“Do I get to keep my belly button?” or “Can I get an innie?” is something that comes up in almost all tummy tuck consultations. Quite simply, patients do indeed keep their own belly buttons; it is the surrounding skin and tissues that are rearranged.
A Good Tummy Tuck Shouldn't Require a Marble
An experienced cosmetic surgeon should be able to create a belly button that looks natural after you heal from your tummy tuck. However, it's important to remember that healing takes time.
If you have good scars, a normal-looking belly button and natural abdominal contours, hardly anyone will be able to tell you have had tummy tuck. They will simply admire your flat, firm abdomen! For great tummy tuck results without the telltale signs of surgery, Dr. Sanders can help.
Your Natural Navel
During a tummy tuck, the skin through the lower abdomen is removed, and the rest is pulled downward. The natural belly button is removed completely at the same time, because its new location ends up much lower than before and it would look very strange to have a navel set that far down.
Pseudobursa are conspicuous bulges that form under the abdominal soft tissue following surgery due to a pocket of thick scar tissue. Often part of the body's natural healing process, pseudobursa commonly form above the waistline incision or above the belly button.
Additionally, the skin, muscles, and fat of the abdomen were all repaired or altered during the procedure. These structures need time to heal and settle into their new positions. This causes inflammation, swelling, and other temporary side effects that can contribute to the look of the stomach.
There is an art to tummy tuck because simply removing excess skin and fat will not look good. For an aesthetically-pleasing look, your doctor must tighten up the area to achieve the kind of contour that appears on natural bodies, resting well against your ribs. Part of that art is dictated by the gender of the patient.
The tummy tuck is very useful when exercise and diet have failed to tighten the abdominal muscles. However, a tummy tuck is not really designed to make you look “thinner.” Rather, the tummy tuck improves the muscle profile of the abdomen, which in turn can have the effect of making you look more fit and toned.
Tummy tuck is a surgery that involves having your stomach opened and stitched up, which wounds your lower abdomen and causes pain when stressed. Wearing tight jeans after a tummy tuck will inflict pain and cause inflammation of the operated area.
With a full tuck, you will lose more weight than you would with a mini tuck because you probably have more excess skin and fat to be removed. Finally, the opportunity to lose the most weight after abdominoplasty is reserved for clients who choose an extended tuck.
Most women lose between 2 and 3 pants sizes after a tuck, but there are patients who lose even more. If you had a lot of loose skin before the procedure, for example, you could go down 4 more pants sizes.
A tummy tuck can result in a weight loss of approximately four pounds. If you opt for a mini truck, you can expect to lose around three pounds of excess skin and fat. If you opt for an extended tuck, you can expect to lose around five pounds of excess skin and fat.
Abdominoplasty is designed to remove fat and tighten loose skin in the abdominal area, which can have a positive impact on the appearance of the mons pubis. However, if the pubic area is more than minimally saggy, a tummy tuck won't help enough.
A tummy tuck surgery not only has a big effect on the look of the abdomen, but it can also affect the appearance of other bodily structures. It is not uncommon for patients to report that people believed their breasts looked bigger.
To summarize, following cosmetic surgery tummy tuck, most women will go down a size or two in their clothing size. Some woman won't have a change of size, and rarely some will actually go up in size.
Because a tummy tuck is a more extensive surgery, patients need around 10 to 14 days to recover. The results are long-lasting, and the removed fat cells won't grow back—but remaining fat cells may expand and the skin may re-stretch if you gain a large amount of weight.
How long do you walk hunched over after a tummy tuck? You will need to walk hunched over or bent at the waist for about a week. This helps prevent additional pressure on your incision lines.
Tummy tucks can produce belly buttons that are too round, too narrow or too tight and have a visible circular scar around them. “This is often a dead giveaway for a tummy tuck.”
Your belly button will look completely natural by the time you've healed from your abdominoplasty (usually within three to four months). You may notice your belly button growing smaller over the course of several weeks, which is a sign that you're properly healing.
During body contouring procedures like a tummy tuck, fat cells are eliminated from the body and cannot return. Because of this, patients may gain weight in other places like the buttocks, legs, arms, and breasts.
Whether you're contemplating a Mommy Makeover package or just want to undergo a tummy tuck, you'll be relieved to know that any pain from this cosmetic procedure is far less than that experienced after a C-section. *Individual Results May Vary.
There will be some discomfort after a tummy tuck, with the worst discomfort experienced within the first week. On a scale of 1 – 10, pain is often estimated at around a 6-7 for the the first few days to a week, reducing to around a 3 – 4 in the second week. This would, of course, depend on the individual.
It will take several months for all the swelling and bruising to fade, so you won't see the final results for some time. Therefore, it's essential to be patient and wait for the body to heal. After most of the swelling fades in two or three months, you should begin to see a smoother, tighter belly.