Give it to me straight. Is this a bad tummy tuck? (Photos)

Hello,The tummy tuck itself seems to be ok, with well healed scars and a reasonably natural looking belly button. The problem is that as skilled and experienced your surgeon is, he made the mistake that most surgeons continue to make time and again: to prioritize getting the old belly button hole in the skin flap out at all costs. Those costs are substantial. In your case, it led to poor (too high) placement of your scar, which he clearly did intentionally. We should use the same principles for tummy surgery that we use for facial surgery: placing the incision in-between 'aesthetic units'.  When this is done, and the incision is placed exactly where it belongs in every person, at the thigh-abdominal border laterally, and low across the pubic triangle centrally, the resultant scar no longer catches the eye. When done like this, it is common to have to close the belly button hole, leaving a vertical scar in the midline. This scar is much more inconspicuous though.  The current location of your scar will be impossible to fix unfortunately, without either getting pregnant again or having tissue expanders placed in a staged operation.  Best of luck.

Thank you for your question and photos. There's no straight answer, but this is not the location where most plastic surgeons would place an abdominoplasty scar. It is very,very high. Even though the contour looks OK, this detracts from your results, limiting the type of swimwear and other clothing you might hoped to wear. Preoperative photos would've been helpful. When I see a patient who might not have enough skin laxity to place the incision low with a standard tummy tuck, I always tell them that they will end up with a small vertical incision in the lower abdomen/pubic area. I like to place my incisions at the pubic bone level and keep it in the thigh crease laterally. The small vertical scar can be removed under local anesthesia in one year. This scar cannot be lowered! I'm sorry that you did not achieve the results that you expected.

There are alternative incisions for patients with a long pubic to umbilical distance but that ship has sailed.

It is misleading to suggest you can magically lower an existing incision without raising the pubic structures onto the abdomen, including the urethra.

If you are unhappy with your current surgery and can't resolve things with your current surgeon, you can seek another opinion from a responsible plastic surgeon who can go over options with you.