Is There Body Contouring for Men?
Given all the pressure on women to have certain “contours,” the overriding notion of body contouring procedures has been as something almost solely performed on women.
That’s just not the case though. Especially these days. Plastic surgery procedures that provide body contouring for men have been steadily on the rise.
It helps that many of these cosmetic procedures are relatively simple and don’t require much in the way of down time.
Body Contouring for Men
It turns out that men are just as prone to a hit in self-confidence when they feel unattractive. Especially if they’ve been dealing with rolls or pockets of fat that refuse to disappear no matter how much they diet or how hard they exercise. This lack of self-confidence bleeds into a man’s professional, social, and intimate life.
Fortunately, men have discovered that contouring procedures can slim, shape, and define those problem areas – improving muscle definition and giving a more chiseled appearance.
While body contouring for men spans a range of procedures, there are several situations that plastic surgeons see the most often.
- Not Loving the Love Handles
Many men seek out plastic surgery when they get older and start putting on extra weight around the belly. This can be perplexing to men who haven’t changed their diet or exercise regimen, but suddenly have a spare tire.
Sometimes this extra weight is the result of hormonal changes that cause the area to become dense. And no amount of diet or exercise will melt it away. This is when liposuction is a miracle worker.
With this fairly simple procedure, the plastic surgeon makes a small incision through which he or she guides a cannula tube into the targeted area. The fat is then suctioned out and the surgeon shapes and contours the designated area.
In the vast majority of cases, liposuction is outpatient surgery that’s performed under general anesthesia. Men can get back to work in 3-5 days, and return to the gym in a few weeks. As such, liposuction rates as the number one plastic surgery procedure for men.
- Men Get Boob Jobs Too
Ah, the dreaded gynecomastia.
You may know this condition better as “man boobs.” And it can be an embarrassing predicament for many men. Especially for those who are going to the gym to flatten their chest but can’t get the jiggle to go away.
Gynecomastia isn’t just the bane of older men either. In fact, it’s estimated that 40-60% of men struggle with gynecomastia. So it’s no wonder that men are showing up for male breast reduction surgery.
If the issue is extra glandular tissue, the plastic surgeon will work through an incision under the arm or around the nipple to remove the tissue with a scalpel. In cases of extra fatty tissue, liposuction once again comes to the rescue. It’s not uncommon for there to be both excess glandular and fatty tissue. And in more extreme cases, there may be need to remove excess skin as well.
Initial recovery time for male breast reduction surgery is 1-2 weeks on average and involves wearing a compression vest. After this time, most normal activities can resume.
- Lost the Weight but Not the Skin
As men are increasingly more aware of the benefits of diet and exercise, it’s not unusual for guys who were carrying a lot of extra weight to finally lose it. The problem is, they’re often left with excess skin in those areas and liposuction doesn’t do the trick here.
In these cases, there may be need for one or more excision skin surgery lifts. These can include a tummy tuck, as well as lifts to the arm, inner thigh, circumferential body (belt line), buttock, or breast. There may also be a need for a panniculectomy which is surgery that removes excess skin and fatty tissue that hangs down over the thighs and/or genitals.
The recovery time for lift surgeries is wholly dependent on the specific procedure. In most cases, men can expect to return to work in 1-2 weeks, and back to normal activity in 4-6 weeks.
Get the Contours You Desire
Don’t get stuck in the trap of thinking that plastic surgery only helps women to achieve the contours they want. With body contouring for men, you can increase your self-worth and boost confidence.
And all with minimal downtime.
So start feeling good about yourself. Contact us today to discuss the many options available to you.
Your Options for Surgical Body Contouring
You exercise and you eat well. You’re active and you’re healthy. Yet, you’re stuck with areas of stubborn fat or sagging skin that just won’t go away, no matter how hard you try.
You’re not alone. But you’re also not without help.
With a surgical body contouring procedure, you can eliminate excess fat, as well as get rid of extra skin to reshape and contour an area of the body. And it actually works!
How Does It Differ From Nonsurgical Body Contouring?
In a previous blog post, we discussed the relatively new field of aesthetic medicine known as nonsurgical body contouring. Its objective is to sculpt, tone, and contour the body without surgery. It uses a range of state-of-the-art technology to achieve results across a wide array of body areas including the thighs, abdomen, arms, and legs.
But when there is excess skin or very stubborn fat, surgical body contouring is more effective.
It’s important to understand though that neither surgical nor non-surgical body contouring is intended to help you lose weight. Rather, it aims to address specific problem areas where weight loss isn’t effective, or where there is excess skin after significant weight loss.
The end result isn’t necessarily a slimmed down body, but a more normal appearance with smoother contours. For example, a facelift is going to help with excess skin of the mid-face, jowls, and neck. Or a breast lift will address sagging and flattened breasts.
Other surgical body contouring procedures include:
Liposuction
Liposuction aims to remove excess fat from a variety of areas including the chin and neck, hips, abdomen, inner and outer thighs, knees, ankles and buttocks. Liposuction is one of the less complicated procedures to improve body contour and proportion. While it often requires general anesthesia, it can be performed on an outpatient basis.
