The Details of the Tummy Tuck Procedure – An Insight

Tummy tuck or abdominoplasty is a cosmetic surgery for removing fat and skin to make your tummy look thinner and toned. Excess fat makes your skin too stretched and when you lose weight, such as post pregnancy or after a surgery, you are left with loose skin and saggy tissues. This can affect your appearance and make you feel less confident while interacting in a social situation. Due to fat accumulation or pregnancy, the rectus abdominis and sit-up muscles get stretched but abdominoplasty puts them back together without damaging them.
Before considering tummy tuck, it would be good to find if you are the right candidate for it.

Who is a good candidate for abdominoplasty?

You are an ideal candidate to opt for the tummy tuck surgery if you abide by the following points:

• You have lost a lot of weight recently.
• You have undergone liposuction procedure and now have loose skin left after fat removal.
• You who have delivered recently and now have loose skin due to stretched tissues.
• You need to lose some weight before the procedure to make the surgery successful and adopt a healthy diet to improve the results.
• You should quit smoking and drinking from six weeks ahead of the procedure
• Make sure you are taking enough precautions as prescribed by the surgeon according to your medical conditions.

Abdominoplasty – The complete procedure

It is an outpatient surgery as you can move home after it but your surgeon will recommend you to avoid traveling and take help from others for your regular activities. Initially, you will be given general anesthesia. Even local sedatives are effective for tummy tuck procedure and are commonly used. Considering the time, it will take around one to five hours to complete the procedure. The first night after surgery is tough so make sure there is someone to look after you.

• Complete Abdominoplasty –

Patients who need removal of excess skin in almost every part of the body need this procedure for maximum results. The incision is made below or on the bikini line to hide the scar. The length of incision depends on how much excess skin has to be removed. Also, incisions are made below the belly for a toned abdomen. Once incisions are closed, draining devices are attached to the abdomen to remove the secreting liquid. It might be attached for a few days till it heals completely.

• Mini-abdominoplasty –

If there is not much excess skin to remove but you want your body to be firmer by giving it a better contour and shape, mini abdominoplasty is the best option. This procedure takes only one to two hours to complete and sometimes even the drainage device is not required after this procedure.

• Circumferential Abdominoplasty –

When excess fat and tissues need to be removed not only from the abdomen but also from the back area, this technique is helpful. Incisions are also made on thighs and buttocks to lift the abdominal muscles. It is called circumferential because the surgeon makes the incisions around the whole waist from abdomen to back. It addresses most of the area with focuses on lower back and hips

Associated Risks and complications

You will face discomfort and feel pain for the first few days but it will go away with time. You will have a drainage device to remove the secreting fluid. The surgeon will cover your incisions with bandages and will urge you not to move for the first two days. Even after that, you can only carry on the physical activities as allowed by the doctor and for the rest of the daily chores, you need to take the help of others.

There might be bruises around incisions but they will go away with time. Though there are complications, you can see them very rarely after the surgery. Blood clots might collect inside incisions due to poor circulation of blood in diabetic and heart patients. These complications might hinder your recovery process and slow down the results. But a professional surgeon can handle these complications easily. Moreover, it is inevitable to get a scar post recovery, they only get lightened with time, but the mark remains.

Recovery time

First week of recovery is difficult for everyone as all the activities are restricted and you have to go through the discomfort also. As for daily activities, you need to take care of them for at least six weeks and then the doctor will tell you better if you can continue with your work on your own.
For the initial weeks, you need to wear an abdominal binder to protect the incisions and reduce the pressure on it.

Also, you need to consider that recovery rate and time is different for everyone according to their age and medical conditions. Your surgeon can guide you for this and following precautions is a must otherwise recovering within the expected time becomes tough. Additionally, the expert will give all the instructions regarding physical activities according to your recovery stage. You shall start to move a bit and walk in a few weeks from the surgery so that your body is active and it recovers faster.

Expected results

You will recover after almost six weeks but can observe final results only after around three months, as you are completely back to your normal life and daily activities.

To know more about the tummy Tuck procedure, you can contact our doctors near you. They can explain the procedure thoroughly and let you know if you are a suitable candidate for the surgery.