While many individuals may immediately celebrate recent weight loss with a new bikini and a trip to the Bahamas, others will have to deal with the unintended side effects of such a change—excess skin. For those patients who have lost a significant amount of weight, often as a result of bariatric procedures such as gastric bypass, The American Society of Bariatric Plastic Surgeons (ASBPS) and online community RealSelf.com have created a consumer resource. The new section of RealSelf.com focuses on body contouring procedures, with topics ranging from liposuction to tummy tucks.
Individuals seeking information and answers to questions are able to explore RealSelf.com and access discussions, ratings of various services and procedures and share in the online community with the ASBPS’ 134 surgeon members. This is a significant expansion of the online community previously offered by RealSelf.com for patients seeking authoritative guidance.
ASBPS President Edward J. Domanskis, M.D., F.A.C.S., pointed out that given the personal nature of this issue, patients often turn to online sources for guidance and he sees the ASBPS’ partnership with RealSelf.com “providing consumers with an easily accessible expert community, an open forum for discussion, and credible, of-the-moment resources.”
The RealSelf.com online community provides information on hundreds of cosmetic services and procedures and includes first-hand accounts, ratings, costs, before and after photos, videos and more. Consumer questions on the community have yielded over 100,000 answers from board-certified doctors.
Read Dr. Ringler’s answers to questions on RealSelf.com.
