An astute follower on our Instagram account (@realdrbae – our account, not the follower!) recently asked to see the “scar” version of the before and after photos of the arm lift patient posted online (shown to the left). On Instagram, you really only have one chance or one photo to demonstrate your work. For that reason, you choose the best one. In the case of an arm lift, since the scars are on the inside of the arm, you show the view from the outside.
Why not show the arm lift photos with scars?
That’s one of the limitations of Instagram. You want to the give the viewer the “complete picture.” But if that includes scars, the internet can be a pretty unforgiving place. That’s where a blog post comes in handy. It gives you the opportunity to provide that overview, or the whole picture.
If I went around highlighting my scars and not how we can hide the scars, viewers would compare me with other plastic surgeons who only show photos of hidden scars. That would give the viewer the complete picture of my work but a skewed view of my work when compared to others.
This happens with other procedures aside from an arm lift. When was the last time you saw a before and after tummy tuck photo when the underwear wasn’t covering the scar?! Everyone who gets a tummy tuck has a really long scar but the results look much better when covering the scar. That being said, sometimes the scar version of an arm lift ‘before and after’ photo does look great. Take for example the photo below. This patient has very imperceptible scars but there’s no way of predicting that.
Without further adieu, for that Instagram follower, here is the same arm lift patient with and without scars:
Scar on the back of the arm
Lastly, don’t let photos with no scar fool you. In that case, the scar isn’t on the inside or the outside but rather the back of the arm. This is probably the worst of all options because then the scar is visible to anyone walking behind you!
Thanks for reading and if you’re looking for a doctor near you, and curious to see their pricing for an armlift, click here.
