If you’ve had children or lost a good deal of weight, odds are your abdomen isn’t what it once was. Loose skin and a little pooch —that’s the usual condition. Why? Because when skin and connective tissue beneath is stretched, due to pregnancy or weight gain, it can only maintain its ability to return to its former tautness for so long. After that, the elasticity is lessened. The result? The tummy pooch or worse.
But Dr. Jensen can bring your abdomen back closer to its former self with a tummy tuck. Like most surgeries, every patient’s needs are different. The same is true with a tummy tuck. These are some different options that he may use.
Mini tummy tuck
Also known as a limited-incision abdominoplasty, a mini tummy tuck targets the lower abdominal area below the navel. It can be an ideal solution if you have very little excess skin, but still, want to eliminate that pooch in your lower belly. A mini tuck doesn’t require the lengthy incision of a full tuck, so recovery is easier and scarring is much less.
Full tummy tuck
A full tummy tuck is recommended for those women with a good deal of loose abdominal skin. During a full tummy tuck, a larger section of excess skin and fat is removed, and the underlying muscles are tightened to produce a shapelier waistline. There will be two incisions with Dr. Jensen’s full tucks. The first incision will stretch from hipbone to hipbone, descending so that the scar will be covered with a bathing suit bottom and underwear. The fat is separated from the abdominal muscles so the fat and skin can be pulled downward and excess trimmed. Dr. Jensen often will bring the muscles in this area back to the center, as they can become separated during the localized weight gain of pregnancy.
The second incision is made near the belly button to address loose skin above the belly button.
Liposuction
There was a time when women chose between a tummy tuck and liposuction, but now the two procedures usually overlap. In addition to loose, saggy skin, most people also have pockets of fat that don’t respond to exercise or dietary changes. Liposuction removes these pockets.
Just because you had kids doesn’t mean you have to live with a saggy stomach for the rest of your life. Give Dr. Jensen a call at (801) 728-9258 to schedule a consultation for a tummy tuck.
