ObesityHelp

After bariatric surgery, if you’ve kept the weight off successfully, you may opt for plastic or reconstructive surgery to remove excess or sagging skin. How much do you know about the different plastic procedures?

True or False?

1. Breast reduction patients report a high rate of symptom relief (70-100 percent). 

True.

2. The most time-consuming of common post-WLS cosmetic surgeries, in which the patient spends the most time under anesthesia, is abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck. 

False. The most time-consuming plastic surgery that’s commonly sought by weight loss surgery patients is the lower body lift, which takes up to eight hours in the OR.

3. Breast augmentation is the most performed type of cosmetic surgery. 

False. Liposuction, with 456,828 procedures performed in 2007, is still performed more than breast augmentation.

4. Silicone breast implants are more expensive than saline implants.

True.

5. If you think your earlobes are too big, you can have an earlobe reduction.

True.

6. The physician’s or surgeon’s fees quoted for the price of a cosmetic surgery are about what you can expect to pay out of pocket.

False. Facility fees, anesthesia and other surgical costs must also be taken into consideration. Your insurance may or may not cover some costs of plastic or reconstructive surgery.

7. A thigh lift requires you to miss about a week of work in order to recover.

False. Thigh lifts take longer to recover from than most other procedures, requiring patients to take two to four weeks off from work.

8. Surgical treatment of gynecomastia, or enlarged breasts in males, is permanent.

True.

9. Results of a buttock lift are permanent.

False. Results of a buttock lift are long-lasting, but not usually permanent.

10. Surgeons can now fully eradicate the appearance of cellulite.

False. While new procedures that attempt to reduce the appearance of cellulite are being explored, there is no procedure that can fully remove it.

Source: CosmeticPlasticSurgeryStatistics.com, June 2008

September 2008