![San Diego plastic surgeon Dr. Katerina Gallus and her scrub tech Bri on the episode of their podcast "All the B's" where they chat about thigh lifts [Bet You Didn’t Know This About Thigh Lifts!]](https://restoresdplasticsurgery.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ALL021-thumbnail-1024x576.jpg)
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From why being at a stable weight matters to the different incision options and what recovery really feels like, Dr. G and Bri break down thigh lift surgery and clear up some common myths about cellulite and scar care.
Thanks to post-weight loss skin issues, thigh lifts are trending. But many patients don’t realize just how tough recovery can be. The results can be fabulous, but only if you’re realistic and ready for the downtime.
Trending stories:
Daily Mail, Anne Hathaway, 42, sparks plastic surgery speculation as she debuts a VERY taut face
Daily Mail, I won a free facelift from a social media ad… then I almost died as HUNDREDS of people watched
Daily Mail, All the clues conspiracy theorists believe prove Katy Perry’s journey on Blue Origin flight was faked
Thigh lift-related stories:
Daily Mail, Agonising toll of Ozempic – as soaring numbers seek painful plastic surgery to fix ‘melted candle’ bodies
NewBeauty, Experts Report Thigh Lifts Are on the Rise
Hosted by San Diego plastic surgeon Dr. Kat Gallus and her trusty sidekick scrub tech Bri, this is a podcast for women who have always wished they had a slightly snarky, super experienced, and totally unintimidating female plastic surgeon as their BFF to help sort through the what, where, and why of the available cosmetic treatment options.
All the B’s covers aesthetics and plastic surgery through the lens of trending pop culture stories and celebrity gossip.
Who are the B’s? The all-female team working closely with Dr. Gallus every day at Restore SD Plastic Surgery in La Jolla, California. Getting plastic surgery is a big deal, and they go the extra mile to make sure you feel super comfortable and know exactly what’s going on.
Follow Dr. Gallus and the team on Instagram @restoresdplasticsurgery
Watch Dr. Gallus and Bri on YouTube @restoresdplasticsurgery7487
Got a question for us? Send us a message or leave us a voicemail at itsthebs.com
Transcript
Dr. G (00:02):
You are listening to another episode of All the B’s with me, Dr. G and my scrub tech Bri. Hi everybody. I’m Dr. Kat Gallus and you’re listening to All the B’s. Hey, Bri.
Bri (00:19):
Good morning.
Dr. G (00:21):
Okay, so today we are going to spend our episode talking about Brianna and my favorite surgery of all time to do.
Bri (00:31):
I want to preface, it’s a great surgery, but when we first did it together we were in a very, very small or, and it was so uncomfortable. I deemed it my least favorite surgery to ever be in. I was like, never again. So our running joke is the thigh lift and every time she books the thigh lift I’m like, I’m not going to be here that day, so.
Dr. G (00:57):
You always claim you’re going to call in sick.
Bri (01:00):
Yes, all the time.
Dr. G (01:02):
To be fair, you’re right. We did do a thigh lift in a closet that was pretending to be an OR and it was very close quarters all the way around. But yeah, so we joke around that it’s our least favorite surgery, which is not the case. We like doing it. It’s a very, in the right person, it really makes a difference and people appreciate it, but we’re going to get to that later. First, we have some important celebrity gossip. More importantly, I saw this little Daily Mail thing about Anne Hathaway. First of all girl, only 42, so whatever. Of course she’s going to look good.
Bri (01:42):
She’s always looked so good though I feel like.
Dr. G (01:44):
Yeah, she gets a lot of hate in general though for stuff. I don’t know why.
Bri (01:50):
I saw her at the runway show on Instagram and she looked so good.
Dr. G (01:55):
Yeah, that’s what they’re talking about. She’s at the Ralph Lauren Fall 2025 runway presentation. Fun fact, I went to college with Ralph Lauren’s son.
Bri (02:05):
Oh really?
Dr. G (02:06):
David.
Bri (02:07):
That was cool.
Dr. G (02:09):
Yeah. Anyway, I mean it was fine. So we didn’t hang out in the same circles. Shocker. David. So anyway, yeah, she looks great. She’s got a couple things. If you put your hair in a really tight ponytail, it’s almost a facelift honestly. So that always helps. Can’t say enough about that.
Bri (02:28):
On the other one, she’s leaning to the left, so of course your face is going to look more scrunchie.
Dr. G (02:34):
And she’s making a face. But yeah, her hair and makeup is impeccable. She probably has done a ton of noninvasive things to keep up her skin and complexion and tightening. So I think it’s all, I love that they’re like her complexion is suspiciously smoother than six months earlier. I’m like, it’s not. It’s just different lighting.
Bri (02:59):
Yeah, different makeup, different lighting. And I feel like if you look at her masseter area, if she had a facelift, that shit would be tight.
Dr. G (03:05):
Right.
Bri (03:05):
Tight and right, you can see the little pooching.
Dr. G (03:09):
And also I saw on, I feel like it was maybe Instagram and they showed a little video of her in action and she’s turning her head and as she talks you can see a little bit of jawline filler that doesn’t move. So probably had a little filler, but overall I like it.
Bri (03:29):
Looks refreshing. Me too.
