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  • Mini Tummy Tuck vs Full Tummy Tuck
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The question of whether a mini tummy tuck or a standard tummy tuck is the best way to go comes up all the time. Nobody wants a big long scar from a standard tummy tuck. Everyone would like to have the mini. Most tummy tucks are the full standard version because that gives the best result. What a tummy tuck does, it will tighten the muscle area, if necessary; if they've been pushed out from pregnancy. It’ll remove any localized fat, if necessary; and it'll remove extra skin in order to tighten the whole appearance of the abdomen afterwards. So, a mini can do both muscle repair and fat removal. If the upper abdominal skin is perfectly smooth and tight even when you bend forward a little bit, then you might be able to get by with just a mini if there's only localized skin laxity in the lower abdomen. The advantage is, it's a shorter scar and there's no scar around the bellybutton.

With a standard tummy tuck, it's essentially all the skin from the bellybutton down to the pubic area that's removed. The skin from the upper abdomen is then pulled down tight all the way to close it, and the bellybutton is brought back out through an opening at the right location. So, it's a conceptually bigger thing, but it does a lot more. Really it comes down to, if that skin in the upper abdomen is really perfect then, you might be able to get by with the mini. If not, it's probably not going to give you the result you want.

Mini Tummy Tuck vs Full Tummy Tuck

Doctor Richard Baxter discusses who is the right candidate for a mini tummy tuck.