Yes, skin does contract after liposuction

Dear Morenita,

Yes skin does contract after liposuction. However, if you are 45, it is unrealistic to expect your tummy to look like it did when you are 18. How good is the skin contraction? Good enough that many are very happy with the improvement and grateful that they avoid the disfiguring scar created by a tummy tuck. However, there are individuals who will benefit from the tummy tuck particularly if there is already a structural weakeness in the stomach wall, or a significant loss of skin elasticity as examples.

Carefully seek out individuals in your community who are motivated to help you achieve your personal goals. In particular, consider seeing surgeons of differing specialties such as dermatologic surgery and general plastic surgery. This helps you to avoid informational bias that might occur if you only see surgeons of one particular type of specialty. 

As evidence by pregnancy, skin is elastic and will shrink somewhat with certain types of liposuction, especially the tumescent technique with the micro cannulas. A lot depends on your genetics, if you have stretch marks or not and how the procedure is done. Don't rush into a tummy tuck if you don't have to. 

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 Patients, device companies, and surgeons talk about skin tightening after liposuction. If we are strict about what is happening biologically and physiologically, the only way skin itself can tighten is for scarring or some other contracting force to be applied to the skin. Skin contouring is different from skin tightening. The only way for skin to tighten is to create scarring in the dermal or deeper layer of the skin. Liposuction does not do this. Energy-assisted liposuction devices claim to create a tightening effect by causing reactions in the deep layer of skin or superficial subcutaneous layers produced by thermal injury. The skin can re-drape or re-contour but not from skin tightening per se. Usually liposuction will cause re-contouring of the skin by a passive release of the intrinsic elasticity of the skin and dermal layer. The more "juicy" the fatty areas, the more it will do this. A balloon that is bouncy and full will collapse when air is removed. A floppy plastic bag will simply hang down.

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