Dr. G (03:31):
Looks good.
Bri (03:32):
I don’t think she looks so very dramatic as they say.
Dr. G (03:36):
Right. So speaking of dramatic, the Daily Mail, People magazine also covered this, the free facelift from a social media ad and then I almost died as hundreds of people watched. So a little extreme, but I actually remember when the announcement for this free facelift went because it came up on Chatter.
Bri (04:01):
She’s like, I signed up.
Dr. G (04:03):
I almost did. I was joking about it. It came up on Chatter on one of my groups. They’re like, Hey, Mike Nayak is looking for somebody to go to Turkey so he can do a facelift for free in front of a bunch of people. And I was present, but I never signed up. I don’t think I would’ve been as fun or as he probably would’ve been like, what? No, get out, you’re another surgeon. Stop. The reason it came up is because as a member of ASPS, you’re not supposed to give away or raffle surgery because it’s considered a compromise of informed consent. What if the lady didn’t really need a facelift, but she’s won this contest A little sticky. Anyway, Nayac is not actually a plastic surgeon. He’s an ENT facial plastic surgeon. So different organization and whatever. Anyway, so this mom from Indiana won a free custom facelift.
(05:02):
She’s 52. I think we were just talking about this yesterday with our Mers Radiesse rep how not to drag the Midwest, but sometimes their 52 is our 62. People just aren’t as glam or it’s not as big of a concern. But if you scroll down you can see that she had a really a lovely result, but she had essentially a $250,000 facelift. And she looks good for 52 honestly, and before he just again resurfaced her skin. Dr. Nayak is known for that super chiseled neck and in her it looks amazing. It looks really good. He did eyes, brows, fat transfer. I mean it’s a phenomenal result. I guess what happened is that during the surgery she had a lot of bleeding. It just was if Nayac hadn’t done a million facelifts, he probably would’ve been more panicky, but he was fine and he used the hemostatic net, which is basically it looks like someone took a fish net hose and applied it to your face but with suture and you leave that in for three to five days. So he doesn’t normally do hemostatic net, but he did in this case because of the bleeding, probably because they’re in a foreign country, blah, blah, blah. She did fine.
Bri (06:24):
Gosh, she looks great.
Dr. G (06:25):
Yeah, I mean you had $200,000 worth of work for free now invest in some decent skincare, please.
Bri (06:32):
Right?
Dr. G (06:33):
And sunscreen.
Bri (06:33):
I know she looks so natural.
Dr. G (06:35):
He does do a really great result and it looks natural. Her, you can see her ear lobe is exactly the same, so there’s no telltale sign there. Yeah, she looks fantastic. Really, really lovely result.
Bri (06:48):
She looks so good.
Dr. G (06:49):
She got it for free. So I mean we don’t have it on our docket to cover Demi Moore, but she just was announced as one of the most beautiful people in the world and I think that’s despite her having not a great facelift, which was then redone and then that upper lip lift that just, is not it.
Bri (07:12):
But the pictures they showed of her, and I am not, she is absolutely gorgeous, were so airbrushed. I was like, not airbrushed, but I was like, this isn’t what she looks like though.
Dr. G (07:22):
And my sister was all about her hair. One of the women she works with also is a hairdresser by trade is certified, is like girl, those are all extensions. She has this,
Bri (07:34):
Hey, don’t hate on extensions.
Dr. G (07:37):
I know I’m not hating on it, it’s just that’s not a natural hair.
Bri (07:42):
I don’t think anything about her is natural at this point.
Dr. G (07:46):
And that’s fine, come on the hair? It looks,
Bri (07:50):
She’s had so much work.
Dr. G (07:51):
Great. I just can’t get past the upper lip lift because there’s really no way to make that better once you’ve taken out too much. So I have a friend who always says, you really should not consider doing an upper lip lift unless you’re also doing a corner lip lift. But in her case, I think they just took too much of her upper lip. So it’s that skin between your nose and your upper lip. So it’s just whatever and it looks awkward and when she’s moving because her mouth doesn’t move the same way.
Bri (08:24):
We need an unfiltered
Dr. G (08:26):
Edited?
Bri (08:26):
picture. Yes. Of Demi Moore.
Dr. G (08:29):
Yeah. Who’s the person that does that all the time? I’m trying to think of the actress’s name. It’s always so good.
Bri (08:35):
You know who needs to get on that train is Brittany Spears.
Dr. G (08:39):
Plastic surgery or editing her photos? I switched from our Restore SD Instagram account to my Instagram account and I always forget that I’m following her and she jump scares me every time I switch back.
Bri (08:54):
It’s the first thing pops up is her some wielding knives.
Dr. G (08:58):
In barely their underwear looking a mess. All right, so we digress. So let’s talk about she thought he was a licensed surgeon, then her cosmetic surgery left her disfigured because I feel like this happens every week, man.
Bri (09:15):
And this time it’s in Florida.
Dr. G (09:15):
This time it’s in Florida, which is more par for the course. Last time we discussed a case in New York and I think that lady did die actually, but I don’t understand these people posing as a doctor. I read this article and I think he may have been a Venezuelan physician, but then not licensed in the US so at least he went to some sort of training, unlike our buddy in New York who I think just picked it up. I don’t know, but I just think it’s weeks after another doctor from the same facility was apprehended. It looks like New World Medical and Mystic Cosmetic is just a surgical chop, chop, chop shop. I don’t know.
