FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — More women are going under the knife to cut off “bat wings.”
These loose flaps of skin have made upper arm lifts, or brachioplasty, more popular at a time when consumer confidence in the economy has boosted plastic surgery numbers overall.
“I see quite a few women come in and ask about brachioplasty,” said Dr. Shashi Kusuma, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Plantation, Florida. they can’t live the lifestyle they want.” Although no one tracks figures by state or region, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons found that arm lifts have increased nearly 4,400 percent in the past 12 years — from 338 in 2000 to 15,457 last year.
Plantation retiree Bonnie Sibner, 57, went to Kusuma for an arm lift to fulfill a lifelong desire to go sleeveless.
“It’s so sunny down here and it’s so hot, you want to dress as comfortable as possible, but I wasn’t comfortable wearing a sleeveless one,” said Sibner, former owner of Kilwin’s Chocolate Shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
It was also partially inspired by the first lady’s much talked about “weapons.”
“I always said I wanted Michelle Obama’s guns,” he said. “That was my goal.”
The president’s wife can’t take all the credit, but the American Society of Plastic Surgeons says Shibner isn’t far off her mark.
While the organization couldn’t pinpoint a reason for the growing interest in hand sculpting, its recent poll of 1,219 women in the US found that they pay a lot of attention to the lithe limbs of female celebrities.
Obama, actresses Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Biel and Demi Moore and TV show host Kelly Ripa received the highest praise from respondents for their toned arms.
“There are certain celebrities who are known to have good hands, and the more people find out that this is a solution, the more they take advantage of it,” said Dr. David Rieth, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Committee on Public Education. “It’s not that by itself, but it contributed to it.”
Other factors include a strengthening economy and growing interest in weight loss, Reath said.
The vast majority of women seeking an upper arm lift have lost significant weight, leaving them with excess skin in many places, one of the most visible of which is the back of the arms. (Most of those undergoing the procedure are women. Of the 2012 figures, just 321 were performed on men.)
Three-quarters of women who had the procedure last year were over 40, an age when skin doesn’t bounce back like it used to, the group of plastic surgeons said.
“You can’t tone the skin,” said Dr. Steven Schuster, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Boca Raton, Florida.
Once the body is stretched to a certain point, the skin no longer has the elasticity to retract, he said.
Despite losing 25 pounds through diet and exercise and keeping it off, Sibner found that no matter how muscular, fit, and toned she was, she couldn’t do anything about the excess skin that hung from her rear her hands.
For some, liposuction can help, but for many, like Sibner and Gayle Specht, brachioplasty was their only hope for achieving the shapely arms of their dreams.
“You see everyone else wearing nice clothes and you envy someone else with a nice body,” said Specht, 61, an assistant pastor.
She lost 100 pounds years ago by eating right and exercising, she said, but she still felt the “huge” amount of skin hanging off the back of her arms made her look heavier than she was. “This was something I always wanted to do for myself,” she said.
However, it is not a painless process. For about $6,000, upper arm lifts can sometimes leave a long scar on the inside of the arm, depending on how much skin is removed, and recovery time can last two to six weeks, experts say.
