Among plastic surgery patients few myths are always alive. In short series I would like to abolish few of them.

Today I would like to talk about liposuction. Very often I get e-mail and phone call from people asking me how much weight will they loose after the surgery and how many kilograms of fat will be sucked out from their bodies.
My dears, it is very important to say that liposuction IS NOT a weight loss surgery and has NOTHING to do with losing weight. Many people believe that it is enough to suck some fat from certain part of their bodies and they will become much thinner. Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way ;-(

Liposuction is a procedure that shapes our body. The best results are for people who are already slim and have normal weight or people who are only slightly overweight. There are many methods that help to qualify if certain person should get liposuction. One of them that I see most often if BMI (Body Mass Index – it is easy to calculate it with calculators available on the internet). A patient is allowed to have liposuction if his BMI is not higher than 32/31. Obese people should not have liposuction. Obesity increases chances of post- procedure complications and lowers the chances of achieving more satisfying results.

The effect of liposuction is best described by the example of ‘love handles,’ those very difficult to get rid of rolls, visible when you wear low rise pants. People who have them can easily remove them by using liposuction of that body part. What will the result be like? Not in kilograms, but by looking at our clothing we will notice a big difference, as the pant size will change and the ‘love handles’ won’t be visible, or our pants will become very loose.

Important: the results of liposuction are seen few weeks after the surgery (sometimes we have to wait as long as 3 months). After the surgery there is a big swelling in the treated area. Depending on individual patent, this swelling may last up to few weeks after the surgery. About 6 weeks after the treatment we can wear special slimming belts.

Liposuction is usually done on: the stomach, waist, love handles, hips, inner or/and outer thighs, arms, knees sides and chin.

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Abdominoplasty (also called Tummy Tuck) is one of the most serious plastic surgeries. Many women have problem when their belly fat is stubborn and doesn’t respond to dieting and exercises. Very often this problem was brought by pregnancy, C-section, quick and significant body weight loss. And then we cannot delude ourselves, especially those whose skin quality leaves a lot of to ask for: in these cases abdomiolplasty is the only way to achieve a flat belly, within the possibilities for each individual.

This procedure is very controversial, mainly due to a big scar that is left afterwards. Usually it runs from hip to hip along or over pubic symphisis, depending on individual patient’s prospects. It is also linked to many post-procedure risks and complications. Healing depends on each individual patient’s general health predispositions and ability to heal and how he behaves during the healing period.

When to undergo or abandon abdominoplasty?

First of all our body weight must be stable.

If we want to lose weight we must have the procedure only after we are satisfied with our weight, which means it is stable and regular (if a woman’s weight can be stable, but that is a different problem). Each weight loss or weight gain after the surgery may have a big impact on the surgery’s results.

Secondly, if we have problems with our weight we are not good candidates for this procedure. Obesity heightens the risk of post-procedure complications and lowers the chances for more satisfactory outcome of the procedure. If we are considering abdominoplasty we first need to make sure our weight is normal or only slightly overweight. We cannot be obese. The most common way to check if you qualify for this procedure is calculating your body mass index, (BMI). The best index would be less than 30/31. (It is very easy to calculate your BMI, there are many calculators available free on the Internet).

Thirdly, if we are planning to have more children, or we haven’t had children yet and we are planning to have them, it is always better to postpone the procedure plans until after we have had children. (If it is possible to plan having children effectively.) After abdominoplasty we can get pregnant but pregnancy can spoil the results of the surgery.

Fourthly, standard medical problems, diseases, latent health problems (like untreated diabetes, blood pressure or thyroid glands, among many others) should make anyone think twice before having plastic surgery. Having your period on the day of the procedure also means you can not have plastic surgery.

Fifthly, we can be disqualified by the plastic surgeon himself as we need to remember that he has the last word.

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No matter if it is an aesthetic procedure based on injections or more serious surgery like breast augmentation we absolutely cannot have any plastic surgeries (obviously) when pregnant!