Bri (10:04):
Chop, chop, shop.
Dr. G (10:06):
Say that
Bri (10:07):
We’ve said it too many times.
Dr. G (10:10):
Anyway, nobody there is actually a physician. So again, I always say credential where you’re going and that means make sure people are licensed and it’s not that hard to do. You can look them up on, for example, in California you can look up somebody’s, you can go to California Medical Licensing Board and look people up. You can go to the American Board of Plastic Surgery and verify someone’s boarded. Don’t believe everything you see on websites and the internet. So you just really have to,
Bri (10:41):
I’m just going to say go look at their website.
Dr. G (10:43):
Well, if you look at their website and they’re saying, I’m boarded in this or I’m certified in that, then you just take their actual name and plug it into one of these other databases and check. I don’t know, just terrible. None of these people are practicing with a medical license, which is some, it’s a whole other separate issue beyond the pediatrician doing liposuction, so you’re way outside your lane. These people aren’t even necessarily physicians. They’re practicing without a license. So nothing to sue here. There’s no malpractice. You can’t sue somebody for malpractice when they’re not actually a physician. So that means that
Bri (11:21):
Does that make it like
Dr. G (11:22):
It’s a criminal charge.
Bri (11:23):
Manslaughter.
Dr. G (11:24):
Yeah. Yeah, it’s a criminal charge, but
Bri (11:27):
So is this guy out of a facility or out of his house?
Dr. G (11:32):
Out of a facility.
Bri (11:34):
At least he had that going for him. The crack house in New York where she went to go get her work done is awful. That should have been the first red flag, but.
Dr. G (11:41):
Right. I think this is, yeah, her breasts were infected and then he ignored her requests and didn’t tell her to go see a legitimate doctor. So again, it just sucks. Again, credential the people that are operating on you. I don’t know why you wouldn’t. The lead of this article is she thought he was a licensed surgeon, but it doesn’t actually tell us how or why she thought it was. So I would like to know how she was misled, but I mean you probably just read the name New World Medical and said Dr. So and Lazzaro, oh, I guess on his Instagram page, Dr. Lazzaro Venezuela certified plastic surgeon in aesthetics. So
Bri (12:27):
Crazy.
Dr. G (12:27):
Great.
Bri (12:29):
You’re not in Venezuela.
Dr. G (12:31):
Right? The topic we’ve been dying to get to.
Bri (12:34):
Blue Origin.
Dr. G (12:38):
I can’t with the whole, let’s send some six rich bitches to space.
Bri (12:47):
Right.
Dr. G (12:47):
But try and spin that as a STEM calling.
Bri (12:51):
Yeah.
Dr. G (12:52):
Now astronauts know what it’s like to be a doctor and have everybody called a provider. When these girls, women, whatever, are considered astronauts because they zipped up a custom made suit and when in a capsule they actually don’t have to do anything. When I take a United Airlines flight to Hawaii, am I now a pilot the hell?
Bri (13:16):
Well, it depends.
Dr. G (13:19):
I hope not. We all hope I don’t become the pilot. I don’t know anything about flying and these girls don’t know anything about being an astronaut.
Bri (13:26):
Also, if you look at an actual astronaut when they go to space, they are not wearing skintight, latex, whatever suits that they were wearing. I mean, I think someone’s tits were out. Come on.
Dr. G (13:40):
It was so extra.
Bri (13:43):
Do we have a picture of this?
Dr. G (13:45):
Yes. Oh and her Daisy, I want to die.
Bri (13:49):
The fuck. Sorry. The daisy man. You’re going to go spend a billion dollars so you can go up and look at Earth for eight minutes. Why not donate that to something worthwhile? Anything?
Dr. G (14:03):
Yeah, like assuring reproductive freedom for all women. That would be way more helpful than this influencer trip in the name of hashtag stem. Oh yes. Here’s the Blue Apron outfits. First of all, no.
Bri (14:18):
Did you say Blue Apron?
Dr. G (14:21):
Oh yeah, I did. Never mind, I love Blue Apron.
Bri (14:26):
I was going to say one and the same, but don’t do Blue Apron Dirty like that.
Dr. G (14:31):
Blue Apron is where we make three or four meals a week at my house. It’s so easy. I love that. Then I don’t have to love, think and grocery shop for specific menu items. I love Blue Apron. I feel like we should have a code to insert here. Okay, blue Origin on the other hand, blue Apron, please sponsor us. We busy working moms and then our kids are like, what’s for dinner? Yeah, they look insane with these outfits. Yes, and they have the zip up.
Bri (15:05):
They didn’t even wear helmets or whatever. They just had hair out.
Dr. G (15:10):
They were fully glammed. As Katie Perry said, she was going to put the ass an astronaut.
Bri (15:14):
Stop. She did not say that.
Dr. G (15:17):
She did say that, she fully embraced this. I heard a clip of her talking about how she brought the daisy up there. She’s like, I brought this daisy from Earth. Girl, where else are you going to get the daisy from? Is there another planet that has daisies I’m unaware of.
