Arming Yourself for Sleeveless Season

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons, or ASPS, recently released its annual cosmetic and reconstructive surgery statistics, and a new trend has taken the lead as the fastest rising cosmetic surgery option – upper arm lifts.

With bathing suit and tank top season right around the corner, more people start thinking about how their arms will look in their warm-weather wardrobe. Last year, that thought helped more than 15,000 people in the U.S. decide to have a surgical upper arm lift. Richard Buckley, M.D. of MilfordMD Cosmetic Dermatology Surgery & Laser Center performs laser liposculpted upper arm lifts right in his Northeastern Pennsylvania office with patients awake and comfortable.

Upper arm lifts, or brachioplasty, a surgical procedure in which loose skin is removed from the back of the arms from the underarm region to the elbow, is getting more attention now than in previous years. New statistics recently released by the ASPS, show that the number of these arm lift procedures has increased a great deal in the last decade. In fact, MilfordMD is in the region of the U.S. with the highest percentage of upper arm lifts in 2012 – 29 percent.

According to ASPS, 338 people had an upper arm lift done in 2000. That number grew to 14,998 in 2011, and increased again in 2012 to 15,457. With a nearly 4,500 percent increase from 2000 to 2012, one might wonder why so many people are opting to have upper arm lifts done now.

The recent increase could be fueled by a few different factors –sleeveless summer fashions, well-toned celebrities showing off their amazing arms, and new technologies and techniques that make it more reasonable to perform upper arm lifts, could be a few of the main reasons. But experts say this trend has grown in popularity at least partially because more people are losing significant amounts of weight and need some help toning the new body.

Since some areas of the body, such as the upper arms, are resistant to all efforts of exercise and diet, an upper arm lift might be the answer. Upper arm lifts can dramatically reshape the arms and at MilfordMD, this is done on an outpatient basis right in the Milford office, with the use of local anesthetic. The procedure involves liposuction to remove fat, and tighten the skin. If there is a lot of really loose skin, it can be trimmed to size.