Liposuction Vs. Tummy Tuck

The correct procedure depends upon your tissues and anatomy. Liposuction removes excess fat under the skin. We then rely on the skin elasticity to tighten the skin over the area of liposuction.

A tummy tuck removes excess skin, excess fat and tightens the underlying muscles.

If your abdominal problem is limited to excess subcutaneous fat and of you have good skin quality, liposuction may be appropriate. However, if you have had several children, you may have excess skin as well as fatty tissue and the abdominal muscles may be "stretched out". In this case a tummy tuck would provide a much better result than liposuction.

Seek a consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon who performs both of these procedures. Your surgeon can then assess your particular case and make the best recommendation for you.

Most commonly tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) is the right choice after multiple pregnancies (3 children for you) because it removes both the extra skin, stretch marks down low on the abdomen and bulging of the abdominal muscle wall created by the pregnancies.

If you have had only one pregnancy and/or the amount of abdominal wall bulging is small, then liposuction may be all you need.

There are really three different components to the changes seen in the abdomen after pregnancy:

1.  Excess Skin: Often women complain of loose skin and associated stretch marks especially down low below the belly button

2.  Excess Fat:  Also usually down low below the belly button.  Some women have this and some don't.  Often women think they have a lot of fat when most of the bulging may be from the abdominal wall bulging/stretching created by the pregnancy

3.  Abdominal wall bulging: This is related to the stretching of the facial wall of the abdomen during pregnancy and separation of the  abdominal muscles which often occurs.  Amazingly it almost returns to normal after pregnancy but not quite.  So some bulging is left behind. Each pregnancy makes this a little worse. This can't really be improved with sit-ups or crunches as my patients often ask.

Abdominoplasty corrects all three of these and gives very dramatic results.  It is a bigger operation with a longer recovery and a long scar.  In spite of this most women are very happy with the results because they can get back to a much flatter abdominal appearance and get rid of fat, skin and stretch marks all at the same time.

On the other hand liposuction may work well if the skin is in reasonably good shape and is not very loose or thin. Women who have had only one child may be good candidates for liposuction since they may have only a small amount of component #3, abdominal wall bulging.

To find out for sure and hear the whole story, find a board certified plastic surgeon in your area since we answer this question frequently. Sometimes I can tell even from a photograph.

Finally, there is a smaller version of a tummy tuck called a mini-abdominoplasty if you fall in between (have too much extra skin down low to do liposuction alone but not enough abdominal wall bulging or extra skin above the umbilicus to warrant a full tummy tuck.