Bri (15:34):
It’s going right back down to Earth also.
Dr. G (15:37):
That’s right. And it’s going to be dead because you just plucked a daisy.
Bri (15:41):
Right?
Dr. G (15:43):
Only second to her kissing the ground when she got back, she was,
Bri (15:47):
You’re eight minutes and, have you seen actual, I saw this one article and it was like their capsule versus an actual capsule that has been to space
Dr. G (16:00):
Yeah.
Bri (16:00):
And their’s perfect and the one that is in space has burned on the outside, cuz it’s actually in space. I’m like, they can’t come out and think anyone’s going to take them seriously after this.
Dr. G (16:14):
Well, I think that leads us to our next article because just when you think this whole thing could die and go away because no one cares. There’s conspiracy theorists that believe that they didn’t actually go up to space, that the whole thing was faked.
Bri (16:29):
You know when you could rent a jet to take pictures and just rent it for an hour, they probably rented the spaceship or whatever it is.
Dr. G (16:37):
I can’t. Yeah, we should rent a jet just to take photos on our trip to
Bri (16:43):
Let’s do it.
Dr. G (16:44):
I love space exploration, celebrity culture and conspiracy. It’s just a great combo for creating that. And yes, I guess they said they started to open the door. There’s a clip where you’re supposed to open the door from the outside again, her kissing the ground like she’s in, what’s that annoying movie, Armageddon? Is that it? You wouldn’t know that my husband watches over and over again. It’s like she was just in Armageddon, the Bruce Willis movie where they launch to space to save the world from a meteor or something. Anyway, yes, this is a little, the all female crew of Katie Perry’s mission. Lauren Sanchez is pissed about that to space, her mission to space. Her mission to space. What mission? Appeared to open the door of the capsule from the inside just minutes after landing before hastily shutting it again.
Bri (17:41):
She’s like, shit.
Dr. G (17:43):
Yeah, and then Jeff Bezos is supposed to come and unlatch it. They’re like, is it ready? Can we come out? Oh, no, no, actually, just kidding.
Bri (17:51):
Cameras. Cameras. And I love how nothing in the area around where the capsule landed is
Dr. G (17:58):
Scorched? I think it’s on a parachute or something, but I think if I start talking about aerospace engineering, I’m going to start to look real dumb.
Bri (18:06):
We have to stay in our own lane.
Dr. G (18:08):
Yeah,
Bri (18:09):
But also they said Katy Perry’s hair. Did you see that one astronaut who was stuck up in space for nine months and her hair was straight up and crazy and Katy Perry’s was like perfect.
Dr. G (18:19):
Flowing.
Bri (18:20):
As she flew by the camera with her daisy.
Dr. G (18:23):
Yeah, microgravity and shared her set list. I can’t, okay. I think my head might explode if we talk about this anymore,
Bri (18:32):
There’s a lot of other things we could have done here besides why is she on the floor?
Dr. G (18:38):
I don’t know. People say that’s a fake hand. I mean, I bless, God bless these people who have the time to worry about whether this was a conspiracy or not. Who cares. It was dumb.
Bri (18:49):
Oh yeah. Aware of reentry, burn marks. That is the most pristine space capsule I have ever seen.
Dr. G (18:56):
I know.
Bri (18:56):
Katie.
Dr. G (19:00):
Okay, well let’s get onto today’s topic, which is
Bri (19:05):
See, oh see?
Dr. G (19:06):
Yeah. Real hair in space. Fake hair and space. I don’t know, maybe they just didn’t make it high enough to get all the gravity away. It’s weird. I could talk about the time I worked at NASA, but we already know I’m a giant nerd. But I did spend a summer working at NASA. And there was a room that was all white and sterile and you could do a fake stunt where you suited up and then kind of posed in the way that it made you look if you altered the picture like you were in zero gravity anyway.
Bri (19:37):
Oh, interesting see?
Dr. G (19:39):
Yeah.
Bri (19:39):
I think they went to NASA for a weekend.
Dr. G (19:41):
Yeah, just go to space camp, man. Okay, moving on. So let’s talk about thigh lifts because the Daily Mail has the agonizing toll of ozempic.
Bri (19:55):
I mean, what do people expect though when they lose a whole bunch of weight at that fast of a rate?
Dr. G (20:00):
I don’t know. I think this happened when bariatric surgery first became popular and caught on, and it still hangs around now where people are like, but I lost three or 400 pounds with my gastric bypass, so now you’re going to fix me for not free, but via insurance and insurance is like absolutely not. That’s cosmetic surgery.
Bri (20:22):
Oh, they don’t cover any of it?
Dr. G (20:24):
Yeah. Insurance will cover usually a breast reduction, and so a lot of these patients don’t have enough breast tissue to qualify as a breast reduction, and they’ll cover a panniculectomy, which is a lower abdominal skin removal, and that’s it. You want an arm lift, a thigh lift, a breast lift, a lower body lift, all of that is considered cosmetic. It’s not creating a functional problem, generally speaking. Yeah. So now we’re seeing the same problem if you’re losing weight fast, except this is in England where they’re socialized medicine, so I’m guessing it is coverable. I don’t know. I don’t know enough of how they decide whether you get cosmetic surgery or not for free, but people are now trying to fix it because they didn’t understand that losing weight, especially losing weight fast, is going to leave you with loose skin. The i.e. melted candle body, which I think is crazy. It’s like
Bri (21:24):
I can envision it though.
