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  • What Can I Do to Reduce My Tummy Tuck Scar?
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I think that the big thing about a tummy tuck is to keep the scar as low as possible and as short as possible. Having said that, a tummy tuck to remove a lot of skin still requires an incision that pretty much ranges from iliac crest to iliac crest, lower than the iliac crest, of course. The incision is long and it has to be because it takes out a lot of the skin up to and above the umbilicus usually.

Once that's gone and everything's repaired, there's two scars to worry about -- one around the umbilicus or belly button, and the other scar is the scar of course from the incision. We leave the sutures in that and they're dissolvable sutures, Monocryl, and I think that number one helps. We just snip them off and they stay. There are no external sutures whatsoever in either the belly button or the suprapubic incision.

After that, at two weeks, we begin patients on a mix of Retin-A and Hydroquinone. That mixture prevents hyperpigmentation because often times it's the hyperpigmentation that causes more of the problem and makes the wound look unsightly. We try to get rid of the hyperpigmentation, and then after they put the Hydroquinone, Retin-A on, we have them put a pure silicone gel on and let that dry. That raises the temperature of the skin up a half a degree, and then doing that scar tissue or collagen breaks down quicker than it builds up.

What Can I Do to Reduce My Tummy Tuck Scar?

Dr. George Commons explains that typical length of a tummy tuck incision, and offers product suggestions to reduce its visibility.