If you’re a black woman, you probably know that your body doesn’t always respond to exercise and diet the same way other women’s do. You might feel like no matter how hard you try, your belly is still a little rounder than you’d like it to be. But don’t worry! We’ve got some great tips for helping you get rid of that extra skin after having kids or losing weight—and it all starts with your tummy tuck doctor.
When choosing an OBGYN for your tummy tuck procedure, make sure they have experience performing these on black women. They should also be certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG). The ABOG maintains a directory of board-certified doctors who can help guide you through the process of finding one near where you live or work.
Read on to learn more about Black Women Tummy Tuck, Tummy Tuck Binder Vs Compression Garment AND About African American Tummy Tucks
Black Women Tummy Tuck
An African American tummy tuck is tailored to the specific needs and wants of African American patients. A tummy tuck, or abdominoplasty, can sculpt and enhance the contours of a woman’s body to create the profile she desires. Many African American women prefer a result that accentuates their beautiful curves.
One Size Doesn’t Fit All Tummy Tucks
Tummy tucks are highly personal aesthetic procedures. Very often, the ideal shape for one woman is an undesirable outcome for another. Women should never feel they have to conform to whatever beauty standard is trendy or in-demand at the moment. All women should feel empowered to pursue their own vision of what makes them beautiful.
An African American tummy tuck can enhance your natural beauty and help you achieve the hourglass shape of your dreams.
Dr. Michael Omidi understands that beauty can mean different ideals for different patients. He possesses the training, experience, and eye for aesthetic details that allow him to craft a tummy tuck precisely to your vision. We honor all cultural heritages at our practice and always strive to accommodate your aesthetic goals.
If you’re curious how an African American tummy tuck might be perfect for you, call our offices in Beverly Hills, California at (310) 281-0155. You can also book a personal consultation online. For your convenience, we offer remote consultations so you can connect with us from anywhere.
Tummy Tuck Binder Vs Compression Garment
Part of a successful recovery is wearing your tummy tuck compression garment, also known as a binder. Wear this as directed for a easier and faster recovery.
Atummy tuck compression garment is a heavily elasticized cloth that stretches around your mid-section, much like a girdle. It fits quite snugly, applying even and constant pressure on the encased area. The garment typically covers the area below your breasts down to the hips or pelvic area — everywhere that was treated during your tummy tuck, including the immediate surrounding area.
Why do I need to wear a compression garment after my tummy tuck? This is a question we often receive from patients. Because it fits so snugly, some patients find it rather uncomfortable to wear. However, you should know that you should wear it as advised. A compression garment can help a great deal in your recovery after abdominoplasty. Here are the top four reasons:
1. A reduced risk of seroma
Excess serous fluid collection filling a pocket under the skin is technically referred to as a seroma (when it is blood, it is known as a hematoma). Seromas are considered to be the most common complication associated with abdominoplasty according to several studies, including one from 2002 published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery. The constant, even pressure applied by your compression garment is designed to push down on tissues that were rearranged during your surgery, so that pockets where fluid could collect are minimized or eliminated. The garment also promotes circulation. These two reasons are believed to be how the incidence of seromas can be decreased.
2. Better circulation
And since we’re on the topic of circulation, we all know that keeping your blood going during your recovery is key to getting better, since it’s how beneficial nutrients are delivered to the treated areas to promote healing. This also reduces swelling, bruising and the risk of blood clots, which can be serious or even fatal.https://www.youtube.com/embed/_-ELNx0oYa4?rel=0
3. More comfort
Your compression garment helps keep tissues in place while you move around. Damaged tissues and incision lines are protected from being pulled or strained. That means you’ll feel more comfortable. In fact, some patients like to wear their garment for weeks after it’s okay for them to stop because they feel more comfortable with it on.
4. Better contouring
While great care is taken to tighten your mid-section and minimize any contour irregularities, there may still be a chance that uneven contours may appear. Many contour irregularities can become permanent if they’re not corrected early on in your recovery. A compression garment helps to flatten out any lumps and bumps that appear.
However, sometimes an ill fitting compression garment may leave permanent indentations. For example, seams can leave long lines in your skin. That’s why it’s important to make sure that your garment fits properly. If in doubt, let us know. Another option is to either wear your garment inside out if you can, or wear a seamless tight cotton shirt underneath your garment as a protective layer.–>
Having difficulty breathing?
We’ve had patients complain about having difficulty breathing while wearing their compression garment. While it should be snug, your garment should never prevent you from breathing properly. It should also not cause you any pain while you wear it. If it does, let us know as soon as possible so we can get you another one.
In some cases, patients find it difficult to breathe not because of the garment, but because they’re breathing unnaturally.
Breathing right
When you breathe, there are three parts of your body that are involved: the intercostals muscles, diaphragm and abdominal muscles.
The intercostals muscles are located between your ribs. When you breathe in, these muscles contract upwards and outwards to allow your lungs to expand with air. At the same time, your diaphragm moves downward toward your abdomen to create more space for the lungs as well. With proper and natural breathing, you’ll see your chest rise and widen while your stomach expand. It’s exactly how we breathed when we were younger.
