Over 6 months post op, what is going on with this tummy tuck? Belly button is too high, not centered. (photo)

It’s not Unusual for patients to have concerns about the bellybutton after this procedure.

During a full tummy tuck the belly button itself is never moved.

It stays on the abdominal wall and what is instead moved is the skin in fat layer around the belly button.

Most people have asymmetrical bodies and this doesn’t change where the belly button sits on the muscle wall.

If his skin opening is made symmetricacally in the midline then the belly button will skive off immediately to the side looking like it travels sideways. this is true for both left and right and up and down.

If you take a Q-tip and push it into your belly button and the Q-tip doesn’t travel sideways or up-and-down then your belly button it’s right where it should be which is where it always was.

The torso shape changes dramatically with this procedure and this can create the illusion of the belly button sitting in a different position.

There is very little plastic surgeon can do if someone decided to get a tattoo and then get a tummy tuck other than explain exactly where the tattoo will be eliminated from the procedure.

Revising belly button position is a major undertaking and will leave you with new undesirable scars on your abdomen.

It basically requires redoing the entire tummy tuck minus muscle tightening and the new belly button position will cause the old position to have an unnecessary scar.

In your case you were forming hypertrophic scarring around the bellybutton and in your main incision.

For most patients the scars improve overtime for about 18 months from the date of surgery.

When excessive scar tissue is forming sometimes silicon tape management can be useful and extreme cases the use of dilute anti-inflammatory steroids. The use of steroids need to be done very carefully because they can thin out the scars and make them wide.

You can always schedule some second opinion consultations with other plastic surgeons in the community but redoing your tummy tuck may not lead to much of an improvement.

If I was going to criticize the work it’s probably more regarding the liposuction and how the transition of your waist to your hips thigh and buttocks being a little abrupt and the transition point could be lowered a bit.

Best,

Mats Hagstrom MD