Dr. G (21:26):
Yes, it’s true. It’s a little wild that I don’t know. It’s great. It’s great that they have now an apt descriptor for a melted candle body. They shed a quarter of their body weight. They’re healthier, but they look worse because they left, they’re left with sunken hollow looking faces, sagging skin, empty breasts and buttocks. Sorry.
Bri (21:52):
I just feel like they want society to be healthier and you’re losing all this weight to be healthy to ease the burden of our healthcare system. Why not just let them have their loose skin off and let it be covered?
Dr. G (22:06):
I dunno, because there’s a limited resource for medical stuff. I don’t know. I’m not in charge of that. Anyway,
Bri (22:17):
We went through a very, very, we’re doing a lot of thigh lift, back lifts, abdominal plasty, brachioplasties.
Dr. G (22:27):
Yeah, we go through it, but now it’s summertime, so I think people are less inclined to do stuff right now for that kind of thing because they’re like, well, let me see if they can lose 10 more pounds and I’ll catch you in the fall because then your whole summer is out. You can’t soak in a tub, you can’t get in the hot tub, you can’t get in the pool and the ocean until everything’s super healed. So it’s not a great summer, summer type operation.
Bri (22:51):
And that’s why it’s good to be close to your goal weight so that you don’t have to go get surgery and then you go lose more weight and then you have to redo surgery. Then surgery’s just a waste.
Dr. G (23:02):
Yeah, don’t hit a moving target. So people get all excited when they lose X amount of weight, but you want to make sure you’re really at the goal weight that you want to be at before you start tinkering with things. So New Beauty magazine also reported that thigh lifts were on the rise. Are GLP is like ozempic behind the growth of thigh lifts? Probably because it’s really indicated for people who have extra skin or laxity of the thighs. You can do liposuction, but if that’s not the issue, if it’s just loose skin, then you really need excision of that skin. You can try other noninvasive things to tighten the skin, but if you have weight loss patients, those who lost a hundred pounds or more, then that skin in the inner and outer thigh is hanging and the only way to do it is to excise it.
Bri (23:55):
So what are the two ways that you excise the skin?
Dr. G (23:58):
Okay, so I think when people have the laxity is in the upper third of the thigh, so not all the way down the side of their leg. Then I like the, it’s called the apex thigh lift, and so that’s an incision that’s almost like a bikini cut underwear. So the incision ends up in your gluteal crease and then around the crotch area and then up the groin to the bikini. And it’s great when you do it with an abdominoplasty, you can do it at the same time because that incision will then join the abdominoplasty incision, that low tummy tuck incision, or you can do it separately as well. It’s well hidden. It tends to sag a little bit. So I wouldn’t say your string bikini wearing is going to be inconspicuous, but if you’re wearing a pretty conservative bathing suit afterwards, it should be good. So that’s number one.
(24:57):
That’s probably the more common thigh lift I do, because again, I feel like people in southern California in general are just smaller, and so a lot of them don’t need a huge amount of skin excess removal. If you have excess skin that extends beyond the upper part of your thigh, meaning that when you look down at your leg, you have excess skin that travels all the way down to your knee or close to it, then that is a more traditional thigh lift, and that is an incision that’s on the inseam of your leg. So kind of like the inseam of a pant line from your knee all the way up to your groin crease. And then again, it comes up like an underwear line and that takes care of skin in that kind of along the whole leg. So you’re pulling it around the whole leg tightening everything together, as opposed to the apex thigh lift where we’re just pulling it up a little bit. Pantyhose, I think is what I’m thinking of, like when you just pull pantyhose up to get it in your crotch so you’re not feeling like it’s hanging low. That’s
Bri (26:01):
Yesterday in clinic.
Dr. G (26:02):
Yeah, I was like, God damnit, my pantyhose would not hang up, my tights rather. Anyway, I sound like my grandmother or something. Pantyhose.
Bri (26:10):
I said pantyhose on Sunday. I was like, I don’t have any pantyhose for dinner. You hit 30 and it’s all downhill.
Dr. G (26:19):
Stockings. I don’t know whatever you want to call it, but when you go to grab that and pull up, that’s an apex or medial thigh lift. If you’re just going to do a tapered pant, but on the inside, the incisions on the inside, then that is your full thigh lift. Regular standard thigh lift, that incision is usually a trade off. So if you just have a little bit of extra skin, you’re not like, oh, please let me just do that whole thigh lift incision because you’re going to see it every time you wear shorts. It’s just there. It’s hard to hide. We do all the things we normally do to make it heal as nice as possible, but you’re still going to have an incision. Now mind you, it’s on the inside of your legs. So if you’re standing kind of normally you’re not necessarily going to see it, but it is more visible in shorts.
