Dents and bumps 6 months after liposuction - is this swelling? (photos)

Thank you for your question regarding dents and bumps six months after liposuction and whether it is swelling. Most liposuction results have resolved at 6-8 weeks. It is possible that some swelling can occur at approximately 4-6 months. However, if you're at the six months mark, the results that appear are consistent with the permanent results. If the areas of indentation bother you, you may need further liposuction and fat transfer to correct some of the defects. For areas of indentation or depression, you may consider a fat transfer. Alternatively, you may consider liposuction around the edges down to the indentation level. If levels are too raised, these areas need liposuction. All these should be addressed with your plastic surgeon and carefully marked before surgery. Please seek a plastic surgeon who treats revisions after traditional liposuction.

It takes long time, 6-12 months, for result of liposuction to settle and mature. This involves period of lumpness and irregularities, which usually soften and improve in time. Good massage always helps. Once "deformity" matures and does not change, you should consider correction which usually involves combination of selective liposuction and fat grafting. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Dear Dazzling762125,
I understand your concern. However, without a proper assessment, it would be difficult to determine what went wrong. It is best that you visit your plastic surgeon for further assessment or ask for a second opinion. Only after a thorough examination, you can get proper recommendations and advice.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

At six months post-op, the majority of your swelling has resolved and you are seeing permanent results. Youi do have a little residual fat on the right lateral thigh and some minor depressions on your left. I would return to your surgeon with these concerns to see what suggestions he/she has.
Best wishes.
Dr. Taranow

I'm sorry you are unhappy with the results from your liposuction. At six months post op all or almost all of the swelling will have resolved and you are seeing final results. I encourage you to speak with your surgeons about your concerns.

Delivering consistent quality liposuction results is more difficult than most people believe.
The number of providers who can make accurate assessments and deliver a consistent quality result is relatively scarce.
Liposuction results are permanent and irreversible.
Your results have been final for the last three months and I’m not going to change by waiting any longer.
The banana roll is not based on fat distribution and should not be treated with Liposuction. Your thighs were close to perfect before the procedure and you should not have had liposuction in that area. If treated it should have been done conservatively by someone who has sufficient skill.
Attempt at revision work can only be done with attempting to graft fat back to your thighs to try to bring you back to baseline which was far better than where you are now in my opinion.
Considering that revision work is many times more difficult than primary Liposuction if you’re going to have another procedure then you need to make absolutely sure you’re in the hands of a sufficiently talented provider.
Finding the right providers for Liposuction, Liposuction revision work including fat transfer is no easy feat.
I recommend patients start the process by having multiple in person consultations for local board-certified plastic surgeons.
During each consultation ask each provider to open up their portfolio and show you their entire collection of before and after pictures.
Providers may be apprehensive to do this and will instead of prefer to show you a handful of pre-selected results representing the best work of their career.
This is insufficient to get a clear understanding of what average results look like or how many procedures they’ve actually done.
For reference and experience provider should have no difficulty showing you a minimum of 50 send some before and after pictures for common procedures like Liposuction.
Lower extremity liposuction is technically difficult and should only be done by those who have a proven track record.
Bing board-certified in plastic surgery with an overall good reputation and years of experience does not mean somebody has mastered liposuction.
Unfortunately far too many plastic surgeons View liposuction as a simplistic procedure with a low learning curve.
In reality doing quality Liposuction is much more difficult than most people believe and the number of plastic surgeons you can do this procedure well on a consistent basis is rare.
Patients should be far more selective so they think they ever need to be when it comes to choosing a provider.
I recognize the telling you this after the fact isn’t necessarily so helpful.
It is however the same process you need to go through to find the right provider to do revision work if you want to go that route.
You do need to recognize the revision work as many times more difficult than primary Liposuction and what can be achieved it’s going to require first and foremost setting your expectations correctly based on what can and cannot be achieved with secondary procedures as well as realizing the amount of work involved with finding the right provider.
I don’t believe patients can properly vets plastic surgeons by having virtual consultations.
I don’t believe patients can properly vets plastic surgeons by having virtual consultations.
To find the right provider requires having multiple in person consultations at which time do you need to push providers to show you enough before and after pictures to convince you they know what they’re doing.
When reviewing before and after pictures make sure the providers only show you previous patients who have similar body characteristics to your own.
Look very carefully at all areas treated to make sure there are no skin contour irregularities anywhere. Ask the surgeons to review the pictures with you and asked him specifically to point out exactly what areas were treated and what areas were not treated with Liposuction.
Look carefully at transition zones between treated and untreated areas to make sure they look natural and appropriate.
Does should be no contour irregularities anywhere on the treated areas.
The banana role is a fold that happens in an upright standing position. when standing upright the skin on the back of the thigh is pushed into the buttocks and this creates a skin fold on some people. this skin redundancy that only happens in an upright standing position allows full flexion of the hips.
The fullness in this area does not represent excess subcutaneous fat
This is why it should not be treated with Liposuction because the problem is not related to fat distribution.
That area bulges and creates a fold on many people in a standing position just like the admin does on most people in a sitting position..
It’s a little hard to go over everything you need to know about this with an online correspondence like posting on realself.
To get an assessment and a better understanding of the treatment options you really need to find somebody who truly specializes in liposuction and fat transfer.
Sufficiently experience providers should have hundreds if not thousands of before and after pictures of well done quality work.
In reality a substantial number of plastic surgeons don’t like doing liposuction and think of it as a simplistic procedure.
With that attitude it’s no wonder there’s so much bad work being done.
In reality Liposuction has more variation and outcomes than any other plastic surgery procedure based purely on who does the surgery.
In reality Liposuction has more variation and outcomes than any other plastic surgery procedure based purely on who does the surgery.
Like I mentioned earlier this includes plenty of board-certified plastic surgeons with years of experience who have all the right credentials including overall good reputations.
I recommend most patients start by having at least five in person consultations before committing to surgery and consider having more and less you feel very confident you found the right provider.
Considering that revision work is very very difficult if you need to be even more selective.
It is a time-consuming process. Patient’s need to be advocate for themselves and conduct themselves during a consultation like they are the consumer who is purchasing the service of the provider.
You have the right to demand seeing sufficient examples of previous work to be convinced the provider knows what they’re doing.
If you have any doubts simply slow down and schedule more consultations.
Avoiding temptation I’m doing this via virtual consultations unless you absolutely can’t do it any other way.
I generally recommend people avoid traveling long distances for elective surgical procedures but for some people there simply isn’t enough local talents.
Your situation is unfortunate but it is also unfortunately quite common.
In the end your surgeon is responsible for the outcome and you are responsible for choosing that surgeon.
People think the plastic surgeons should know how to do a Liposuction but the truth is that doing this procedure well including the ability to accurate assess patient’s know what results would look like and be able to show those results by providing previous before and after pictures turns out to be far more difficult than people think and ends up being quite rare occurrence.
When is out slow down and schedule more consultations.
Since you shouldn’t of had Liposuction in this area in the first place doing more liposuction is most likely going to make things worse.
That is not to say lower extremity liposuction should never be done.
It is a difficult procedure to do well and sufficiently talented and experience providers should know in advance when they can improve someone’s outcome and when they cannot.
All too often greed gets in the way and providers assume that they are better at Liposuction that they actually are.
Good luck,
Mats Hagstrom MD