Tummy Tuck

What you should Know about Abdominoplasty

Abdominoplasty, also known as “tummy tuck” is a surgical procedure performed in order to make the abdomen leaner, slimmer and firmer. This practice was devised as a way to deal with flabby tummies that presented either too much excess skin, too much fatty tissue or else, too little muscle definition.

Many patients resort to medical consultation out of disappointment. Having tried all sorts of diets, lotions and exercise programs, hundreds of people, especially women, seem to be hopeless regarding their stomach and the way it looks.

Why should I need a Tummy Tuck?

According to health specialists all over the globe, people develop unresponsive excess tissue due to some – or all – of these reasons:

Loss of Collagen: The skin’s natural collagen seems to have a limited resistance. Due to genetic factors for example, some people’s skins lose the ability to come back to its original place after extreme stretching that occurs under one of these circumstances:

• Yo-yo dieting: people who have put on or off weight in permanent cycles throughout their lives find it hard to have their skins go back to their original firmness.
• Pregnancies: many women suffer the consequences of extreme skin – stretching during their pregnancies. This is particularly so in women over 40 or who have had several pregnancies. Whereas their firstborns left no marks on their bodies, subsequent pregnancies seem to waste away the skin’s natural elasticity.

Excess Skin: Other patients that have been formerly overweight find it difficult to do away with the excess skin that remained once the dieting is over. In such cases, tummy tuck is the best surgical procedure to restore’s the patient’s former figure.

Stretch Marks: Quite often, the reason for a flabby tummy is the presence of too many stretch marks. When this happens, the abdominal skin presents a scarred aspect and the tissue is unable to naturally come back to its place. Moreover, some people lose their abdominal shape altogether as the fascia (or muscle-wall) is totally lost. This is another big reason for patients considering a tummy tuck.

What to Expect?

First off, potential patients should be made aware of the fact that abdominoplasty is considered a major surgery, thus requiring a deeper health screening prior to treatment. Moreover, the public should also learn that it is not the same as liposuction –although some people choose to undergo both procedures.

Can Anybody Get a Tummy Tuck?

Not really. The first and most important requisite involves having a good overall health. This means that only healthy people can be eligible candidates for this type of cosmetic surgical procedure. Patients who suffer from heart or coronary conditions, who have respiratory or lung issues, those who suffer from some kind of diabetes or who have developed medical allergies should consider another type of non-surgical treatment, such as the ones offered at Advanced Dermatology.

On the other hand, people whose lifestyles are inconsistent with the tummy tuck treatment may want to either put it off or avoid it altogether. For example, a young woman who is still planning to become pregnant in the future should wait until later on. As was explained earlier, the procedure involves stretching vertical muscles until they are tight. If these muscles get stretched once more due to another pregnancy they may become permanently separated and may need some sort of core in order to properly correct the damaged muscle, as a sort of internal girdle.

Finally, people who are overweight and are still planning to lose weight should undergo this procedure only after reaching the desired objective. In fact, a tummy tuck is not a weight loss treatment and should not be considered as one.

In all, despite being highly popular tummy tucks are not the only choice, this is why at Advanced Dermatology non-surgical procedures are available, as well.