(27:07):
The scar is there. There’s no such thing as an invisible scar there, as you know, certain things we do to try and get the scar to heal as nice as possible. One thing is to not put it on too much tension when you’re excising the skin. The second is to close things in layers, so not just relying on the skin to hold the wound together. And then we often put Steri strips so that mechanical paper tape adds some healing benefits. You can just continue to tape the incision and that will over time improve the scar. But it’s kind of a vintage technique. So a lot of times we will then transition ’em to a scar cream that has silicone gel in it, and then finally we laser the scars with a fractionated CO2 laser at four to six weeks out and then repeat that three times a month apart. And that is our scar protocol. And I think that really does a good job of giving people the best results possible. Occasionally you can see hypertrophic scarring and we’ll inject that with either Kenalog or 5-FU to help the scar soften quicker.
Bri (28:09):
So when you’re doing a thigh lift, would you say that like the thigh lift itself, would you recommend doing Renuvion with it or do you lipo, what’s the best benefit or does the thigh lift itself just really depending on the incision?
Dr. G (28:23):
I think the thigh lift should be doing the lifting part. I usually use Renuvion for patients that have a little bit of laxity, but not so much that they have skin to excise. So just like your average 40 or 50-year-old woman who has maybe lost and gained the same 10 pounds their whole life and spent some time in the sun, have a little bit of laxity, has a little bit of fat, then Renuvion with liposuction is probably your way to go. I don’t do Renuvion with a thigh lift because Renuvion is supposed to be tightening the subcutaneous tissue, and I’m already doing that by excising the skin. I will do liposuction though with a thigh lift because I think it can help enhance the results if we need some reshaping, if the patient still has a little bit of localized adiposity, so a little pockets of fat. So that incision that goes all the way down the inseam of your leg isn’t going to address saddlebags per se. So if you have that little saddlebag area, then you might want to lipo that on the way. And then you know that the medial thigh lift that I do by liposuction, what’s going to be excised because I like to do the avulsion technique of,
Bri (29:35):
Oh, it is so great to watch. Okay, she does this also with brachioplasties, and every single time I make sure our anesthesiologist watches and every single time he can’t watch, and it’s so great. This is the prime time.
Dr. G (29:51):
It’s a little gnarly to watch, but it’s, despite how interesting it is to see it really is effective. So what we do is the area that I’m going to excise, I liposuction every last little fat cell out of there so that you just have skin, and then the only thing left behind are nerves, veins, and arteries. And then I make an incision in the skin and essentially pull the skin off because all that’s left behind are the nerves.
Bri (30:21):
So Dexter of you.
Dr. G (30:22):
The nerves, the arteries, the lymphatics. So two things, you preserve that, so their sensation, et cetera is way better afterwards. And number two, no drain required, which patients love you.
Bri (30:37):
Love no drains.
Dr. G (30:38):
It’s called the Hunstad named after Joe Hunstad. I think he’s recently retired, but it’s called the avulsion brachioplasty. And then people are like, why aren’t we doing this for the thigh? And so we do it for the thigh as well, and it works really well for those cases. Apex thigh lift, as you know, is direct excision because we are really just taking kind of that banana roll from behind the booty and then that inner thigh laxity that everybody hates and excising that and that we just straight up excise. And as you can imagine, a little tricky to get in there to close those incisions in the peroneal area. So we have to frog the patient and it’s headlamp and my neck is at some contorted angle for the rest of the day.
Bri (31:26):
The chiropractor has to come after that procedure. It’s also just so much, she’s constantly, you guys know how good I am at explaining medical things. So there’s a lot of constantly measuring and she’s re clipping things, and she’s making sure everything is pulled up and everything. She doesn’t take too much. So it’s a lot of little tedious work. You’re all up in there.
Dr. G (31:50):
We ironically call it tailor tacking in the OR. But yeah, it’s that whole measure twice cut once, so you want to make sure that you’re taking enough, but not too much. And we use different things to kind of pretend hold what we’re going to excise out of the way, and then mark, and then double check and then excise.
Bri (32:10):
And then if you’re doing the apex one, you have to flip the patient, so you got to somewhat close it all and then flip the patient over and it’s
Dr. G (32:19):
Yeah, temporarily close.
Bri (32:22):
Yes.
Dr. G (32:22):
Yeah. So it is at least a four hour operation, generally speaking. Right. And it’s a lot of closing, if we do the longer incision, I don’t combine it with Renuvion. You can combine it with other surgeries though. What’s the one surgery I won’t combine it with?
Bri (32:38):
Renuvion.
Dr. G (32:39):
No, yeah, you’re right. I said Renuvion, but no.
Bri (32:42):
Oh arms.
Dr. G (32:42):
Yeah, what other body part?
Bri (32:44):
Yeah, you need your arms, you want one or the other, and coming from somebody, that was it, right? Okay. I did lipo on my arms and my legs at the same time, and I do not recommend because you’re just walking like a stick board. You can’t move your legs, you can’t move your arms. Everything is just so uncomfortable. So do one at a time. I know a lot of people are like, well, I’m in there, I just want to get it over with. I only want to go under anesthesia one time. Don’t do it. Don’t do yourself dirty like that.
Dr. G (33:14):
I will lipo arms and legs, but I tend to provide a note of caution if I’m doing that because we’re not excising anything, but I absolutely draw the line at doing a brachioplasty and a thigh lift at the same time. You cannot immobilize all four extremities like that and expect to recover. There’s just no way.
Bri (33:34):
I can’t imagine.
