Dr. Nathan Miller is a board certified cosmetic surgeon and owner of the OKC Lipo in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Specializing in all forms of liposuction, Dr. Miller is a member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgeons, American Medical Association, Texas Medical Association, and a prospective member of the American College of Surgeons. In this article, he tells us what recovery is really like after a liposuction procedure.
When it comes to the length of time that a patient is going to need to recover from a liposuction procedure, everyone is really completely different. A lot of the limitations that are placed on patients after undergoing a specific liposuction procedure are dependent on their own personal pain thresholds, as well as what activities they are planning to do in the coming days after their procedure.
The length of recovery time can vary so much, in fact, that I will have some patients who will go back to work literally the same day they had their liposuction done. Their pain threshold is really that high, so that means that they can go right back to the office pretty much right away. On the other hand, though, I also have some people who might take a couple of weeks to completely recover. So a lot of these limitations are dependent on the individual patient and the limitations each person puts on himself or herself.
One interesting thing about people is that we all have our own pain thresholds, in terms of what amount of pain we can tolerate. And everyone’s threshold is completely different. That’s why it can be really difficult to tell a patient exactly how long his or her recovery period is going to be, because that is such as individual issue.
As far as what each patient can expect to feel during the recovery, though, I usually say that the pain feels a lot like if you have worked out really, really hard—the pain feels like that soreness you feel the next day after a really strenuous workout. It’s really just an achy sore feeling like that.
Although there is no particular area of the body is any more prone to pain or takes longer to recover from than another, I do notice that sometimes patients say that their inner thighs feel a bit more sore than possibly other body parts a few days after the procedure. This makes sense, just mainly because you use your legs for everything—for standing up, for sitting down, obviously you walk all day, especially depending on your job. So sometimes people might notice that it takes a bit longer to fully recover from having liposuction performed on the inner thigh. But even with that there still isn’t a huge difference.
What I do notice is that there seems to be a myth that recovery from liposuction is particularly difficult or painful, and that just is not the case. Recovery from a liposuction procedure is really quite quick. And even the sore feeling that some patients might feel a day or two afterward really is not any worse than the feeling you would have after a difficult workout. So for the majority of patients, recovery and pain really is not an issue to worry about when undergoing a liposuction procedure.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.
