Body Lift in Westport, CT

Tighten Up and Lose the Loose

If you’ve lost a significant amount of weight — through exercise, diet or bariatric surgery — your new body may be burdened with excess skin and droopy folds across the upper and lower body.

You can increase your comfort and confidence with a body lift from Westport and Fairfield, Connecticut-area plastic surgeon Dr. Ellen Mahony.
During the procedure, Dr. Mahony can “lift” and remove you extra skin folds from virtually every area of the body that is desired. If you have excess skin around your waist and thighs, Ellen offers lower body lifts that combine a tummy tuck and liposuction, along with skin removal around the pubic area, buttocks, thighs, and hips.

While these combined procedures can make a huge difference, your lower body isn’t the only area that Dr. Mahony can improve. A Brachioplasty, or upper arm lift, can remove excess skin that flaps beneath the arm to give your upper arms a tighter, more toned appearance. In addition, an upper body lift can smooth out folds that extend from the chest area to the mid-back. And, if your skin has retained its elasticity, liposuction can remove fatty tissue in your arms and back.
With any of these procedures, Dr. Mahony’s ultimate goal is to make you feel comfortable and secure in your new body. You can count on that.

See Dr. Mahony’s results: before and after a body lift.

Good candidates for a body lift

Adults who have lost a significant amount of weight and have loose, sagging skin may experience a variety of frustrating problems. Discomfort, infections, and self-consciousness can be eliminated with proper care. Diet and exercise cannot get rid of redundant tissue. A body lift can. The best candidates for a body lift-share a few traits, including:

Stable Weight

It is not beneficial to undergo a body lift before you have reached your goal weight and maintained it for at least one year. Having a lift too soon could lead to additional frustration after losing more weight, as some degree of tissue laxity may once again occur. Surgeons advise patients to wait a year or more after reaching their goal weight to have a lift because tissue may retract to some extent on its own.

Avoidance of Smoking

People who smoke are generally not good candidates for elective procedures. This is because smoking inhibits oxygenation, a process that is critical to tissue repair. If you are interested in having a body lift and you smoke, you must quit as soon as possible. Smoking significantly increases the risks of serious complications during and after surgery.

General Health

Like smoking, poor general health can make you much more likely to experience complications after a surgical procedure. Patients with cardiovascular disease or diabetes may not be good candidates for a body lift due to restrictions in the circulatory system.

If you are considering a body lift, you should consult with your primary care physician for a general checkup. You need to find a board-certified plastic surgeon who is fully trained and familiar with body lift techniques and how to reduce risks. Finally, we encourage you to practice excellent nutrition and hydration daily in the weeks leading up to your procedure to give yourself the best chance at an optimal, complication-free experience.

ASK DR. MAHONY

I’ve been working out a lot at the gym to try and reduce the saggy skin under my arms – I feel stronger and have more muscle but the flappy skin is still there. Help!

Unfortunately, there really is no way to spot reduce any trouble area on the body. And, if you have excess skin from a dramatic weight loss it can be especially loose requiring surgical removal of the excess skin. The tightening I’m able to perform in the procedure gives the most desirable result. For patients that have good skin elasticity but fatty tissue under the arm, I sometimes use liposuction to get the desired result of fat removal and skin tightening.

What types of procedures are involved in a body lift?

Are all of the procedures in a body lift done at once?

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FAQ'S

What is the body lift procedure?

A body lift is one of the most customized and comprehensive procedures in plastic surgery. Every person has unique needs. These are discussed at length during Dr. Mahony’s consultation and examination and they act as a guide for surgical planning.

Surgery may be performed in an accredited outpatient surgery center. In some cases, body lift surgery is performed in a hospital and the patient will stay overnight for observation. If your surgery is performed as an outpatient procedure, you should have someone stay with you at home for at least 24 hours after you are released.

The procedure is performed using general anesthesia. Patients are monitored by dedicated staff throughout the procedure. As outlined in the treatment plan, Dr. Mahony makes incisions in strategic locations where resulting scars can be hidden beneath clothing. Before your surgery, you will know where your incisions will be made and how far they will extend around your torso.

Once incisions are made, the tissue is pulled tightly to create a smooth appearance. Internal suturing is performed to create support for newly shaped contours. Excess tissue is trimmed, as is excess skin. The procedure is complete when the incisions have been carefully stitched closed.

What results can a body lift achieve?

Patients will see a difference in their bodies as soon as they can look at themselves in a mirror after surgery. Compression garments may be worn for at least a week, which can somewhat obscure the effects of surgery. As swelling subsides over several weeks, the improvements achieved with the lift become increasingly apparent. It can take up to two years for the final outcome of a body lift to fully develop.

The incision scars of a body lift remain but typically fade very nicely. Once the incision line has healed, it may be possible to begin a scar treatment program to assist in fading visible scarring.

With age, it is natural to lose some tissue and skin firmness. However, the effects of the body lift typically last indefinitely.

What is the recovery time after a body lift or arm lift?

Recovery time from a body or arm lift includes some bruising and tightness. You will be able to shower the day after surgery and can expect to feel good around 2 weeks afterwards. You should also avoid bending and lifting for about 2-3 weeks. Time out of work also varies but will probably be about 7-10 days. If your procedure includes liposuction, you should expect some bruising and swelling for about 10 days. Time out of work varies individually but may only be about 3 days. Anticipate another 3 weeks before you hit the gym or do any other type of heavy lifting.

What type of scar will I have with an arm lift? I’m doing this so that I can show off my arms with confidence in tank tops and strapless dresses and don’t want to have to hide a scar!

Each patient is unique but I generally place the incision on the inside of the arm which faces the body. It usually is from the armpit area to the elbow. In rarer cases, it is possible to make the incision under the armpit. There are many great ways to care for incisions post-surgery that help to minimize the appearance of the scars. Patients are so thrilled with their new, toned arms that they’re never afraid to show them off, scars or not!

What are the different types of body lifts?

The two primary types of a body lift are upper and lower, correlated with the area of the body that has been affected by massive weight loss.

The upper body lift addresses areas such as the arms, the breasts, and the back area near the bra line.

There are three major types of body lift surgery. All of them correlate to one section of the body. It may also address excess fatty tissue and loose skin in the abdominal area and around the flanks. The inclusion of a tummy tuck in the upper body lift can eliminate muscle looseness and sagging tissue above the pubic area.

A lower body lift may also be referred to as a circumferential lift. This procedure addresses weight-related sagging in the hip, thigh, and buttocks areas. This technique removes excess, sagging skin and also improves the contours of the buttocks through tissue tightening.

Being that the body lift is fully customized to each patient, it is not uncommon for people to undergo various combinations of lifting techniques on the lower, mid, and upper body.

Can a body lift be combined with other procedures?

What are the risks of body lift surgery?

All surgical procedures carry risks. Studies of body lift procedures have indicated a very low rate of complications such as:

Anesthesia reaction
Blood clots
Excessive bleeding or clotting
Deep vein thrombosis
Cardiac and pulmonary complications
Fat or skin necrosis (tissue death)
Persistent edema (swelling) or fluid accumulation
Persistent pain
Poor wound healing or wound separation
Recurrent looseness or sagging of skin
Temporary or permanent change/loss of skin sensation
Unfavorable scarring and/or skin discoloration
Unsatisfactory aesthetic results requiring additional surgery

Dr. Mahony carefully evaluates patients’ health and candidacy for body lift surgery based on several factors. Taking time to determine the value of surgery, and performing lift procedures with the utmost care, she keeps surgical risks to a minimum. Patients must also carefully follow post-operative instructions to prevent unnecessary complications.