Arm Lift
Excess skin on the underarm can be the result of weight loss, aging, or heredity. An arm lift removes that excess skin. The upper portion of the arm is reshaped from the armpit area to the elbow and weakened tissues are addressed.
Tummy Tuck
Patients seek a tummy tuck when they want a smoother, firmer abdominal profile. This procedure removes excess abdominal fat and skin while reestablishing weakened or separated muscles.
Lower Body Lift
Excess skin, cellulite, and sagging fatty tissue on the buttocks, abdomen, waist, hips, and thighs are removed in this comprehensive procedure. Smoother leg and abdomen contours are the result.
Recovery From Surgical Body Contouring
Because there’s such a wide range of options for surgical body contouring, recovery varies based on the procedures as well as the individual. For example, a tummy tuck surgery will result in greater scarring and healing than liposuction.
General anesthesia and at least one overnight stay are often required for surgical body contouring procedures. Your surgeon may also require you to wear a compression garment for several weeks.
Again, depending on your procedure, full recovery could take several months – though the initial discomfort usually fades within two to four weeks. Not much to endure to get rid of that pesky fat and sagging skin!
How Could Surgical Body Contouring Benefit You?
If you’re healthy and near your ideal weight, but have stubborn fat and excess skin that won’t respond to diet and exercise, then it could be time to consider a surgical body contouring procedure.
Contact us today to meet with one of our board-certified plastic surgeons. During your free consultation, they’ll discuss your body shaping goals and offer with the best treatment options to meet your needs.
Maintaining Nonsurgical Body Contouring
When you glance in the mirror, do you immediately see those “trouble” spots? This can be especially irritating when you’re eating well and exercising, but it’s not making a difference. Yet, you may not be ready for surgery just yet.
Fortunately, new and emerging technologies have made it possible to tone muscles, burn fat, and shape your body in the way you desire without going under the knife.
So it’s no wonder that patients are clamoring for nonsurgical body contouring procedures.
How Does Nonsurgical Body Contouring Work?
Body contouring is a relatively new field of aesthetic medicine. Its objective is to sculpt, tone, and contour the body without surgery. Instead, these non-invasive treatments use a range of state-of-the-art technology to achieve results across a wide array of body areas including the thighs, abdomen, arms, and legs.
Patients don’t see a scalpel or a needle. There’s no recovery time. And a series of quick 30-60-minutes sessions can deliver visible and long-lasting results. The only job of the patient is to show up.
Body contouring benefits include building muscle, losing fat, contouring crucial areas of the body such as the abs, and lifting and toning the buttocks. These procedures can even tighten sagging or drooping skin due to aging or stretching.
The ability to achieve all of this without having to do any work may sound good to be true. That said, it’s important to understand that nonsurgical body contouring is not a quick fix. How you choose to live your life after the procedure plays heavily into its long-term success.
Maintaining Nonsurgical Contouring
Once you commit to nonsurgical body contouring, you want to make the most of your investment to get the best results. With that in mind, there are three main factors you’ll need to employ to maintain those results.
- Protect Yourself from the Sun
Keeping your skin protected from dangerous UV rays is always good practice. Even if you’re not having a procedure.
But since some body contouring procedures also address skin issues, it’s important you continue to attend to its optimal upkeep. This includes not only protecting it with a high SPF sunblock and/or sun-blocking clothing, but keeping it hydrated and moisturized.
- Be Done with Child Bearing
If you’ve had a child, you know that pregnancy can leave you feeling like your postpartum body belongs to someone else. Fostering a human life has a way of altering the body! No shock there.
So if you’re annoyed with some aspect of your body but are not done having children, you should probably wait until you are. A pregnancy can easily undo the results of any nonsurgical body contouring procedure. This isn’t to say that you can’t get a revision should the need arise. But if you can wait until you know you’re done, you’ll get the best results by having just one procedure.
- Keep Up a Healthy Lifestyle
While we have this at #3, it’s probably the single most important factor. While nonsurgical body contouring is meant to address trouble spots that don’t seem to respond to diet and exercise, this doesn’t mean you can now regularly camp out on your couch with a bag of potato chips. If you want to maintain results, diet and exercise are just as important after your procedure as before.
But it’s not just diet and exercise. Drinking, smoking, and taking other substances can also affect your metabolism and damage your skin tone – among other things. All of this will negatively impact your results in the long term.
So once you make the healthy choice to have a non-surgical body contouring procedure, keep making those healthy choices to maintain it.
Could Nonsurgical Body Contouring Brighten Your Day?
If you’re feeling hesitant about surgery and are wondering if nonsurgical body contouring is right for you, contact us today.
During your free consultation, you’ll get a chance to sit down with our trained specialists in aesthetic medicine who can guide you on the next best steps.
And soon you can say goodbye to those trouble spots!
