Tummy Tuck With Muscle Tightening<
An abdominoplasty is a procedure that flattens your abdomen by removing extra fat and skin and tightening muscles in your abdominal wall. This surgical procedure is also known as a tummy tuck.
Tummy tucks can be thought of as “mini” or more involved procedures depending on the amount of skin and fat. It’s important to educate yourself, thoroughly analyze your own situation, and take your time arriving at a final decision. The procedure shouldn’t be used as an alternative to weight loss. read on to learn more on mini tummy tuck with muscle repair and tummy tuck muscle repair failure symptoms.
Tummy Tuck With Muscle Tightening
A tummy tuck is suitable for both men and women who are in good general health overall and are at a stable weight. It’s best to be a non-smoker.
A tummy tuck shouldn’t be confused with a liposuction (the cosmetic surgery used to remove fat deposits), although your surgeon may choose to perform liposuction as part of a tummy tuck. Women who have muscles and skin stretched after several pregnancies may find the procedure useful to tighten those muscles and reduce that skin. A tummy tuck is also an alternative for people with a history of obesity and who’ve had significant weight loss, but still have excessive fat deposits or loose skin in the abdominal area.
When should you avoid an abdominoplasty (tummy tuck)?
If you’re a woman who is still planning to have children, you may want to postpone a tummy tuck until you’re through bearing children. During surgery, your vertical muscles are tightened. Future pregnancies can separate these muscles once again.
If you’re still planning to lose a significant amount of weight, don’t have a tummy tuck right away. Wait until your weight has stabilized.
It’s important to note that a tummy tuck causes scarring on the abdomen. The length of the scar, which is along the bikini line, depends on the amount of extra skin. With minimal extra skin, the mini abdominoplasty results in a short scar.
Depending on the results you want, this surgery can take anywhere from one to five hours. Surgery is generally done as an outpatient procedure. If you are traveling out of town to a facility to have the procedure done, you’ll be asked to stay overnight at a hotel. Liposuction may or may not be recommended at the same time.
You will receive general anesthesia, which will put you to sleep during the operation. It’s important to have someone with you who can drive you home. If you live alone and you’re sent home after the procedure, you also will need someone to stay with you at least the first night after the surgery.
- Complete abdominoplasty: This option is for patients who need the most correction. The incision (cut) is made at the bikini line, at about the same level as your pubic hair. The length of the scar depends on the amount of extra skin. Your surgeon will then manipulate and shape the skin and muscle as needed. You will also have an incision around your navel (belly button) with this procedure, because it’s necessary to free your navel from surrounding tissue. Drainage tubes may or may not be placed under your skin. These will be removed in a few days as your surgeon sees fit.
- Partial or mini-abdominoplasty: Mini-abdominoplasties are done with shorter incisions and are often performed on people who have less excess skin. Your belly button most likely won’t be moved during this type of procedure. Your skin will be separated between the line of incision and your belly button. This procedure generally takes one to two hours. As with the complete abdominoplasty, you may or may not have drainage tubes after surgery.
- Circumferential abdominoplasty: This surgery includes the back area. When there is a lot of excess fat in the back as well as the abdomen, you may have either liposuction of the back or circumferential abdominoplasty. The latter procedure allows for the removal of both skin and fat from the hip and back areas, which improves the shape of your body from all sides.
After your partial or complete tummy tuck, your incision site will be stitched and bandaged. Your surgeon may have you wear an elastic bandage or compression garment after surgery. If so, it’s very important that you follow all of your surgeon’s instructions on wearing this garment and caring for the bandage. Your surgeon will also tell you about the best way to sit or lie down so you’ll be in the least amount of pain.
If you’re exceptionally physically active, you’ll have to severely limit strenuous exercise for four to six weeks. Your doctor will advise you on this as you go through the healing process. Generally, one week off work after the surgery is sufficient for most people to recover properly. Again, your doctor will help you determine this.
Tummy Tuck Muscle Repair Failure Symptoms
The first few days were tough, but as time passed, you started to regain your strength and incorporated gentle movement and exercise into your daily routine. You almost feel back to normal!
However, you’re still suffering from signs of poor tummy tuck surgery. And while you know that no plastic surgeon can ever guarantee results, you can’t help but feel disappointed with your results.
There are a number of reasons you might feel let down by your tummy tuck, which we’ll get into further below. If you have any concerns about a past surgery, please get in touch with the Cairns Plastic Surgery team.
We’ll be happy to sit down with you and listen to your prior procedure, and the reasons why you feel disappointed or uncomfortable.
If you want more information about what’s involved in a tummy tuck in Cairns, including recovery, revisions, and complications, we invite you to get in touch with us today.
Signs of a bad tummy tuck
The purpose of abdominoplasty at Cairns (also referred to as “tummy tuck”) is to remove excess skin located in the middle and lower abdomen – typically the area below the belly button. This surgical procedure is designed to tighten your abdomen, and as a result, can flatten your stomach.
Some people mistakenly consider tummy tuck the same as liposuction, however the fact is that the former focuses on removing loose, excess skin, while the latter actually removes fat.
Can tummy tucks go wrong?
As with any other kind of plastic surgery procedure, results are never guaranteed, and as such, abdominoplasty comes with some complications that may lead to a bad tummy outcome.
Tummy tucks gone wrong can cause frustration, especially if your expectation doesn’t meet with reality.
