If you’ve had children or lost a good deal of weight, odds are your abdomen isn’t what it once was. Loose skin and a little pooch — that’s the usual situation. Why? Because when skin and connective tissue beneath are stretched, due to pregnancy or weight gain, they can only maintain the ability to return to their former tautness for so long. After that, the elasticity is lessened. The result? The tummy pooch or worse.
But all is not lost with your sagging tummy. At UMass Memorial, our six plastic surgeons use their extensive skills to remove excess sagging skin, bring back separated stomach muscles to the center, and give you the flat abdomen you once had.
As with all our procedures for our patients from Worcester and the surrounding areas, our surgeons treat every case as completely unique. Because of that, there are different tummy tuck methods we can use to address your needs.
Mini tummy tuck
Also known as limited-incision abdominoplasty, a mini tummy tuck targets the lower abdominal area. It can be an ideal solution if you have very little excess skin, but still want to eliminate that pooch in your lower belly. The mini tummy tuck is far less invasive than its traditional counterpart, so recovery is easier, and the horizontal scar is much shorter.
Full tummy tuck
A full tummy tuck is recommended for those women with a good deal of loose abdominal skin. During a full tummy tuck, a larger section of excess skin and fat is removed, and the underlying muscles are often brought back closer to the center to produce a shapelier waistline. A full tuck will also include a second incision, through the belly button, if possible, to address looseness above the belly button. In a full tuck, the belly button may be repositioned to a higher location, depending on the amount of skin removed.
Extended tummy tuck
This takes the full tummy tuck described above, but the incision is extended past the hipbones to include the flanks. The incision can even extend past the flanks, terminating in the lower back to provide some lifting of the buttocks.
Muscle repair
To create the tight, flat abdomen that everyone wants, we not only remove excess skin, but also may reposition muscles that have become separated in the center of the abdomen. It’s not that the muscles have lost their ability to contract, it’s that they may have separated and no longer provide the same support to the middle of the lower abdomen. If this has happened, there is no way these muscles will return to the center without surgery.
Liposuction
There was a time when women chose between a tummy tuck and liposuction, but now the two procedures usually have at least some overlap. In addition to loose, saggy skin, most people also have pockets of fat that don’t respond to exercise or dietary changes. Liposuction removes these pockets.
Who says having a stomach pooch is a part of middle age? Let our team at UMass Memorial tighten up your lower abdomen and give you back a stomach you like to show off next summer in a swimsuit at the Cape. Call us at (508) 334-5990 to schedule a consultation.
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