Tips to Minimize Body Contouring Scars

Despite body contouring scars being an inevitable result of reshaping the body with plastic surgery, most body contouring patients agree it’s well worth it.

After significant weight loss, your body has difficulty reshaping your skin to match your new physical contours. Especially when patients are older and weight loss is rapid — as is often the case with Ozempic use, gastric bypass surgery, gastric sleeve surgery, or similar — fat is dropped quickly, and the skin has little chance to catch up. This results in large amounts of unwanted excess skin and loose skin folds that can be both uncomfortable and irritating for individuals.

Body contouring surgery can improve these outcomes.

Unfortunately, many patients put off or never get the body contouring surgery they ultimately desire because of an unfavored outcome of body contouring surgery: scars.

Below, we’ll go over some of our best tips for minimizing body contouring scars. We want to help you achieve an excellent outcome after all the hard work you’ve put into both losing weight and undergoing loose skin surgery.

Table of Contents

Top Tips for Minimizing Scars After Body Contouring Surgery

1. Choose an expert surgeon with experience.

As always, only go with a board certified and well-experienced plastic surgeon to remove excess skin after massive weight loss. Whether you’re opting for a lower body lift, upper body lift, thigh lift, Brazilian butt lift (buttock lift), arm lift, liposuction, breast lift, or otherwise, you need to work with a top-notch surgeon.

2. Always follow your specific aftercare instructions following surgery.

Following the removal of unwanted skin and fat on your abdomen, thighs, breasts, upper arms, and elsewhere, make sure you take it easy. Body contouring is major surgery. You need to rest, relax, and get plenty of sleep in order to fully heal.

No heavy lifting or physical exertion should be performed for several weeks — or even months. Talk to your surgeon about specific timing.

In addition, do not even stretch or physically strain near the areas where you’ve had incisions. This can stretch and distort your incisions, causing unwanted scar maturation (more visible scarring). In short, whatever body contouring surgery recovery directives you are given, follow them.

3. Use silicone scar treatments after wound healing has completed.

Once your surgeon has cleared the use of a topical scar treatment, try using one based in silicone. This ingredient has been clinically proven help reduce the appearance of scars over time.

4. Consider scar massage (if cleared by your surgeon).

Again, only if your surgeon has said it is okay, consider using massage to help break up scar tissue. Especially if you are concerned bout have raised scars or bumpiness where you had incisions, scar massage can help break up the tightly bound tissue beneath the skin in these areas.

5. Decide how much you’re willing to sacrifice for the procedure.

There’s no easy way to put this: After a surgery involving incisions, you’re going to have scars. Body contouring surgeries require incisions, so this means scars.

However, if you have finally achieved your hard-won weight loss goals and now you are struggling severely with sagging skin, you may be mentally ready to take on these scars so that you can benefit from the upper or lower body lift, tummy tuck, or whatever surgery you’re opting for.

Ultimately, you and your surgeon should do your best to minimize scars both before and after wound healing. However, in the end, you must be willing to have some visible scarring to get rid of that excess sagging skin that is bringing down the quality of your life.

FAQ: Scars After Body Contouring Surgery

Are body contouring scars different for men and women?

In most cases, body contouring after weight loss is the same for men and women. Most men and women struggle the most with excess skin on the abdomen (and around the trunk), buttocks, thighs, arms, and breasts. In this way, male body contouring surgery scars are quite similar to women body contouring scars.

With that said, every patient is different and has a unique body with unique concerns. Moreover, women may wish to have more focus put on contouring their abdomen and thighs/hips/buttocks to create an hourglass shape, in addition to reshaping their breasts. With body contouring for men, on the other hand, there may be more interest in reshaping the chest, getting rid of excess skin (gynecomastia surgery), and tightening the abdominal muscles.

Can you get tattoos to cover up body contouring scars?

Yes, some patients may opt to get tattoos to cover up body contouring scars on back, thighs, abdomen, arms, or elsewhere. In some cases, patients will choose a pattern, picture, word, or design to cover up their scars.

In other cases, tattoos may act as a “skin camouflage”, using natural skin tones to match the scars to the pigment of the surrounding skin. This isn’t always possible, however. For example, if scars are raised, tattoos should probably not be used.

As always, only go to a professional, licensed tattoo artist if you are interested in this option.

How much does it cost to have body contouring surgery?

Prices vary drastically when it comes to body contouring cost. This is not only because of the nature of the procedure (different individual surgeries for every patient), but also because different surgeons charge different prices for their services. Please call to book a consultation for an accurate quote on your surgery.

Call Today to Set Up a Consultation

Scheduling an in-office consultation appointment for body contouring surgery is as easy as giving our practice a call. Double board certified plastic surgeon Dr. David Sieber is highly-trained and experienced in performing body lifts, tummy tucks, and other body contouring procedures for weight loss patients.

At your appointment, you’ll be able to discuss your main concerns with Dr. Sieber and look at body contouring before and after photos for inspiration. Please bring a brief history of any medical conditions, treatments, or prescriptions you’ve had or have, and also jot down any specific questions you’d like to ask.

References

https://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/blog/four-questions-to-ask-before-you-consider-body-contouring