Tummy Tuck
Tummies are one of the hardest areas for us to keep in line. Why does the highest calorie food have to taste the best, and why isn’t exercise really as fun as it looks in all those work out videos? Even worse, why is motherhood rewarded with stretch marks and a pooch that just will not flatten no matter how many sit ups you do? We cannot make the universe fair, but we can help stack the cards more in your favor. This is why the tummy tuck (Abdominoplasty) was invented! There are five factors that determine your tummy contour: bones, visceral fat, muscles, subcutaneous fat and skin.
Bones
Your hips and lower ribs create the skeletal framework for your tummy and waist area. The width of your hips and rib cage and the space between them determines the basic profile of your waist. If there is a relatively short distance between the top of your hips and the bottom of your ribs, you may appear “high waisted.” Unfortunately, these bones are pretty set in stone and cannot be changed easily with current techniques.
Visceral fat
This intra-abdominal fat is inside your belly around your organs. It stores energy and provides padding for your important parts like Styrofoam peanuts. Regrettably, there is no safe way to decrease this fat other than diet and exercise. If you have a lot of visceral fat it can limit the amount of improvement attainable in a tummy tuck. You are probably wondering if we are ever going to give you any good news. Happily, the last three factors can be transformed to yield a happier, smoother, enhanced abdomen.
Muscle
Your paired rectus abdominis (6 pack) and obliques form your core muscles, the targets of belly-busting exercises. They are covered by a tough layer of connective tissue, called fascia. If you gain and lose weight or have babies, the fascia between the muscles gets stretched allowing the muscles to separate. This creates the infamous pooch. Sit ups will make the muscles more toned; however, training will not improve the stretched fascia. The disappointing result is, at best, a toned pooch. During a tummy tuck we stitch the separated muscles back together. This flattens the pooch and pulls in the sides of the waist. This is a critical artistic consideration. Men have straight sides to their waists with minimal taper. Women, on the other hand, have a more hourglass figure. Their waists taper blow the ribs, then flare slightly at the hips. This is what makes a woman’s abdomen look feminine. Every woman’s body proportions are a little different. We tailor your taper to maximize your proportions.
Subcutaneous fat
This is the fat right underneath the skin. We can have it, right? Some fat is necessary to maintain proportion with the rest of your body, but the extra can go. We can remove this through liposuction or by cutting it out directly. The best outcome from liposuction results when we remove unsightly pockets of fat to improve contour. Not as a method of weight loss. Instead, during abdominoplasty, we want to generate a continuous, soft curve along the side from the chest into the waist onto the hip and down to the thigh.
Skin
Extra skin from pregnancy and weight loss may improve for three to six months. The skin will tighten due to its’ elasticity, like a rubber band. Sometimes, however, the skin is stretched to such a degree that it cannot fully recover. When the elasticity is compromised, nothing will make the skin contract further. Stretch marks are a sign of damaged elasticity. Don’t be fooled by the creams, potions and lasers for stretch marks. They provide minimal to no improvement. With current technology, the best way to treat extra skin and stretch marks is to remove them through a tummy tuck.
Abdominoplasty
The Abdominoplasty is an extremely powerful procedure. Nothing non-invasive can produce comparable results. We flatten the pooch and narrow the waist by stitching those muscles back to create an improved contour. We further shape the waist and hips with liposuction to sculpt smoother curves. Then we remove the extra skin and many of the stretch marks. The result is a flatter, better shaped tummy with a more feminine silhouette.
If this sounds like an operation that may may help you, do not hesitate to come in for a consultation to find out more. Visit us on Facebook for more information about our practice locations in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
Related posts:
