Thigh Lift vs. Liposuction: What’s the Difference?

Many peo­ple seek cos­met­ic surgery on their thighs, espe­cial­ly after dras­tic weight loss or to address the changes that come along with aging. In addi­tion to mak­ing thighs look slim­mer and more toned, cos­met­ic surgery can relieve irri­ta­tion or pain that comes from your thighs con­stant­ly rub­bing against each other.

Thigh lifts and thigh lipo­suc­tion are pop­u­lar pro­ce­dures for remov­ing unwant­ed fat and chang­ing the appear­ance of the thighs. Both pro­ce­dures offer sim­i­lar results, but there are sev­er­al impor­tant dif­fer­ences between them.

A thigh lift (thigh­plas­ty) removes excess fat and sag­ging skin. It reshapes your thighs, giv­ing them a more defined, con­toured appearance.

Lipo­suc­tion also removes excess fat, but it doesn’t tar­get sag­ging skin. It can still make your thighs look more con­toured, but it won’t tight­en the skin.

One type of pro­ce­dure isn’t bet­ter than the oth­er – the best one for you depends on fac­tors like what you’re hop­ing to achieve or how long you can devote to recovery.

Not sure which one to get? Here are five things to take into consideration.

1. Goals for Thigh Surgery

If your main goal is just to get rid of fat pock­ets and you would like to con­tour a very spe­cif­ic area with­out a large scar bur­den, con­sid­er lipo­suc­tion. In most cas­es, your skin will nat­u­ral­ly mold itself to its new shape. But you might still have some droopy skin.

If a more dras­tic change is desired, you may see bet­ter results with a thigh lift. In addi­tion to remov­ing fat, your thigh lift sur­geon will trim excess skin so that your skin doesn’t look like it’s sag­ging and your thighs appear thinner.

When both of these goals are equal, there is a third option – get both. When it comes to thigh lifts and lipo­suc­tion, it isn’t a one-or-the-oth­er sit­u­a­tion. You can even get both pro­ce­dures done at the same time. Since lipo­suc­tion doesn’t address excess skin, and since thigh lifts don’t remove all fat, get­ting both pro­ce­dures might be the best way to get the results you want. 

(Pro tip: You can also com­bine thigh pro­ce­dures with oth­er plas­tic surg­eries, like a tum­my tuck or butt lift.)

Also read: The Trans­for­ma­tive Jour­ney of a Mom­my Makeover

2. Skin Quality

Even if your main goal is to make your thighs look slim­mer and con­toured, you might not nec­es­sar­i­ly need to go the thigh lift route. It depends a lot on skin qual­i­ty and elasticity.

Skin elas­tic­i­ty (also called skin tur­gor) is your skin’s abil­i­ty to change shape and then go back to nor­mal. If you have good elas­tic­i­ty, lipo­suc­tion might be enough to see a change in the appear­ance of your thighs. If your skin is thin and doesn’t have good elas­tic­i­ty, it can still look like it’s sag­ging after lipo­suc­tion, so a thigh lift might be a bet­ter bet.

Won­der­ing if your skin elas­tic­i­ty makes you a bet­ter can­di­date for one pro­ce­dure over the other? 

A Duly plas­tic sur­geon can assess your skin and help you under­stand which option will give you the results you’re look­ing for. Request a con­sul­ta­tion with one of our providers at 28381 Davis Pkwy, War­renville, Illi­nois, who per­form Lipo­suc­tion or Thigh Lifts today to learn more. 

Request a Consult >

3. Recov­ery Time

There are some sim­i­lar­i­ties in recov­ery. After both pro­ce­dures, you will like­ly need to wear tight-fit­ting gar­ments (com­pres­sion gar­ments) for a few weeks to reduce swelling. It will also be sev­er­al weeks before you can get back into dai­ly activ­i­ties and exercise.

There are also some dif­fer­ences, which might affect which pro­ce­dure you choose.

Typ­i­cal­ly, lipo­suc­tion has a short­er and eas­i­er recov­ery than a thigh lift. While it can take sev­er­al months to ful­ly recov­er, you will like­ly be able to go back to work after a few days.

Thigh lifts have big­ger inci­sions, which are sen­si­tive to tem­per­a­ture, move­ment, and touch and may take longer to heal. You will need to rest your legs as much as pos­si­ble for up to 10 days and stay home from work dur­ing that time. Recov­ery from a thigh lift can also be a bit more com­plex. If your sur­geon placed tem­po­rary tubes under your skin to clear blood and flu­ids, you will need to emp­ty the drains sev­er­al times per day and track how much flu­id drains out.

4. Scar­ring After Surgery

Both pro­ce­dures result in scar­ring, but not to the same extent.

Scars from lipo­suc­tion are usu­al­ly very small. They often fade over time, some­times becom­ing unnoticeable.

When it comes to thigh lifts, there’s a big­ger chance of vis­i­ble scar­ring. Since thigh lift inci­sions are longer – espe­cial­ly if you have the pro­ce­dure on your out­er thighs rather than your inner thighs – your scars may be larg­er. For­tu­nate­ly, these scars also tend to fade and become much less notice­able over time.

5. Cost of the Procedure

In most cas­es, insur­ance doesn’t cov­er cos­met­ic surgery (plas­tic surgery that aims to change your appear­ance and isn’t med­ical­ly nec­es­sary), so either pro­ce­dure will most like­ly require pay­ing out of pocket.

Also read: Is My Plas­tic Surgery HSA-Eligible?

The cost can vary and depend on many fac­tors, like the type of surgery facil­i­ty or which anes­the­sia you receive.

In gen­er­al, lipo­suc­tion is a lit­tle less expen­sive than a thigh lift. The aver­age cost of lipo­suc­tion ranges from $3,000 to $8,000, while the aver­age cost of a thigh lift is about $8,700.

If you have your heart set on thigh surgery, try not to jump when you read those num­bers. You can often get a pay­ment plan so that you can pay in much more afford­able chunks over time.

Learn about Duly Aes­thet­ic Ser­vices Finan­cial Policy.

Also, check with your insur­ance provider just in case. There are times when they may cov­er a por­tion of a pro­ce­dure, like if you’re get­ting a thigh lift because excess skin is caus­ing med­ical issues like chron­ic rash­es that aren’t respond­ing to oth­er treatments.

Talk­ing to Your Provider About Thigh Lifts vs. Liposuction

Regard­less of which option you choose, your provider will need to make sure that you’re a can­di­date for surgery.

How Choos­ing Between a Thigh Lift and Lipo­suc­tion Works at Duly

At Duly, our plas­tic sur­geons take a thought­ful, per­son­al­ized approach to help­ing you decide which pro­ce­dure, thigh lift, lipo­suc­tion, or a com­bi­na­tion, will best sup­port your goals. Instead of rush­ing into treat­ment, your care starts with a detailed con­ver­sa­tion designed to under­stand your health, your hopes, and what results feel right for you.

Duly plas­tic sur­geon Kari­na Alexan­der, DO, FACS, offers a look at how she helps patients choose the right approach:

“First, I dis­cuss impor­tant med­ical and sur­gi­cal his­to­ry to ensure patients are good can­di­dates. Next, we focus on your goals and the details of each option before decid­ing on the best pos­si­ble sur­gi­cal plan, depend­ing on the points we dis­cuss. I like to set clear expec­ta­tions and ensure my patients under­stand pos­si­ble out­comes and how we’ll nav­i­gate this process togeth­er.”

As you explore your options, your sur­geon will also talk through when cer­tain pro­ce­dures might be most effec­tive, espe­cial­ly if you’ve expe­ri­enced sig­nif­i­cant weight loss. You’ll have oppor­tu­ni­ties to ask ques­tions, learn about the dif­fer­ent tech­niques, and under­stand how to choose a sur­geon you feel con­fi­dent in.

“There are options, and patients can address their thighs (and oth­er areas) once weight loss has sta­bi­lized. Meet with your plas­tic sur­geon a few times and ensure they are com­fort­able per­form­ing the pro­ce­dure. I would also ask about cre­den­tial­ing and board cer­ti­fi­ca­tion status.”

Recov­ery is anoth­er essen­tial part of the con­ver­sa­tion. Your sur­geon will out­line what the heal­ing process looks like, how long the swelling can last, and what steps you can take to sup­port the best pos­si­ble outcome.

“Whether it is lipo­suc­tion, thigh lift, or a com­bi­na­tion of both, the recov­ery time is extreme­ly impor­tant in ensur­ing opti­mal results. Being healthy and fol­low­ing instruc­tions makes a big dif­fer­ence. Swelling can last for months at times, and scars and over­all results con­tin­ue to improve over time.”

No mat­ter which option you choose, you won’t make the deci­sion alone. Our Duly sur­geons are here to guide you, answer your ques­tions, and help you feel con­fi­dent every step of the way.

Ready to get a thigh lift or liposuction? 

Request a con­sul­ta­tion with one of our providers at 28381 Davis Pkwy, War­renville, Illi­nois, who per­form Lipo­suc­tion or Thigh Lifts to learn more. 

Request a Consult >