Tummy tuck surgery is an outpatient procedure that improves abdominal contours by removing excess skin and fat, while tightening the underlying muscles.
Plastic surgeons take many approaches to tummy tuck surgery, and “one procedure does not fit all,” says Dr. Laurie Casas, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Chicago.
In a traditional, full abdominoplasty, the surgeon:
- removes excess fat and sagging skin from the area of the belly button down to the area just above the pubis.
- tightens the remaining skin and muscles, creating a flatter tummy
- repositions the belly button
The surgical procedure is especially popular among women who’ve been left with abdominal muscle laxity and excess skin after significant weight loss or multiple pregnancies.
It’s often a combination of diastasis recti repair, to bring the rectus abdominis muscles back together, and a panniculectomy, to remove excess stretched out skin after pregnancy or an “apron” of hanging skin from the lower abdomen after massive weight loss.
Many people also opt for liposuction to sculpt the waist and flanks—although, according to Dr. S. Larry Schlesinger, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Honolulu, there’s some controversy about whether this should happen before, during, or after a tummy tuck.
Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Baltimore, says “liposuction can be done safely and reliably as long as the surgeon uses techniques that maximize the blood supply of the remaining abdominal skin, to ensure proper healing.”
Some surgeons transfer the excess fat that's removed via liposuction to the hips and buttocks, a combination of procedures that's sometimes marketed as an hourglass tummy tuck.
Tummy tuck surgery can also include a mons pubis lift, and be combined with breast augmentation or a breast lift, as part of a full mommy makeover.
A growing number of men who’ve lost a significant amount of weight are having tummy tucks, too.
