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When it comes to losing unwanted fat, liposuction stands out as one of the most effective procedures. Through this plastic surgery, you can eliminate stubborn pockets of fat from various areas of your body. But given that the surgery also requires incisions, it raises a big question about scar care after liposuction.

While caring for liposuction scars may seem daunting, the process becomes a breeze when you know what to do. When you have informed advice at hand, you can manage liposuction scarring without worrying about its long-term effects on your appearance.

At UCI Plastic Surgery, our qualified surgeons make it a point to guide you through required care after liposuction in Orange County, CA. The following information gives you the help you need about how to care for liposuction scars.

What Is Liposuction?

Liposuction is a surgical procedure that eliminates stubborn bulges of fat that you cannot lose through diet or exercise. By using targeted techniques, the procedure permanently removes fat cells from different areas of your body. This procedure not only allows you to embrace a contoured figure but also improves your chances of bidding farewell to excess fat in the long-term.

During liposuction, your surgeon uses general anesthesia to ensure that you remain comfortable. Then, they use a special thin surgical tube, called a cannula, with a combination of a surgical vacuum machine. The procedure starts with your surgeon making small incisions across the treatment area, inserting the cannula under your skin, and suctioning the unwanted fat cells out of your body via the vacuum machine.

While performing liposuction, your surgeon also uses their skill and expertise to contour the treatment area and give it a more toned appearance. Once the procedure is complete, you can recover from general anesthesia in the facility and go home the same day.

Through liposuction, you can remove stubborn fat from different areas of concern, including:

• Chin
• Neck
• Abdomen
• Chest
• Back
• Upper arms
• Hips
• Buttocks
• Thighs
• Calves
• Ankles

Depending upon your area of concern, your plastic surgeon may use different techniques along with the combination of cannula and vacuum. But regardless of the approach utilized to remove stubborn fat cells from your body, incisions remain an integral part of liposuction.

Incisions then create the possibility for scarring as well as the need to perform scar care after liposuction.  

Why Does Liposuction Leave Scars?

Liposuction leaves scars because it requires incisions to allow for the surgical cannula to enter through your skin and remove unwanted fat cells from your body. When these incisions heal, they leave scars on your skin. This is a natural response to any major cuts experienced by your skin. By caring for liposuction scars with a qualified surgeon’s guidance, you can ensure to minimize scar appearance and remain confident in your post-liposuction figure.

While liposuction does leave scars, they remain small due to the size of the incisions that are made during the procedure. Additionally, seasoned surgeons also try to create well-concealed incisions that are not prominent at first glance. This ensures that your liposuction scars do not create a major aesthetic concern for you in exchange for removing stubborn fat from your body.

The scars that appear after liposuction typically do not make their presence known until you have fully healed from your incisions. For the first few weeks after your liposuction, you may not even be able to see these incisions due to the compression garment required following surgery. This compression garment helps reduce bruising and minimize swelling from the treatment area, while also contributing to enhanced results after your liposuction.

After this period of recovery is over, you can remove your compression garment and identify where your incisions were made. At first, these freshly healed incisions may appear to be quite prominent and remain tender. But after a few days, they gradually turn into scars that are not sensitive to the touch. By following proper scar care after liposuction, you can reduce the appearance of scars that are noticeably different from your skin color.

What Kind of Scars Does Liposuction Leave?

Liposuction only requires tiny incisions across the treatment area for the thin cannula to enter your body. This also means that the scars that are formed after the procedure are typically round in their appearance. When your liposuction is performed by an experienced surgeon, they also make sure to conceal the incisions under available skin folds whenever it is possible. This further ensures that any scars that liposuction leaves are not conspicuous.

But whether your scars are hidden under such skin folds or not, you may identify them if you actively look for them a few weeks after your surgery. Often, liposuction scars appear as round or slightly slanted circles. Because the cannula does not require a bigger opening in your skin to enter the treatment area, these scars typically do not appear as a long cut across the area of concern.

In case you combine your liposuction with a tummy tuck or as a part of a mommy makeover, your surgeons may simply use the incisions for tummy tuck to insert the cannula into your treatment area. This minimizes additional incisions and their subsequent scarring on your body.

If you are concerned about caring for liposuction scars, this information may be enough to put you at ease. By discussing the formation of liposuction scars with your surgeon and understanding their approaches to hide them whenever possible, you can rest assured that you will be able manage this common side effect of this highly effective procedure.

How Big Are Liposuction Scars?

Liposuction scars are typically not bigger than half an inch in diameter. But in some cases, they can be as big as an inch in diameter. Qualified surgeons always ensure to make these scars as small as possible to provide you with sought-after results. This also holds true whether they are able to hide these scars in skin creases or not.

Regardless of how big these scars are, learning about ideal scar care after liposuction can help you reduce their appearance in the long run. Keeping proper scar care in mind also helps you become more confident about minimizing their appearance instead of worrying about how big they are.

In some cases, only one scar might be present after liposuction. In others, you may have multiple scars once you have healed from the procedure. Before your surgery, you can also discuss with your surgeon how many incisions are they going to make for optimal results. Afterwards, you can inquire where exactly the incisions were made so you can look for subsequent scars after you have recovered from your liposuction.

