South Florida Plastic Surgery Articles
Overweight Overseas: Florida Plastic Surgery for Europeans after Weight Loss
By Timothy Alexander, M.D.
Americans are not the only ones occupying the heavy end of the international scale - waistlines are increasing worldwide, including many parts of Europe. A growing number of Europeans are getting serious about weight loss, and are travelling to America for high-quality cosmetic surgery procedures to help put the finishing touches on their weight loss journey.
In the past few years, European overweight and obesity rates have risen dramatically. The UK, particularly, is seeing overweight rates nearing 75%, and increased incidence of heart disease and other weight-related problems to match.
Clinical research and media outcry are prompting many of these Europeans to address their weight and turn their lives around. Because of the exchange rate, attractive vacation packages, and the lack of cosmetic surgery coverage under health plans like the British NHP, many of these newly slimmed Europeans are turning to US surgeons in key areas like Fort Lauderdale and Miami for liposuction, abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) and other post weight loss procedures.
In response, surgeons at practices like the South Florida Center for Cosmetic Surgery (www.southfloridabody.com) are focusing on new ways to meet the needs of these patients and in the process changing the ways they approach cosmetic surgery patients generally. The resulting new surgical techniques are adding to the resources we have to help patients more effectively address being overweight.
What Overseas Patients Are Looking For
Florida body contouring patients who travel in from overseas, like American patients, mainly want to minimize the left-over effects of excess weight that are preventing them from reaping the full rewards of their healthier bodies. Weight loss typically lends vibrancy and better health, but while many patients feel somewhat more attractive after weight loss, a few typical problems can prevent them from gaining the confidence they have been working toward:
- Stretch marks where deeper skin structures have torn
- Loose, flabby skin on the abdomen, back, thighs, and arms, in many cases severely ptotic (sagging)
- Persistent, unevenly distributed pockets of fat in problem areas like the hips and thighs
The chief treatments for these problems, including body lift, liposuction, and abdominoplasty in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, address different factors. While a tummy tuck corrects loose abdominal muscles, liposuction focuses on isolated pockets of fat, and body lift tightens loose skin on the lower and mid-body regions.
Each person's body handles the weight gain and loss processes differently, so a patient may require a combination of approaches, or just one. Overseas patients may present unique challenges because in addition to the standard concerns about minimizing cost, surgical pain, and recovery times, they also want their doctors to:
- Accommodate body structures and aesthetic standards that may differ from those of the "typical" US patient
- Provide procedures with significantly less downtime and quicker recovery periods to allow for a more enjoyable vacation
- Assist with travel and hotel plans
- Facilitate clear communication even before the surgery by providing surgery information and resources accessible worldwide
Over time, more surgeons are stepping up to meet these expectations, and their efforts are helping change the ways cosmetic surgery works for both European and American patients.
How Fly-In Patients Are Changing the Ways Cosmetic Surgeons Operate
Developing New Approaches:
Faster recovery times and minimal tissue trauma are already high priorities for US patients, but the overseas surgery candidates who plan on seeing the sights during recovery from a tummy tuck or liposuction are increasing the demand for more efficient approaches. A top post weight loss choice, the "Miami mini" abdominoplasty is just one of a growing number of less-invasive procedures that utilize new techniques or advanced technologies to allow for faster and more comfortable recovery times. Smartlipo™ laser liposuction is another example of the same trend.
Overseas patients also prefer outpatient procedures that require only general anesthesia and minimize both post-surgical discomfort and the risk of complications from anesthetics.
Increasing Standards for Personalized Treatment Plans:
At the same time, patients in the US are benefiting from cosmetic surgery travelers' demand for a more "global" approach in both doctors' techniques and their aesthetic standards. As a broad example, American women who require breast augmentation after weight loss tend to prefer an increase of two or three cup sizes, but British women who want to correct that same kind of "deflation" increasingly favor a change of just one or two cup sizes. Surgeons for overseas patients are learning to pay attention to these nuances.
As doctors treat a broader range of patients and address these kinds of geographically and culturally specific needs, they have to adapt their approaches in ways that allow for increased versatility and individuality in their procedures generally.
How Fly-In Patients Are Helping Cosmetic Surgeons (and Patients) Find New Perspective
Focusing on the "Full Experience" of Cosmetic Surgery:
More surgeons are now offering "vacation packages" that demonstrate more than good marketing; they involve a completely different focus on and approach to the process of cosmetic surgery care. Overseas patients take local attractions into account when they are picking a US surgeon because they want to make sure they are maximizing their vacation time. But while fly-in abdominoplasty and liposuction patients in Miami / Fort Lauderdale are hitting the beaches, US patients are benefitting from the ways plastic surgery centers are focusing on the "big picture" of recovery as an experience, rather than just a list of good recovery do's and don'ts.
Recovery is the most important period that determines a patient's satisfaction with a cosmetic surgery procedure, so this broadening perspective bodes well surgical success. At the same time, the "big picture" approach also means more surgeons are providing better online information on their sites through eBooks and other media, simplifying and clarifying the decision-making process for Florida body contouring patients and those overseas as well. Simply put: better patient education means more satisfying procedure choices and outcomes.
Working toward Prevention:
Liposuction and tummy tucks are designed to clear up any existing characteristics that remain after weight loss, not to address existing weight problems. But as the international problem with excess weight continues to damage the quality of life for so many people around the world, more plastic surgeons are moving beyond the after-the-fact corrective treatments that used to be our focus, and starting to provide the kind of medical resources people need to get back on track with weight loss in the first place.
This is encouraging to see, because it means that more surgeons are helping equip their patients to achieve the kind of self-confidence and new perspective that is the ultimate goal of any cosmetic or plastic surgery procedure. With better techniques and new approaches, I am hopeful that surgeons and patients both here and overseas will be able to make that goal a reality for more and more patients.
