Spring has sprung and you know what that means… summer is just around the corner. With the warmer weather fast approaching many people start to think about getting into shape so they can look their best while at the beach or the pool. Workouts and diets start to ramp up during this time in anticipation of being outdoors, but what if all your hard work isn’t showing the results you’re looking for?

In addition to specializing in breast implants and augmentation, here at Dr. Adams Plastic Surgery in Dallas, we also offer a variety of other surgical and non-surgical procedures to help tighten up your tummy and abs.

Non-surgical procedures like Thermi-Tight and Ultherapy Skin Tightening can help tighten up loose skin and wrinkles to make your skin look young and healthy again. These treatments can help in some situations, but if you’re looking to really reduce stretch marks, remove saggy skin and stretched muscles, then a tummy tuck procedure is going to be your best option.

What is a Tummy Tuck?

A tummy tuck, also known as an abdominoplasty, is a surgical procedure which is used to help flatten your abdominal area by removing loose skin and excess fat, while also tightening up the muscles underneath.

It is designed to give you a fitter look around the midsection when exercise and diet don’t quite cut it. The procedure can also be used to remove stretch marks while also restructuring the look and shape of your abdomen.

 Sometimes our bodies just don’t do what we want them too even with copious amounts of exercise and healthy eating, and that’s where a tummy tuck can help.

How is a Tummy Tuck Performed?

There are actually two different kinds of tummy tucks that you can receive, a full tummy tuck and a mini tummy tuck, but for the sake of this article we’re going to be discussing the full tummy tuck.

A full tummy tuck is generally performed under general anesthesia, but some surgeons also opt for deep sedation anesthesia, but the goals is the same. As a surgeon it’s our job to make sure that you are as safe and as comfortable as possible when undergoing a surgical procedure. If you’re unsure about the anesthetic options your surgeon has provided to you, always seek out a second opinion and ask questions.

When it comes to anesthesia the goal is to ensure that your abdominal muscles are as relaxed as possible so that they can be properly tightened up by the surgeon.

Once the surgeon is ready to perform the surgery he will create an incision in your lower abdomen, right above the pubic region, that typically reaches from hip to hip and, if necessary, another incision near the navel.

The shape and size of the incision will depend on how much extra skin needs to be removed, but you are going to have a scar that runs along your lower abdomen, but your surgeon

Once the incision has been made, the surgeon will apply sutures to your abdominal muscles to help pull the muscles tighter.

After the muscles have been properly repaired, they will then stretch your skin down over your newly tightened muscles and remove any excess skin. Once this is done the surgeon will ensure that your belly button is properly lined up and make any adjustments needed.  You may require another small suture around the navel area.

The final step in the process is to use sutures and staples to close up the original incision in your lower abdomen. Sometimes your surgeon may install a small drainage tube for a short period to help drain out any excess fluid that may build up.

And that’s it!

Tummy Tuck Recovery Process

A tummy tuck is an outpatient procedure, so you should be able to go back home the same day as your surgery.

For the first few days after surgery, you’re going to want to take it easy and rest as much as possible. Pain management is going to be the key here. Your doctor may prescribe pain medications, but make sure you discuss pain medication with your doctor.

All surgeons are a little different but after about a week or so resting at home, your surgeon will probably want to have a follow-up appointment with you to see how the healing process is going and to remove any drains you may have been sent home with.

As far as when you can return back to work or regular, everyday activities, you’re going to want to take at least 2 weeks off from work to heal and rest (with no heavy lifting). Unfortunately, this procedure isn’t as advanced as Dr. Adams’ 24 hour breast augmentation recovery procedure, so you’re going to need to take it easy for a while.

In general a tummy tuck procedure can take up to six months to properly heal before you’ll be at full strength again, so it’s important not to rush back into things. You should start feeling more like yourself after 4-6 weeks, but it’s still recommended that you do not overexert yourself or engage in strenuous activities. Muscle can take a while to heal and you don’t want to tear any of the internal sutures.

How Long Will The Results Last?

It is highly recommended that you refrain from undergoing a tummy tuck if you plan to have more children. This is because, as you know, when you become pregnant your stomach muscles and skin expand as the baby grows. This stretching will nullify any results that were obtained from the tummy tuck procedure, so it’s important to make sure that you’re not planning anything that may cause your stomach to grow and stretch.

This isn’t limited to just pregnancy either. If you experience an unexpected weight gain, that could also nullify the procedure.

If you can avoid gaining a large amount of weight in your belly area, the results of your tummy tuck should be permanent.