If you have already had liposuction, you may have these scars present around the treatment site. You can look in the mirror to find out how big they are in your specific case. From there, you can start caring for liposuction scars to reduce their appearance soon.

Do Lipo Scars Go Away?

When your liposuction is performed by a qualified surgeon, your doctor will make your incisions as small as possible while resolving your specific aesthetic concern. This typically also prevents your incisions from leading to major scarring after healing. This also leads liposuction scars to usually start reducing in their intensity weeks after your procedure. In many cases, they can fade to the point of becoming unnoticeable against your skin.

Minimalized scarring is only possible if your surgeon takes care while making your liposuction incisions. Experienced surgeons always look for options, such as skin folds, to hide incisions as well as their subsequent scars from plain view. But in cases such as liposuction around the abdomen, where doing so is not possible, they still make the incisions as small as the surgery allows them.

These practices during the surgery allow you to rest assured that your scars may fade away within a few months of your liposuction. While some scars remain, they may not remain prominent enough to cast a shadow on your newfound confidence after your liposuction.

What Is the Fastest Way to Heal Lipo Scars?

Your scar care after liposuction greatly depends upon your surgeon and their medical team, as well as the approaches they recommend to minimize scarring. These instructions often vary from surgeon to surgeon, with them sharing a few basic best practices.

At UCI Plastic Surgery, we provide you with a detailed list of instructions that assist you in caring for liposuction scars. These suggestions include the following points of advice.

Take Care of Your Surgical Incisions

To ensure that your liposuction scars do not create a bumpy or textured lump over your skin, you should care for your incisions. This includes cleaning the area according to your medical team’s instructions and ensuring that it does not get submerged in water. This reduces the chances for infections and lets your skin heal according to its natural processes without added obstructions.

Apply Recommended Medication

To ensure that your incisions heal without any problems, regularly apply any topical ointments or creams that are prescribed to you after your liposuction. This treatment boosts healing for your incisions and keeps infections at bay. In turn, you can help your body recover from the surgery and cover your incisions without unsightly scars that create a problem for you in the future.

Eat A Balanced Diet

While it may not immediately seem like a way to prevent scars, consuming a healthy diet can influence how your body heals from surgeries. As you adopt proper scar care after liposuction, it is important that you eat a balanced diet that is rich in lean protein, fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients.

Drink Plenty of Water

Drinking water is a piece of advice that you hear after every surgery. The main purpose of this practice is to flush out toxins from your body and reduce the chances of infections. But drinking water throughout the day also gives your body the hydration that it needs to heal wounds properly, preventing highly visible scarring after your recovery.

Steer Clear of Smoking

Smoking can reduce your body’s ability to heal itself. This happens due to reduced oxygen levels in your blood and elevated stress for your heart. Additionally, this also influences how effectively your body can heal any wounds. This is why, caring for liposuction scars requires you to stop smoking a few weeks before and after your surgery.

Stay Away from the Sun

If you expose your incisions to sunlight while they are still healing, the sensitive skin can be damaged by UV rays. This can render the associated skin cells unable to perform their functions properly and impede optimal healing. To make sure that this does not increase the possibility of significant scarring, make it a point to shield your incisions from the sun until they have fully healed.

Do Not Strain Yourself

While you can join work and perform other light activities about a week after liposuction, it is important that you steer clear of strenuous activities like exercise. Give your body proper time to recover and do not put it under so much pressure that it obstructs its natural healing processes. This small practice can work wonders in reducing potential scarring.

How Can I Reduce the Appearance of Liposuction Scars?

If you have already gone through liposuction and feel concerned by how your incisions have turned into scars, you can consider the following interventions for scar care after liposuction.

• Scar Revision. This option employs surgical approaches to reduce the appearance of scars across different areas of your body.
• Laser Treatments. This practice can fade your liposuction scars by removing unwanted skin cells from the affected area through laser or light therapy.
• Skin Resurfacing. This procedure can help you decrease the prominence of scars by removing the surface layers of skin using dermabrasion.

Depending upon the prominence of your scars, our qualified surgeons at UCI Plastic Surgery can recommend an approach that is suitable for your aesthetic goals. This ensures that you can leave your scars behind to enjoy the figure that liposuction helped you obtain.

Why Choose UCI?

Caring for liposuction scars can be a daunting feat, but living with prominent scars can be an even bigger challenge. At UCI Plastic Surgery, our world-renowned plastic surgeons understand how difficult it can be to live with scars after a procedure that is meant to help you feel more confident in your body and more joyful in your skin. We ensure that we provide you with the right scar care after liposuction in Orange County, CA.

Our surgeons hold teaching, lecturing, and speaking engagements at UCI and many institutions around the world. This helps our team remain well-equipped with the latest techniques, research, and equipment to provide you with your ideal aesthetic results without worrisome side effects.

To explore your options for liposuction and related scar care, contact us for a personalized consultation today. With our offices in Orange, Tustin, Costa Mesa, Yorba Linda, and Newport Beach, Orange County, CA, we will be glad to help you achieve your aesthetic goals with ease.