Dr. G (33:34):
So the two common surgeries, so usually you do arms and breasts together. If you have somebody that has a lot of excess skin, so that candle wax body, whatever they were talking about. So you would do arms and breast and then thighs and abdomen. If you know you’re going to do all four body parts at some point. That’s how I would break it down. But a lot of people, and so I tell patients that’s like a logical pairing, but you have limited funds. So if you want to tackle the most important thing to you, then pick that.
(34:06):
So for women, it’s either the abdomen or the breasts. And so I get it, you want to do breasts and abdomen together, which is totally reasonable, but then now you’re going to have two more surgeries, arms later and then legs later, which is fair. You can do that. But if you want to do breast and abdomen because you don’t think you’re going to come back for either thighs or arms, then do that. So it’s a conversation. You have to balance what bothers you the most and you want to get done first. And what the overall plan is to get rid of all the extra skin because arms and thighs together is a no go, just not possible.
Bri (34:50):
And how long do you think that recovery is on the thigh lift?
Dr. G (34:54):
I tell people a solid four to six weeks. So thighs are brutal because they’re always under the heart, unless you’re standing on your head for an hour a day, I don’t know how you’re going to get that swelling down. So I tell people to lay down and put their legs up. So in yoga, that’s called legs up against the wall or legs up the wall, that helps. But you’re only doing that for what, 10 or 15 minutes a couple times a day. The rest of the time, your thighs are below your heart and they’re prone to swelling. So you’re in a compression garment. Those incisions take a long time to heal. So two weeks of taking it easy and then a solid four to six weeks before you can exercise again, you don’t want to pull those incisions apart.
Bri (35:36):
Can’t go squatting.
Dr. G (35:39):
Or skiing. We’ve had that. And then even when patients are super careful, this is just, I think people underestimate you need your legs and it sucks when, I mean, if you’ve ever had a broken foot or ACL tear or something like that, then you know how hobbling it is to be in a cast or a boot or in one of those scooter things. But not everybody’s had that experience before. So they kind of underestimate how unstable you are on your legs. So I’ve had a patient that got up in the middle of the night, couple weeks after thigh lift and fell. She was trying to let her dog out to pee at midnight. Her thigh lift remained intact, but she broke her ankle, which sucked. And then we’ve had another patient that was home by herself, and she got up to do something and caught her foot on the corner of her rug and went down and remember, and she tore her incision open on her thigh. Which I was like, well, how bad. I mean, what do you mean? And she’s like, no, it’s bad. And essentially her whole incision down the middle of her thigh came apart. So that was returned to the OR to put that back together. And she wasn’t doing anything. She wasn’t, you know what I mean? She literally was trying to stay cool home in her house and tripped on something. So that can happen too, even if you’re doing your best. But then we have those that are like, well, I’m going to go scuba diving. And you’re like, please don’t.
Bri (37:07):
No.
Dr. G (37:09):
Or skiing. No. Don’t. Everyone thinks they’re so invincible and then they have surgery and they’re like, oh, actually, yeah.
Bri (37:18):
This sucks.
Dr. G (37:19):
Just kidding.
Bri (37:20):
I feel like people plan, I feel like especially for lipo, everyone thinks that it’s going to be an easy procedure. They plan things that after, and then they come in post-op day one and they’re like, oh my God, I did not expect it to be this hard. I feel like I got hit by a bus. And you’re like, yeah,
Dr. G (37:34):
We told you.
Bri (37:35):
You can’t go on that trip three days later.
Dr. G (37:38):
Yeah, unless you’re Jordan.
Bri (37:40):
Yeah, she’s crazy. But take time to recover.
Dr. G (37:44):
I would say it’s a bell curve, and there’s going to be 5% of the people that are like, oh my God, I can’t get out of bed after something, name the surgery, but liposuction is a good example. Most people are like, oh, that took me a minute. And then another 5% that don’t even, it doesn’t slow them down, but the majority of people, you’re going to be like, oh, I’m really sore. That took a lot out of me, more than I imagined. And everyone thinks they’re going to be in the 5% that doesn’t get slowed down. And when you are not in that 5%, you’re like, oh, that’s going to take me two weeks to recover. Yes. That’s kind of what we told you. Yeah, I mean, it really matters that recovery time, even if you feel good, you need to take it easy because you just can’t predict how things are going to go. And I see it all the time, patients sometimes, once everything’s said and done and they’re healed, they’re like, yeah, I didn’t want to tell you, but three days after my labiaplasty, I went and did X, Y, and Z. And I’m like, okay.
Bri (38:45):
I know, we had one the other day who I saw and she was like, oh yeah, well, it’s okay. I started working out after five days and I was like, girl, you know, weren’t supposed to.
Dr. G (38:57):
I know.
Bri (38:57):
But they don’t say it until after the fact. But it’s like
Dr. G (39:00):
If they get away with it.
Bri (39:02):
And then she’s like, well, I was swollen a little bit longer. And I was like, dunno what you expect.