Are tummy tucks high risk?
And just like any other surgical procedure, tummy tuck at Cairns comes with risks.
This is why you need to choose a qualified and competent plastic surgeon who can not only perform the surgery to its highest standard, but also offers pragmatic, and honest advice, and sets realistic expectations.
Here, you must give your body adequate time to heal and follow the guidance from your surgeon. A positive recovery can have a tremendous effect on the success of your tummy tuck.
How do you know if a tummy tuck failed?
There are a few common signs and irregularities you should be on the lookout for that may indicate complications or issues with your tummy tuck. Importantly, if you have any concerns at all, it’s imperative that you contact your surgeon.
Irregular contours
Like we said above, the purpose of abdominoplasty is to help you achieve a flatter and tighter stomach. The surgical procedure deals with loose skin and sagging abdominal muscles following pregnancy and birth, ageing, or even significant weight loss.
However, some patients may be unsatisfied seeing an uneven shape and contour of their tummy after the surgery. As you can understand, this can give a strong sense of unfulfilling results.
There are several reasons for an uneven tummy following surgery, however the most common is that the abdominal muscles were not tightened adequately during surgery, and have started to separate. This can result in a lopsided or uneven stomach.
If you feel like there’s an imbalance or irregular contour, you may consider tummy tuck revision surgery to correct the issue.
What is a revision after a tummy tuck?
Second abdominoplasty or tummy tuck revision is a repeat tummy tuck surgery designed to rectify issues resulting from the initial surgery. If you’re unhappy with the results of your first tummy tuck, revision surgery may be a suitable option for you.
Your navel has been poorly repositioned
A common sign of an undesirable tummy tuck is poor repositioning of the belly button.
If you see that your navel is too high or too low, it might be that it’s been misshapen, while pulling and tightening of the skin has distorted the original shape and position.
If your navel is too high or too low, tummy tuck revision surgery may help reposition it to a more natural position. This is a minor surgery that can improve the appearance of the navel.
You think your scars are too high
Experienced surgeons will usually make tummy tuck incisions low to ensure they can be hidden by undergarments like underwear or swimwear.
High scarring not only on the stomach but around the hips, too, may be a sign of poor surgery.
Scar revision surgery may be a possible fix, however you may be advised to wait several months to give the scars time to mature.
mini tummy tuck with muscle repair
A mini tummy tuck or mini abdominoplasty is often preferable to a full abdominoplasty as the procedure results in less visible scarring and a much quicker recovery time. The difficulty comes when patients who are good candidates for a mini abdominoplasty are suffering from recti divarication, when the abdominal muscles have separated in the middle to leave a gap or bulge.
A full tummy tuck or full abdominoplasty is a procedure in which skin and fat are removed from between the umbilicus (belly-button) and the bikini line, and the remaining skin is stretched to close the gap, with the umbilicus replaced in its natural position.
A mini tummy tuck (or mini abdominoplasty) is ideal for those with only a small amount of excess fat, but excess skin that sags and bothers you. This smaller surgery removes the excess skin, without needing to replace the umbilicus.
What is Abdominal Muscle Repair?
When the abdomen grows, either during pregnancy or weight gain, the abdominal muscles or rectus abdominis can spread apart. When the weight is lost, sometimes the muscles don’t come back together, leaving looseness that bulges in the middle of the abdomen. This is called Recti Divarication or diastasis recti, and can result in weakness of the abdominal muscles. These muscles are important to support your internal organs and stabilise your pelvis, and weakening them by leaving divarication untreated can lead to chronic back pain and reduced mobility.
An effective treatment for divarication of the recti is to surgically close the gap and strengthen the abdominis muscle. This is a routine part of a full tummy tuck operation, as the entire length of the abdominal wall is exposed. However, because of the position of the muscles, it is more difficult to repair the gap during a mini tummy tuck.
Benefits Of A Mini Tummy Tuck
A mini tummy tuck is good at addressing the fullness in your lower abdomen where there is not much excess fat. The benefits of this smaller surgery compared to a full tummy tuck are:
- The scar in the bikini line is shorter
- There is no scar around the belly button
- The surgery is less invasive, leading to fewer possible complications
- There is a quicker recovery time
- Limitations Of A Mini Tummy Tuck
Because the belly button is left in place, a surgeon is only able to access the lower half of the abdominal wall through the incision made. The main part of the looseness in divaricated muscles often lies above the belly button, so the amount we can repair during a mini tummy tuck is limited.
Can I have an Abdominal Muscle Repair with a Mini Tummy Tuck?
Unfortunately, including a repair to the abdominal muscles during a mini tummy tuck is much more complex procedure. While nobody wants the extra scarring and recovery associated with a full tummy tuck, the small incision made during a mini tummy tuck does not provide adequate access to the divaricated muscles, so extra incisions may need to be made, resulting in more scarring and longer recovery times anyway.
In most cases it is best to opt for a full tummy tuck if divaricated abdominal muscles is required. A suitable candidate for a full tummy tuck will have enough loose skin on the abdomen for the procedure to work.
However, in the rare case that someone wants to surgically this muscle gap, but does not have enough loose skin for a full tummy tuck, then the muscle could be reached by dividing the base of the belly button. This is known as ‘floating the belly button’, and allows us to access the abdominis recti without a full tummy tuck.