About Body Contouring Procedure
Body Contouring is reshaping the body, creating more desirable proportions in a blended and natural way. Genetically many patients have certain fat distributions that they wish to change – some patients feel they are bottom heavy, some patients feel they are top heavy, and some have excess fullness around their midsection, excess fullness around the bra, and some feel they are too narrow in their hips and butt.
Body contouring involves reshaping the body by removing fat in a blended and natural way from areas that are resistant to diet and exercise and oftentimes moving the fat to areas that are proportionally smaller. The specific procedure and areas depend on each person’s anatomy as well as their desired contour and shape.
What’s Included in the procedure?
As we’ve mentioned before, Plastic Surgery is not an exact science. Every person has a unique anatomy and their own idea of what their body goals should be. This is why consultations with AJ Plastic Surgery Centre are vital so we can work together to create the best possible plan, customized for your personal needs and goals.
- Before Procedure
- During Procedure
- Results & Recovery
Good to Know Before Procedure
Body contouring is more than just performing individual body procedures. It involves a whole-body detailed analysis and shaping of an individual. It is not for weight loss – body contouring is for artistic and meticulous redistribution of fat to change underlying genetic deposits. We believe it is important with any surgery to have all areas gently blend into each other for long term results.
Too often we have had patients come in for a consultation after having had liposuction but it was performed without blending or shaping creating shelves of fat around the liposuctioned areas or looking like someone aggressively scooped a section out of their body. For fat transfer, we have sometimes seen fat placed in the butt without blending gently into the hips or legs creating a “marshmellow” or “diaper” look. For us, body contouring is like sculpting – it is art that we will create together.
Who is a good candidate for body contouring?
In general patients should be close to their goal weight before having surgery. For best long term results it is advisable that weight is stable after surgery (without a lot of yo-yoing up and down). As we’ve mentioned before, plastic surgery is not an exact science. Every person has a unique anatomy and their own idea of what their body goals should be. This is why consultations are vital so we can work together to create the best possible plan, customized for your personal needs and goals.
What Happens During Procedure
For your comfort and safety, your surgery will be performed under general anesthesia or possibly local anesthesia depending on the type and extent of surgery. We believe that every part of the AJ Plastic Surgery Centre surgical team is essential to having a perfect and smooth surgery, so every part of our extended team is focused during surgery and pays attention to every detail.
We will all ensure that as you enter the operating room and are gently placed under anesthesia you will feel relaxed and calm and excited. During the operation we will all be focused on keeping you warm, comfortable, and cared for. During the surgery, we are gentle and respectful and ensure a positive and calm environment around you. We will also place a numbing solution in your surgery sites so you will not feel pain even though you are under anesthesia.
The surgery times vary with the procedures as well as the overall complexity.
The steps for the various procedures that could be a part of your individualized body contouring surgery can be found below by clicking on respective procedure:
Recovery & Results: What to Expect
For the surgeries that are considered to be body contouring, we have developed a gentle technique that has minimal pain and a quick recovery. For some of the surgeries, you will spend the first night at a plastic surgery after care facility with nursing. After any surgery you will have some swelling and discomfort but none of the surgery sites should be painful. If you do have discomfort, Tylenol is usually all that’s needed. We will give you a prescription for a few pain pills to have in case you need them but they are usually not necessary. We encourage patients to stick to Tylenol instead of the prescription pain medication since those pills often create constipation and bloating.
You will wear compression garments to support your surgery sites for 6-8 weeks after surgery. This is something we will measure and provide for you. Most of AJ Plastic Surgery Centre patients feel almost back to normal at around 1 week after surgery.
Allow at least 2 weeks to recuperate before returning to work. If you are a patient from out of Nairobi, you will need to stay within for at least 2 weeks after surgery. Wait at least 4 weeks to start any strenuous exercise. Scars take about 12 months to fade. You will start scar treatments at around 2 weeks after surgery. We will discuss scar care in detail with you and also provide you with scar medications and products.