgery. Plastic surgeons are now evaluating new routes into improving the cosmetic appearance of the human skin after massive weight loss.

New procedures

Body contouring procedures are now being altered to make sure that unsightly "plateaus" would be reduced. This can bee done by re-structuring the incisions on problem areas such as the abdomen. The alterations to the more traditional aesthetic medical procedures have done wonders for those with medium body build, as well as the extra large body build.

Doctors from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons stated that the new shaping and contouring procedures now anticipate more the amount of tissue being displaced and the general movement of the skin after the displacement of the tissue.

A small study by the same organization in the United State yielded positive results: out of the 40 individual test subjects, 38 rated the final outcome of the new contouring techniques as "very good".

This development in body contouring gives hope to those who have been suffering from loose skin for quite a long time now, since the new shaping procedures have the potential of eliminating completely those unsightly flaps.

Altering the tradition

Dennis Hurwitz, a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons is emphasizing the need for doctors elsewhere to adjust the procedures repeatedly, based on the unique needs of the patients.

For example, if the body type is classified as "large", then more liposuction should be implemented before incisions are made to remove the fatty tissue.

More liposuction, according to Hurwitz, will allow the human skin to literally "snap back into place", since the displacement was done chemically, and the fat was removed in a liquid form, opposed to the complete removal of tissue.

Body volume and external appearance always count, and thus, the new body contouring procedures should always aim for a more robust, natural-looking effect on the body. Other recommendations include more use of the traditional scalpel to minimize the over-all damage to the skin tissue itself.

The reason for this recommendation is that for the longest time, plastic surgeons preferred electrocautery because it requires less effort, and cauterizes blood vessel as it cuts through human tissue. However, since electrocautery still uses electricity, it damages the skin tissue as it passes through.