Tummy Tuck
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- Is Tummy Tuck surgery popular in women following pregnancy?
- Can a tummy tuck procedure be performed in women prior to pregnancy?
- How is a tummy tuck surgery performed?
- How is the belly button made?
- How do you make sure that the feminine “silhouette” is recreated?
- How can the lower belly incision scar thickness be minimized?
Is Tummy Tuck surgery popular in women following pregnancy?
Women undergo several changes around their bellies during pregnancy that may be undesirable. When the abdomen expands to accommodate a growing baby, several unwanted changes are observed. First, the muscles covering the belly and overlying the internal organs expand and stretch around the head of the baby. Following delivery, the muscles sometimes fail to shrink back to their pre-pregnancy state. This results in a bloated look even though mothers may return to their pre-pregnancy weight. In addition, mothers may notice stretch marks that extend up to and even surround the belly button. A tummy tuck offers an opportunity to sew up the stretched muscles, much like “taking in” the seams of a dress. This results in narrowing of the torso and providing an hourglass shape.
Can a tummy tuck procedure be performed in women prior to pregnancy?
Women who haven’t had children may demonstrate changes of their tummies that mimic pregnancy changes by virtue of their having gained and then lost weight. These changes often demonstrate stretch marks and redundancy of skin, but most do not demonstrate stretching of tummy muscles. Such women will benefit from a tummy tuck surgery, which will remove redundant skin. However, tightening of their tummy muscles is not required and should be avoided in order to allow for future expansion of the abdominal muscles required to accommodate a growing fetus.
How is a tummy tuck surgery performed?
A tummy tuck involves making a low incision over the tummy which is positioned to fall below the bikini line. The length of the incision is chosen by the extent of redundant skin present. If there is redundant skin that extends to the flanks, i.e. the love handles, then the incision line must be made longer to get rid of this excess. Next, the belly skin is dissected all the way up to the ribs. When lifting the belly skin, the belly button must be released. The belly skin is then redraped, trimmed, and sewn back down. Finally, the belly button is remade.
The belly button must be recreated following draping and trimming of the redundant skin. Recreating the belly button requires making a hole which is reattached to the previous belly button stalk. This requires a circular surgical incision line that is often the give away of a tummy tuck surgery. When properly created, this incision line should be made in the natural shadow of the belly button so that it is not easily visible. Making the belly button an “inny” is critical to recreating a natural and aesthetically pleasing tummy.
How do you make sure that the feminine “silhouette” is recreated?
Unfortunately, many surgeons perform this procedure without attention to recreating a feminine silhouette. Although this procedure involves elevating, redraping, and trimming the redundant belly fat and skin, the vector of pull when redraping the skin and limiting the degree of lateral skin elevation is critical to creating a feminine silhouette. Specifically, the vector of pull should be in a medial oblique direction rather than directly inferior. In addition, by minimizing the skin elevation laterally, the pull created when redraping the skin will pull in the flanks, i.e. love handles.
How can the lower belly incision scar thickness be minimized?
In order to optimize healing and minimize the inferior tummy surgical incision scar, the re-draped skin is repaired in a manner to eliminate unnecessary tension. A special stitch is performed of an internal “fascial” layer that is tough like a “tendon” which relieves the tension on the skin closure. By utilizing multiple layers to repair the trimmed and redraped skin, the surgical incision line healing is optimized. Finally, the suture utilized for the skin closure today is far superior to those utilized even in the past decade. The internal sutures that are utilized today are retained for approximately three months, thus allowing for near complete healing of the incision line prior to being absorbed. Furthermore, external glue and tape that are maintained for one month prior to being removed further enhance incision line healing. Finally, Intense Pulse lasers are utilized in our armamentarium to treat the surgical incision lines as early as 4 weeks following surgery after removal of the external tape and glue.
