Will my skin tightening procedure be painful? i've recently lost a lot of weight and have some patches of loose skin i want to get rid of. i've heard a lot of good things about skin tightening, but nothing about how painful it might be. should i be concer

Congrats : Congrats on the weight loss. This type of procedure is one of the fastest growing in plastic surgery. Pain largely depends on the region of skin tightening. One of the most common regions is the abdomen. An abdominoplasty is painful. The first 3 days are the worst. Return to work is about 10 days. There are other procedures such as arm lift, thigh lift, and lower body lift. Pain depends on the surgery and the patient. Good luck!

For : For large areas of loose skin after weight loss, it is likely that a more definitive surgical procedure such as tummy tuck, breast, arm or thigh lift would be more appropriate. Of course there is pain associated with these procedures but you would be under anesthesia during the procedure and on pain medications briefly afterward. If you are referring to the various minimally invasive skin tightening procedures such as thermage, there can be some minor discomfort during the procedure. Unfortunately, the results from these types of procedures are very subtle despite often, overly-hyped claims.

Generally not: Most skin tightening treatments are well-tolerated and generally only associated with mild suction or vacuum sensation.