Everyone gets a little stomach pooch at some point. If you’ve been pregnant and had a couple children, it’s almost a certainty. If you’ve gained and then lost a good deal of weight, same thing. Even simple aging gives everyone a small pooch as the muscles and tissues in our abdominal area weaken. The issue is the skin; once it’s been stretched for a long period, it can’t tighten back down to its former degree of tautness.
That’s where a tummy tuck with Dr. Admire comes in. This procedure can flatten your tummy and even slim your waist if your abdominal muscles have become separated.
What’s a tummy tuck?
The main job of a tummy tuck is to remove excess skin that has become loose and saggy. This is in contrast to liposuction, whose goal is to remove pockets of fat, but not any skin.
Full tummy tucks usually involve a lengthy incision, stretching from hipbone to hipbone. Dr. Admire drops the incision so that it can be effectively hidden under underwear or a swimsuit bottom. This incision length can vary, depending on the amount of sagging you have. If you want to address the flanks, the incision can wrap around the flanks and extend to the lower back area. If you have sagging skin above the navel, he’ll make a second incision to access skin above the navel. For patients with more minimal sagging, a shorter incision along the bikini line will suffice. This would be the case of a small pooch that is mainly due to aging.
What about fat?
Some tummy tucks include the removal of excess fat. Dr. Admire generally removes the excess fat in the center of the abdomen surgically and the excess fat of the sides with liposuction. He believes this delivers the smoothest, most accurate, and effective contouring of the area while still reducing the fat.
What about muscle?
Dr. Admire also tightens the abdominal muscles when performing tummy tucks. In pregnancy, the localized weight gain can cause the muscles in the center of the abdomen to actually separate. They cannot come back to the former centered position without surgery. When Dr. Admire brings these muscles back to the center and anchors them, this can slim the waist of the patient.
Healing
Patients wear compression garments for 2-3 weeks after surgery. Bruising in the center of the abdomen will last 1-2 weeks. Areas that have received liposuction will stay bruised for up to 3 weeks. Pain in the abdomen from both the surgery and liposuction can last from 7-10 days. Most patients return to work in two weeks or so. Heavy lifting and strenuous exercise, however, must wait for 4-6 months.
Want to get rid of the pooch? Call Dr. Admire at (480) 946-3155 and set up a consultation for a tummy tuck.