CONTACT OPTIONS
Don’t be discouraged, because it is possible to have a leaner body contour.
Belly breathing
As we become more sedentary, we start to get lazy with how we breathe. Instead of involving these three body parts with every breath, we only use our stomach. Your abdominal muscles expand and contract, but your chest doesn’t move. This is known as belly breathing, and it’s a habit that can lead to a bloated stomach that no dieting or tummy tuck can fix!
Belly breathing is why some patients may find it difficult to breathe while wearing their compression garment. They rely just on their stomach to bring in air, but their stomach can’t expand because of the pressure applied by their compression garment.
If this is true for you, take a moment to be conscious of how you breathe. Feel your rib cage expand with every breath, and your diaphragm and abdominal muscles will automatically work together at the same time.
About African American Tummy Tucks
Tummy tucks are incredibly popular procedures for women that have undergone changes to their bodies due to life events. Sometimes that means mothers who want some of their pre-pregnancy figures back. In other cases, patients who lost weight want to remedy the leftover skin that can’t be worked off through diet and exercise. And even patients who have not lost weight or undergone a pregnancy might have stubborn areas of fat and excess skin they want to remove along with tightening up their stomach muscles.
WHAT MAKES AN AFRICAN AMERICAN TUMMY TUCK DIFFERENT?
We want all our patients to look and feel great in whatever clothes they want to wear.
All tummy tucks remove unwanted skin and fat while tightening the abdominal muscles. However, different patients have different aesthetic goals. Many Caucasian patients desire a very slender and petite figure. They request an end result that differs from some of our African American patients and other ethnicities. Typically, our African American patients want to celebrate their curves and create a more dramatic hourglass figure than our Caucasian patients who tend to prefer a more slender look. It’s also important for plastic surgeons to recognize that dark skin can be more prone to keloid scarring and hyperpigmentation.
African American Candidates
Ideal candidates for an African American tummy tuck are those with excess skin or pockets of fat around the abdomen that can’t be easily addressed through diet and exercise. Usually, the excess skin is loose or even sagging. Abdominoplasty is not a procedure for weight loss. It’s meant to address the stubborn remnants of skin or fat that can’t be worked off through diet or exercise. A tummy tuck can help contour the curves of the body in a way that pleases our African American patients.
Here in Los Angeles, we love curves and seek to enhance yours in the most attractive way possible.
Your Private Consultation in Beverly Hills
Open and honest communication is of the utmost importance to everyone at our practice. We want all patients to feel comfortable discussing any issues and concerns they might have in addition to opening up about their aesthetic goals and desires. You should feel comfortable asking any questions you might have about the tummy tuck procedure.
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Dr. Omidi and Dr. Paul offer you the opportunity to achieve the results you desire in a safe and supportive environment. They both bring a passion for aesthetic surgery that can’t be captured in credentials alone. They treat every patient like a life-long friend and family member. If you want to learn more, our staff would love to answer your call at (310) 281-0155. You can schedule a consultation online as well.
How to Prepare
Follow all the individualized instructions provided to you. If Dr. Omidi advises you to take or adjust certain medications, it’s extremely important to adhere to this. In general, you should stop smoking. Smoking always brings greater health risks, but especially before an involved surgery as it can disrupt your body’s natural healing. It’s important to eliminate any additional risks that might mar your results or increase your recovery period. We ask that you also abstain from anti-inflammatory medication including aspirin, Aleve, Motrin and ibuprofen.
The Procedure
Our tummy tuck procedures all follow a basic outline. The procedure will take between 3-5 hours.
- We supply the patient with the proper anesthesia
- We mark the body with a surgical pen to ensure correct placement of incisions
- Subtle incisions are made in the targeted region
- Your surgeon repositions the naval
- Your surgeon tightens the abdominal muscles
- Loose and excess skin is removed
- We reduce any stretch marks
- The incision is closed with the appropriate sutures
The precise steps may vary depending on what type of tummy tuck you choose. These general styles of tummy tuck can be modified for African American patients based on individual preferences.
- High-tension – Tightens the abdominal muscles both vertically and horizontally to create a corset-like result
- Mini – Removes loose skin and excess fat and tightens just under the belly button
- Fleur de Lys – Focuses on enhancing the abdomen after significant weight loss by removing excess skin and unwanted fat deposits along with muscle tightening
- Traditional – Focuses primarily on the central abdominal area and provides a vertical tightening of the abdominal muscles, not horizontal. Excess skin and fat is removed
- Male – For men, the abdominal muscles are tightened but not pulled inward
One important distinction between a tummy tuck for African American women and a tummy tuck for women with a fair complexion is that black skin texture can sometimes be more prone to scarring and developing darker spots. When selecting a surgeon for a tummy tuck, African American women should verify the surgeon understands the differences between skin textures. Dr. Omidi has performed many procedures on African American women and understands the potential for black skin texture to develop keloid scars. The incisions may be placed differently to minimize any chance of scarring.