Dr. G (39:08):
Yeah. Alright, so let’s see. What else can we talk about for thigh lift besides taking the time to recover? So I would say this is one of those surgeries, if you’re in a job where you stand all day, you’re a scrub tech, you’re a nurse, doctor, work in some sort of retail, you need to give yourself at least four to six weeks off. You’re just not going to be able to do it. So make sure you’re planning for the recovery. And then I think if you’re trying to do it without the excisional surgery, that’s when Renuvion comes in. But it only works to a certain extent. So it’s really for those either borderline patients or patients who have minimal laxity and just want an improvement. And will insurance ever cover thigh lift? Not really. There’s no functional issue here. You’re not going to have skin that leaves you with a rash. They’re just not interested in covering that. That’s the thigh lift. In 45 minutes or less.
Bri (40:05):
Will a thigh lift get rid of cellulite?
Dr. G (40:08):
No. Cellulite is the devil.
Bri (40:13):
Unless you have Aveli.
Dr. G (40:15):
Yeah, Aveli helps. Yeah. Cellulite on the thigh, you’re not actually addressing the cellulite if you’re pulling the skin up. It can maybe improve laxity like any textural changes related with laxity. But cellulite is the tethering of your skin to underlying subcutaneous tissue. And if you don’t cut those little fibrous septae, you’re not solving the cellulite problem. Liposuction tends to make it worse sometimes.
Bri (40:43):
Would you ever combine doing Aveli with a thigh lift or would that just not work?
Dr. G (40:48):
I would do Aveli to the buttocks cellulite, but I wouldn’t mess with the thigh cellulite while I was doing a thigh lift. But you do know I’ll do Aveli at the same time as liposuction or Renuvion to the thigh. That combo is great. Nothing’s, everything’s working, and I was just talking yesterday with someone, I will also add Radiesse, which is a bio stimulator to a cellulite treatment like Aveli, to kind of fill out any dips and also stimulate collagen, which you need more of because a lot of people don’t present with just cellulite. They have cellulite and, and if you’re in the ozempic world, it’s usually and laxity. So you have some sagging of the skin, little stretch marks, you can fix the cellulite, but it’s not going to give you that smooth airbrush look. It’ll just improve the dimpling. And so if you can help stimulate collagen and kind of smooth it out with a bio stimulating filler like Radiesse or Sculptra or your own fat, that’s all win-win. We’ve seen some nice results with the Radiesse.
Bri (41:53):
Really good. Really good.
Dr. G (41:55):
And Brie is on the chopping block for fixing her hip dip from a previous BBL with Radiesse.
Bri (42:01):
Yes. I actually didn’t even notice it until I went in the bathroom and I was showing her something.
Dr. G (42:06):
So I feel like, I feel like you were,
Bri (42:08):
I was showing you my butt. And then you were like, oh, oh, did you want to fix that dimple? And I was like, you bitch. Now all I can see is the little dip.
Dr. G (42:21):
Yeah. I don’t normally point things out to people unless they’re asking, I feel like you were auditioning for Aveli. You’re like, look at my cellulite. And I was like, you don’t have any cellulite. But you do have that one dip. And I’ve been promising to put Radiesse in it forever. But we will do it.
Bri (42:36):
For a long time.
Dr. G (42:37):
As soon as you get back from Alaska, we will do it. I promise. Promise, promise.
Bri (42:41):
Get’s put on the back burner. She makes you work instead.
Dr. G (42:45):
I know you’ve definitely been working a lot.
Bri (42:49):
There’s a question on here that says What happens during a thigh lift? Tears. Lots of tears. Okay, I’m done.
Dr. G (42:57):
Physical exhaustion. So if you have questions about thigh lift or body contouring surgery in general, especially after weight loss, please reach out to us. Like and subscribe. We’ll be back with another episode.
Bri (43:13):
Slay.
Dr. G (43:15):
Not slay. Why don’t you show Hannah what our new, what was it?
Bri (43:20):
Scrubbing in.
Dr. G (43:20):
And scrubbing out? Bye. If you’re listening today and have questions, need info about scheduling, financing, reviews, or photos, check out the show notes for links. Restore SD Plastic Surgery is located in La Jolla, California. To learn more about us, go to restoresdplasticsurgery.com or follow us on Instagram @restoreSDplasticsurgery. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it and subscribe to All the B’s on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.
About Restore SD & Dr. Katerina Gallus
As the Director of Restore SD Plastic Surgery, board certified female San Diego plastic surgeon Dr. Katerina Gallus has over 20 years of experience helping patients enjoy head to toe rejuvenation with face, breast and body procedures. After a successful career as a Navy plastic surgeon, Dr. Gallus founded her San Diego plastic surgery center, Restore SD Plastic Surgery, with the intention of creating a welcoming space for anyone seeking cosmetic enhancement.
Restore SD Plastic Surgery offers popular facial rejuvenation procedures like facelift & neck lift, facial fat transfer, nanofat grafting and rhinoplasty; breast augmentation with implants, breast lifts or breast reduction; body contouring procedures such as tummy tuck, liposuction, mommy makeover, and Brazilian butt lift (BBL), as well as non-surgical aesthetician services, BOTOX, dermal fillers, laser treatments, and weight loss injections.
Dr. Gallus and her highly-experienced aesthetics team are here to help you look and feel your best! To schedule a personal consultation, please contact us online or call our office at (858) 224-2281 today. We proudly serve the San Diego and La Jolla areas.
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