Thigh Lift

As you age or experience changes in weight, your thighs may store excess fat or develop sagging folds of skin. If you are dismayed to be living with loose, excess skin and fat on your thighs, a thigh lift may be the ideal procedure.

At Mangat Copit Plastic Surgery, our team of board-certified surgeons can surgically enhance your look with a custom thigh lift. This procedure removes excess skin, tightens the tissues underneath, and eradicates pockets of fat that create a bottom-heavy, unbalanced figure.

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Am I a candidate for a thigh lift?

Ideal candidates for thigh lift surgery have an excess of loose, saggy skin on the inside, outside, front, or back of the thighs. This accumulation of skin is typical in those who have lost weight due to diet and exercise or bariatric surgery. In addition to skin laxity on the thighs, you should be healthy and not smoke.

The Mangat Copit Plastic Surgery difference

Founded 26 years ago in the Vail Valley in the Colorado mountains, Mangat Copit Plastic Surgery is the longest established specialty cosmetic practice in the region.
We provide excellent, concierge-level care in a safe, private setting, and our surgical team has a combined experience of over 50 years.

Thousands of successful procedures performed over the decades of practice, with consistently superior surgical results.
Dr. Copit is recognized as a respected educator and speaker, at the cutting edge of surgical and technological advancements and innovative in his contributions to the field of plastic surgery.

Surgical techniques for a thigh lift

Your thigh lift will be 100 percent customized to address your unique physiology and aesthetic goals. In some cases, liposuction is performed along with a thigh lift to improve results. Our surgical team may employ one or more of the following advanced techniques as part of your procedure:

Inner/medial thigh lift: As its name indicates, the inner thigh lift allows for skin tightening on the inner thighs. This approach involves an incision in the natural crease where the thigh and pubic area meet (the groin). Once this incision is made, the skin on the inner thigh is pulled up, excess skin is removed, and the incision is closed.
Vertical thigh lift: The vertical thigh lift is performed to correct severe skin laxity of the inner thighs. In this approach, the groin incision extends down the inner thigh to the knee.

Outer/bilateral thigh lift: In the outer thigh lift, the incision runs along the crease of the groin and then around the curve of the hips. This allows for skin tightening and skin removal of the outside and front of the thighs.
Spiral thigh lift: The spiral thigh lift targets all of the skin on the thighs. In this approach, an incision is made both in the groin and the natural crease below the buttocks.

Custom thigh lift: The procedure

A custom thigh lift procedure takes two to three hours to perform and involves the following steps:

The thighs are marked with a surgical pen to indicate where the incisions will be placed
The patient is put under general anesthesia
An antibacterial solution is applied to the incision areas
The incisions are made
The skin is separated from the underlying tissues and muscles
The tissue is adjusted and tightened to create a smooth surface for the skin to conform to
The skin is stretched over the thighs and pulled tight
Excess skin is removed
The incisions are closed
The treatment area is cleaned
Medical tape and bandages are applied
The surgical process is completed on the other thigh

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Recovery after a thigh lift

You should plan for at least one to two weeks off work after a thigh lift, so you can rest and allow your body to heal. For the first few days, we will ask you to rest with your head elevated. Compression garments should be worn, day and night, for at least four weeks after surgery, which will help the skin to lay flat against the underlying structures of the body.

When you feel up to it, we recommend taking brief, five-minute walks to encourage blood flow. However, any heavy activity or exercise should be avoided for four to six weeks after surgery.

Is a thigh lift painful?

Your thigh lift will be performed while you are under general anesthesia, so there is no pain involved in the procedure. During the first week of recovery, you will likely experience discomfort in the form of pain, bruising, swelling, and tingling or numbness at the incision sites. We will prescribe pain medication to help you manage this discomfort, and these effects will begin to fade away after the first week of recovery. Once the healing is complete, we are confident that you will find any pain and recovery to be well worth it – the results can be astonishing!

Is a thigh lift safe?

Custom thigh lift surgery is a very safe, effective procedure undergone by thousands of people each year. Like any surgery, there is a slight potential of risks – all of which are very rare:

Allergic reaction
Asymmetry of the thighs
Bleeding
Hematoma
Infection
Seroma
Slow wound healing
Unfavorable scarring

Your results

While some results will be visible as soon as the bandages come off, final results generally appear within the first few months as the swelling reduces. Our surgeons place the incisions carefully to ensure scars can be hidden by clothing, and the incisions are closed carefully to ensure scarring is minimal. After the first year, you can expect your scars to be faint and virtually invisible.