Loose Skin Above C-Section Scar - Can I Tighten w/o Surgery?

Question

I am a mother of three kids via c-section. I am 5'6" 130lbs. I have a toned tummy but I have this slight pooch right above my scar, the skin is loose and I am curious if there is any special exercise I could do to help tone it more. I am getting remarried and would love to look great in my wedding dress and stay looking great after. Please let me know. Thanks

Raffy Karamanoukian, MD, FACS · Answer

Morpheus 8 is a non-invasive skin and soft tissue tightening treatment that is consistently amazing in our patients. We use the Morpheus to exact fractional induced RF into the skin or tissue in order to tighten collagen and stimulate contraction of the tissue. For acne scars, it is quite useful to build collagen in patients who have atrophic scars but is not very productive for ice-pick scars which require TCA Cross. For tissue tightening, Morpheus is ideal for the face and neck and we often combine it with CO2 laser or Ultherapy to further enhance results. Chemical peels and skin resurfacing should be done at least 5 to 7 days after, but can be performed earlier, depending on treatment severity. Avoid exfoliating skin treatments before Morpheus and expect a period of 2-4 weeks for skin contraction to set in.

Best, 
Dr. Karamanoukian 
Realself100 Surgeon

Aaron Stone, MD · Answer

Without a photo or face to face examination the composition of this "slight pooch" is unknown. It could be mostly excess skin or skin plus fat or it could be due to pure alignment of the layers of tissue at the time of closure. The recommended treatment would depend on which of these applies. There is no one automatic answer that applies to every one of these cases. If the layers are not aligned no amount of laser or surface treatment will realign these deeper layers. In which case you would be wasting your time and money.

	In the referenced web page you can see the slight pooch above the scar created by poor alignment of skin layers after surgery performed elsewhere. The treatment was simple realignment of the layers.

Emily Altman, MD · Answer

If you have good muscle tone and the only loose tissue is skin, skin tightening treatments with IPL or Thermage can be very helpful. Exercise helps muscle toning, but doesn't tone the skin itself, other than provide good circulation and an overall improvement in health, which indirectly benefits the skin in total.

	The "pooch" as you describe it can also be due to how the edges of the scar were put together after the C-section.  That may be difficult to correct.

Loose Skin Above C-Section Scar - Can I Tighten w/o Surgery?

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Loose Skin Above C-Section Scar - Can I Tighten w/o Surgery?

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