Will Skin Be Tightened 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.

The liposuction procedure itself does not cause the skin to shrink. However, liposuction is a procedure that is selected for patients who have problem areas with the elastic skin covering them. In properly selected patients removal of the underlying fat will result in shrinking of the skin. However, in patients who have inelastic skin liposuction can indeed make the overlying skin appear more loose and uneven.Consultation with a plastic surgeon will give them an opportunity to evaluate your anatomy and skin quality to determine how best to achieve your goals.

Most patients are near normal weight and desire permanent contour changes. Patients with average weight, localized fat collections, and healthy elastic skin are the best candidates for liposuction as there is some tightening of the skin as part of the healing process. Obesity, cellulite, or loose, sagging, and inelastic skin are several conditions which may tend towards less desirable results. In fact, these problems may be worsened by liposuction. Unfortunately, many individuals performing liposuction are not trained in other techniques of body contouring and may not have the experience to recognize that a different procedure (such as a tummy tuck) may provide a better result for the patient. Suction Assisted Lipectomy (SAL) may be used in conjunction with other body contouring procedures, such as breast reduction, tummy tuck, thigh lift, or facelift.

Smartlipo can help tighten the skin a bit but mildly. It also depends on your skin elasticity - if it's good then you'll have better retraction. It's important to wear your compression garment and follow your surgeon's instructions to improve retraction.

The skin does shrink after liposuction, depending on the patient and the way in which the liposuction was performed.  It is very common to have nice smooth contours, but this depends on your starting point.

                  Skin tightening following liposuction varies from
patient to patient and depends on a variety of factors.  It’s not unusual to have skin
tightening following liposuction in patients who are younger and have good skin
tone.  In older patients with poor
skin tone, liposuction might result in skin sag because of poor skin
contraction.

                  Skin
tightening isn’t unique to post-operative liposuction patients, but also occurs
following massive weight loss and pregnancy.  How individual patients respond to these changes is
dependent upon their genetics and biologic behavior.  Although multiple liposuction techniques are available that
reportedly tighten skin, the patients wound healing biology and genetics are
the most important variables.

                  If
you’re considering liposuction and are concerned about skin sag, it’s important to consult a board certified plastic surgeon
with experience in this area.  This
surgeon should be able to assess your risk for skin sag.

The skin may tighten back up again to a certain extent, a process that is helped along by wearing a compression garment after your surgery. However if you have a lot of loose skin it will not. Sagging can become very noticeable. For this reason, a tummy tuck is more suitable when there is excess skin and fat present.

Unfortunately liposuction does not shrink and tighten the skin despite the claim of many of the newly introduced "smart' devices. Skin laxity is in general a consistent and permanent occurrence and can only be treated by lifts and excisional surgery such as an Abdominoplasty. Liposuction in face of loose skin can make matters worse and create further laxity. So make sure that you understand the mechanism liposuction and more importantly make sure you wee out the false claims of many of the newly introduced devices.
www.egrari.com

I have read all of the studies and tried some (not all) of the latest laser liposuction technology, but I am NOT convinced that they will tighten skin. If they did, I would buy the technology immediately. After all, this is what I do...and I want to give all of my patients outstanding liposuction results.
The laser liposuction clearly helps to melt fat. I have seen this with my own eyes, but the results at three months did not seem to be any different than with tumescent liposuction alone.
The one thing that these procedures has brought to light is that liposuction can be done very effectively under local anesthesia. I have been doing this for years, and I'm glad to see that so many more of my colleagues are doing the same now.
If the technology ever does emerge that will tighten skin, I will have it. So far, it just doesn't exist.

After liposuction, the skin does somewhat retract back but there is a limit. A lot depends on your skin tone to begin with and age. The younger you are the better chance that the skin will retract.
If you already have stretch marks in the area you are concerned about, then I would rely on liposuction, no matter what technique is used to have retraction of the skin.
Hope that helps.

Traditional liposuction will remove fat and cause trauma to the tissue beneath the skin and to the collagen within the deep layers of the skin. By nature, damage to collagen results in tightening of the skin. I would consider this more of a side benefit of traditional liposuction than a goal. In the newer laser lipolysis systems, the goal is not only fat reduction, but, also skin tightening. The wavelengths that many of these systems use are designed specifically for
1. fat melting and
2. skin tightening. Depending on the quality of your skin and the amount of fat you are presenting with, you can expect a variable, but, noticeable amount of skin tightening following your laser lipolysis procedure.