A) Results are overnight

Liposuction is not a “magic pill” that many advertisements portray it to be! Recovery after liposuction is a process and you must be prepared to give it 2-3 months before you can start enjoying your results of liposuction.

You will be advised to wear a customized pressure garment (corset) for 4 to 6 weeks after surgery to minimize swelling & bruising, facilitate shrinkage of skin and optimize liposuction results. Further, you will be advised to massage the liposuctioned areas to ensure faster and smoother results.The small incision scars are generally placed in well-hidden areas and take 3 to 6 months to settle down.

B) Skin will sag after liposuction

The process of liposuction is not exactly similar to deflating a balloon! Removal of excess fat from under the skin does not necessarily lead to loose hanging skin as it is a living dynamic tissue and undergoes significant shrinkage after liposuction. This process of skin shrinkage is aided by techniques such as “superficial liposuction”, energy based devices such as Vaser^â, proper use of pressure garment as well as by systematic massages of liposuctioned areas.

However, you may encounter loose sagging skin after liposuction if you have poor skin tone or elasticity to begin with, very large volume liposuction is performed or if you have undergone significant weight loss previously. Thus young patients with good skin tone with small volume liposuction will rarely suffer from sagging skin after liposuction.

C) “Are the liposuction results permanent?”

If you have undergone a liposuction surgery, it does not give you the freedom to indulge in an unhealthy lifestyle. You must realise that you have to maintain your results with healthy diet and regular exercise. Small weight gains after liposuction will not show any changes in the liposuctioned areas. However, if you put on a significant amount of weight after liposuction then that weight will show more in the non-liposuctioned areas.

Why does this happen? – Imagine your body fat to be arranged as a room full of balloons. Generally, when a person puts on weight, the number of balloons do not increase drastically, instead each balloon increases in size. With liposuction, the number of balloons themselves are reduced in a particular area; whereas the non-liposuctioned areas still have the same number of balloons. It is now logical that if you put on weight after liposuction you will accumulate and show the weight gain in areas with normal number of balloons i.e. the non-liposuctioned areas.