Often patients ask if a desire to have children later rules out having plastic surgery done. The answer is tricky: yes and no.

First of all it is quite necessary to discuss all the doubts with your plastic surgeon. Based on my experience as a consultant I need to say that it all depends on when a woman is planning to get pregnant. If we are planning to get pregnant within one year from the surgery, having a surgery is not worth it. We won’t be able to enjoy our new body because with pregnancy our body will naturally change (in the most positive way). In cases when pregnancy is planned for few more years ahead of the surgery, there aren’t many reasons not to have it.

There is one ‘but’ here though—it all depends on what kind of procedure we are considering. What calls for attention within this subject is breast augmentation and abdominoplasty. If we are planning on getting breast implants, it is okay to be pregnant and even breastfeed after this procedure. If it comes to abdominoplasty it is much better to do it after the pregnancy as our tummy will stretch throughout pregnancy. Liposuction can be done before pregnancy, but we have to keep in mind and be aware of the fact that our body will change throughout pregnancy. And that will cause changes in the outcomes of the procedure. Mastopexia or breast reduction should be discussed with the surgeon and thoroughly thought over. Both of these procedures include intervention into the glands and may impede breastfeeding in the future. Surgeons usually advise to do these after having children.

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Well this is a big subject…
Pain is the most common fear before having procedure. Fear against pain is most common among patients who are planning on having breast augmentation. I will not lie to you – unfortunately, it does hurt. Thankfully, each woman experiences pain differently. Women often say: ‘if you were able to go through labor, you will be able to cope with breast augmentation pain’, although there are some that claim labor is nothing in comparison to breast surgery ;-). My dear ladies, if it hurt so much, breast augmentation would not have been the most common and most frequently conducted plastic surgery in the world.
So, both groups of women are equally right. Experiencing pain depends on the individual predispositions of each patient. There are women that right after the procedure get up, take walks in the corridors of the clinic and do not seen to be bothered too much by pain. But there are also patients who for few first days after the procedure feel discomfort with each body movement. Definitely the first few days after the surgery are the most difficult ones. In most cases we spend our first 24 hours after the surgery in the clinic, supervised by medical staff, on very strong painkillers, so we can deal with the strongest pain. During that time we also have the support of doctors and nurses. Later, we are given painkillers to bring home. After few days, the patient starts feeling better and slowly forgets about the pain. The pain medication mentioned above is definitely the best weapon against the post-surgical discomfort.

In my opinion, it is good to tame thoughts about pain in advance the surgery. It is very important to keep a positive attitude. It often happens that patients who were very frightened by pain before, were smiling and saying that ‘fear has great big eyes’ after the surgery. They say that, in fact, there was nothing to be afraid of. Generally, if you do not try, you will never know. And, being more serious, every one of us reacts differently. Pain tolerance is an individual attribute that can be fought with and won over. After all, we women can put up with a lot.

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May patients ask when it is the best time of year to have plastic surgery. I would like to emphasize that plastic surgeries are conducted year round. Nevertheless, for a person who can choose any time, the best season for the surgeries are spring and fall. We have moderate and quite predictable temperatures, there is no extreme heat or cold, our body does not sweat intensively and is not exposed to cold.

However, there is a group of patients that because of their work, children’s school schedules, or holiday plans may have surgery only in the summer or winter. I would like to add that in my career I haven’t seen a case of complications due to high or low outdoors temperature when a surgery was done in the winter or in the summer.

As I see it the best time to have a plastic surgery is when we feel ready to have one, and ready for all the changes it brings by as well as the time of renouncements/limitations linked to the recuperations process. We have to plan our surgery so that three months after the surgery we are not going to go for a trip in a tropical climate or going skiing in the mountains. The first three months are the most crucial time for scar healing and generally getting back into shape. We also cannot forget about other clues/guides like not menstruating on the day of the surgery.

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