If no amount of diet or exercise is leaving you with a firm, flat stomach, a tummy tuck can help. This is one of Dr Hunt’s most popular procedures, driven primarily by mothers whose bodies haven’t recovered after pregnancy, but also by men or women who have lost a significant amount of weight.
While you’ve no doubt heard people say that diet or exercise is the solution, unfortunately there is only so much self-repair our skin can do. In reality, the only solution for stubborn excess skin is surgery.
Tummy tucks, or abdominoplasty, address three key areas of concern – excess skin, persistent fat, and lax muscles. Dr Hunt employs a variety of surgical techniques to counteract these issues:
- Liposuction removes excess fat deposits and helps to achieve the ideal silhouette and contour.
- Mini abdominoplasty, also called a mini tummy tuck, addresses excess skin below the belly button but will not allow tightening of the muscles. The advantage is a shorter, less visible scar.
- Endoscopic abdominoplasty allows both the skin and the muscles to be tightened. This is often done through a shorter incision.
- Full abdominoplasty involves all of the skin below the belly button being removed and the muscles tightened. It can be combined with liposuction of the abdomen to achieve optimal fat removal. This procedure achieves the maximum tightening of abdominal tissue. However, the scar usually runs from hip to hip.
- Extended abdominoplasty is used if weight loss has led to excess skin extending around the hip. An extension of the abdominoplasty can be used to remove excess skin over the hip to improve body contour. The scar is slightly larger than that of a traditional abdominoplasty.
Tummy tucks are very often combined with breast surgery in a popular combined procedure known as the mummy makeover. This targets the two areas most effected by pregnancy and breast feeding – the tummy, and the breasts. Click here if you’d like to learn more about mummy makeovers, or read on to find out more about tummy tucks.