A tummy tuck can be a great way to get rid of that excess skin and fat around your mid-section, but it does require a bit more recovery time and planning.

Be sure to talk with your surgeon to determine what the best course of action for you is. You may think you want a tummy tuck, but there may be other options out there that can produce the results you’re looking for.

If you have any questions about tummy tucks, or are looking to setup a consultation to discuss how we can help you, please contact us at Dr. Adams Plastic Surgery in Dallas, TX.

The goal of a good plastic surgeon is to create a look that the patient is happy with but is also subtle enough to not warrant unwanted attention.

If you get plastic surgery, and you’re happy with the results, and nobody can tell that you’ve had plastic surgery, then your surgeon has done a good job.

We’ve all heard the horror stories and seen the photos of people who have clearly had too much plastic surgery, or a bad plastic surgery job. It can be embarrassing to say the least, not to mention expensive and painful to have issues corrected by a more experienced surgeon.

If you do your due diligence, research, and ask the right questions, you should be able to find a reputable, experienced, and qualified plastic surgeon that can help you get the results you desire from plastic surgery.

But how much plastic surgery is too much plastic surgery? How do you know if you should slow down or if you should hold off on that procedure you have scheduled?

Most of that is going to be up to you. Everyone has their own personal preference when it comes to their looks and appearance. So, to say there’s an overall general rule of thumb to follow when considering more plastic surgery would be false, but there are some warning signs you can look out for if you think you’re becoming addicted to plastic surgery.

When Does Plastic Surgery Become a Problem?

In most cases, plastic surgery is a surgical procedure that people opt into. There are certain cases where plastic surgery may be required to repair damage after an injury or illness, but in most cases these procedures that we are talking about are based on personal preference. This can also be said about plastic surgery results or expectations.

What you may view as over-the-top, someone else may view as beautiful. However, when your overall health and wellness comes into play, sometimes too much plastic surgery can be a bad thing.

1. Addicted to Plastic Surgery

Addictive personalities can sometimes lead to a person going overboard with plastic surgery. They get their first procedure and are so amazed by the results that they start seeking out different areas of their body they can make better. After a while the amount of surgery you’ve had grows exponentially and it starts to wear on your wallet and your appearance.

It’s important to understand that your body can only handle so much trauma, and that after a while that trauma is going to become more noticeable to yourself and those around you, especially as you age.

Getting fillers or botox every once in a while, to appear younger is one thing, but having repeated invasive surgeries can soon become a problem.

2. Plastic Surgery Required to Fix Past Surgical Procedures

If you’ve gotten to the point where you need to consult with a different plastic surgeon to help fix years of plastic surgery procedures, that may be a sign that it’s time to slow down a bit.

Now we’re not talking about a one-off procedure that you had done that started to fail after a few years, we’re talking about years and years of multiple surgeries that are now turning against you as you age, or you no longer like as you get older.

Years of multiple different surgeries can produce unwanted effects over time and can lead to procedures that no longer look the way they did when you were younger. Plastic surgeons are fixing bad procedures or over-done procedures all the time, so if this sounds like you, it might be time to take a step back.

3. You No Longer Recognize Yourself

Everyone has their own reasons for wanting plastic surgery, but at the heart of it all is to make you feel better about yourself. Feeling insecure in your body can lead to mental health struggles, depression, and other unwanted feelings, so the use of plastic surgery to help you feel better about yourself can have an overall positive effect on other aspects of your life.

But if you get to the point where you look in the mirror and can’t even recognize, physically, the person looking back at you, it could be a problem.

4. Friends and Family Begin to Question It

As we’ve said before, plastic surgery should be a choice that you make on your own, it should be done for yourself, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take into consideration what others may say about you, especially those people closest to you.

If you start to notice that friends and family are making comments about your plastic surgery, or are showing concern with the amount of work you’re having done, it may be time to take a look at yourself.

If the people closest to you in your life are showing concern over what you’re doing to your body, don’t take it as an insult, take it as they are just looking out for you. They care about you and love you for who you are, not what the plastic surgery has made you into.

Sometimes it’s hard for us, from the inside, to truly see what’s going on, which is why an outside perspective can always be helpful.

5. Your Health is Degrading

This should be obvious, but if you start to notice your overall health degrading, and your doctors are advising you against any more plastic surgery, you should listen to them.

Most plastic surgery procedures are very safe to perform with little risk (as long as they are done by a skilled professional), but layering procedure on top of procedure can cause health issues in some cases.

Depending on the procedures you’re having done, foreign elements could be implanted, and subsequently rejected by your body, which can lead to more permanent issues down the road.

It’s always important to discuss everything with your doctor and listen to their advice. If they have been in the field for a while, there’s a good chance they’ve seen the bad side of plastic surgery on more than one occasion and will be able to warn you of the risks associated with whatever procedures you’re looking to have done.

They know more than you do. Listen to them.

Your health is the most important thing in this life, so making sure that you stay strong and healthy, both mentally and physically, is the main concern of your doctor, and should be your first priority.

Plastic surgery is a great way to enhance your appearance as well as improve you self-esteem and mental states, but moderation is always the key.

If you have any questions about plastic surgery, or issues with past plastic surgery that you would like corrected, please contact Dr. Adams Plastic Surgery in Dallas, TX and setup a consultation today. We want to make sure you are the best version of yourself that you can be.

So you’ve decided to move forward with plastic surgery. You’ve done your research, you’ve looked into all the options in your area, and you’re ready to take that next step and finally setup a consultation with a surgeon to discuss your options.

It can be a little nerve-racking to take that first step of setting up a consultation with a plastic surgeon. Even though you’ve done your research, you still have a lot of questions regarding the procedure, recovery, expectations, and of course, the doctors experience.

Most people come into a consultation prepared to ask all of the questions they had in their mind when researching the procedure, but a lot of times, once the consultation starts, nerves get the best of us, or you get flustered, and forget to ask some of the important questions.

Let’s take a look at what you can do to ensure that you get the most out of your consultation with your plastic surgeon.

How Should I Prepare for the Consultation?

The best thing you can do when preparing for the consultation is to write everything down. You may think that you’ll remember all the questions you wanted to ask once you get into the office, or join a virtual consultation, but chances are you are going to forget something.

The best way to ensure that you remember all the questions you had while researching the procedure and doctors is to bring written copies of your notes and questions.

Despite Your Research Listen to the Doctor

The internet is probably the greatest technological advancement in civilized history. It has connected people from around the world, built businesses, and created an ecosystem that wasn’t even fathomable 50 years ago.

 At the same time though, it allows misinformation to spread at an unbelievable rate. Anyone, even totally unqualified individuals, can promote content about any topic they want. We’ve seen it recently with our politics in this country, but the same can be said for medical information.

By all means, do your research online before you consider plastic surgery. Look into the different procedures available, look into the doctors in your area, ask for recommendations from other medical professionals, or friends and family, absolutely do your due diligence. But if you come into a consultation assuming that you know everything, you’re not going to make the best medical decisions.

If you disagree with something a particular doctor tells you, or how they answer your questions, that’s fine, but take the information presented from that doctor and seek out another opinion in the medical field.

In most cases, when you’re speaking to a highly qualified, highly experienced, plastic surgeon, they will know and understand things in the medical field better than you can based on the few hours of research you did online.

It’s extremely important to listen to what your doctor has to say and trust them. If you don’t trust your doctor, then you’re probably not ready for plastic surgery, or you need to find a new doctor.

Obviously, you need to do what’s best for you, but do not put yourself on a pedestal because you read something online that doesn’t agree with what your doctor is saying; you don’t know who wrote the article or paper that you found online. It could be anyone.

What Questions Should You Ask?

As we mentioned before, it’s important to come to the consultation prepared with any questions you may want to ask the surgeon, but it’s also important to know what questions to ask.

General question about the procedure itself, recovery time, when you can return to activities and normal life, are all great questions to ask, but you’ll also want to ask some questions about the doctor and their experience with the procedure you’re looking for.

Asking the doctor about their qualifications, where they went to medical school, what certifications they have, how much experience they have with the specific procedure, will help you get a better idea about the doctor themselves.

It’s also important that you ask for references and examples of their work. If they can’t present to you a book or gallery of their work, that could be a red flag. If they aren’t willing to give you references of past clients that you may be able to reach out to and ask questions to, that could also raise some concerns.

It’s just as important to know about the plastic surgeon that it is to ask questions about the procedure itself.

What To Leave The Consultation With

When the consultation is over you should have a good understanding of the surgeon’s experience, references that you can contact, their standards and procedures, as well as how they treat their patients.

You should understand what goes into the surgery, where and how it will be performed, what sort of technology or advancements in the space that the doctor is implementing into their office, and have all your questions answered in a professional and respectable manner.

Most importantly, you should be comfortable with the doctor and their work.