Body Contouring
Body Contouring
Surgical body contouring following major weight loss removes excess fat and skin while improving the shape of the body. The result is a more normal appearance with smoother contours. Body contouring procedures may include:
- Facelift: Helps with sagging of the mid-face, jowls, and neck
- Liposuction: Removes excess fat, including the chin and neck, hips, abdomen, inner and outer thighs, knees and ankles and buttocks.
- Improves body contour and proportion
- Trims fat that won’t go away with weight loss or exercise
- Arm Lift: Removes excess skin from the underarm and reshapes the under portion of the upper arm – from the armpit area to the elbow.
- Improves sagging upper arms resulting from weight loss, aging or heredity
- Addresses excess skin, weakened tissues and localized fat deposits
- Breast lift: Helps with sagging, flattened breasts
- Tummy tuck: Removes excess abdominal fat and skin; typically, also reestablishes weakened or separated muscles.
- Creates a smoother, firmer abdominal profile
- Lower body lifts: Removes excess sagging fat and skin to treat conditions caused, in part, by poor tissue elasticity.
- Treats excess skin, cellulite and sagging fatty tissue
- Can treat the buttocks, abdomen, waist, hips and thighs in one procedure
- Medial thigh lift: Reshapes the thighs by reducing excess skin, and in some cases fat.
- Offers smoother leg contours
- Different types of thigh lifts target certain areas
Why Consider Body Contouring?
Dramatic weight loss has many benefits. After weight reduction surgery, or dramatic weight loss, skin and tissue often lacks elasticity to conform to the new body size. Body contouring may assist in patients having the desired body shape and size. Doing so builds self-confidence, allows clothes to fit more comfortably, and improves self-esteem.
To find out if body contouring is right for you, contact us to schedule a free consultation.
Body Contouring & Lifts
Body Contouring & Lifts
Feeling comfortable in your body is essential for self-confidence. Many people struggle to lose excess weight. Diet and exercise are sometimes inadequate to produce a desired shape. It’s not an issue of how others view you, but instead an issue of how you view yourself. With body contouring lifts, a plastic surgeon can help you achieve the look you deserve.
Ideal Candidates for Body Contouring
Who is a Candidate for Body Contouring?
Body Contouring and Lift Procedures
Body Contouring & Lifts Recovery
The Star Advantage
Contact Us?
Body Lift
Body Lift
Significant weight can leave patients with stubborn fat deposits and sagging, unattractive skin. This may be the result of a serious diet and exercise routine or procedures such as bariatric surgery. The end result is an unappealing, misshapen appearance that leave you feeling awkward and uncomfortable. When that happens a body lift may be the answer.
At Star Plastic Surgery, we strongly believe you deserve to feel confident and secure in your appearance. With body lift surgery, our Novi, Michigan plastic surgeons can contour and firm your body to provide you with the look you need to feel your best.
Surgical Options
Our board-certified plastic surgeons offer our patients three options for body lifts:
- A lower body lift removes fat and skin from your thighs, hips, buttocks, and waist.
- Mid-body lifts adds a tummy tuck to a lower body lift, removing excess skin from the abdominal area.
- A full body lift adds body contouring procedures to your entire body, including lower body, mid-body, and arm lifts and a breast lift that dramatically changes the appearance of the entire body.
Viewing each patient as an individual with unique needs, our experienced plastic surgeons will work closely with you to target problem areas on your body. Combining only those procedures necessary to give you the look you desire, we can customize a body lift option for you that will produce an appealing, toned physique for years to come.
The Star Plastic Surgery Advantage for Body Lifts
All patients receive the Star Cosmetic Surgery Advantage. Our surgeons are board-certified and utilize only proven, safe techniques with a focus on patient safety and comfort. Body lifts are performed in accredited hospitals or within our state of the art surgical center.
Star Plastic Surgery physicians are committed to personalized care. From the moment you walk into our office, we will work to ensure your comfort and satisfaction through your full recovery from your procedure.
If you are interested in learning if a body lift is right for you, contact us to schedule a free consultation today.
What to Expect – Recovering From a Tummy Tuck
Abdominoplasty, better known as a tummy tuck, is one of the most popular plastic surgeries performed in the world. It’s no wonder – given what an effective procedure it is for body contouring.
Even so, recovering from a tummy tuck requires patience, diligence, and the ability to deal with some discomfort. There are many factors that affect each person’s tummy tuck recovery. A mini tummy tuck, for example, will require less recovery than an extended tummy tuck.
Whatever the case, the best way to minimize postoperative complications is to follow the recovery instructions exactly as prescribed by your surgeon.
Recovering From a Tummy Tuck Overview
Generally speaking, most patients take 1-3 weeks off from work after a tummy tuck – though some will do less. Depending on the scope of the surgery, you’ll be able to return to regular activities such as cooking and driving within a week or two.
If your job is physically demanding, you’ll need to plan plenty of time off for your recovery. In addition, if you’re a fitness fanatic, you’ll be advised to ease back into your workout routine slowly and mindfully.
There are other factors that will significantly slow your recovery, such as smoking and drinking alcohol. So those will need to be avoided for optimal recovery. If you are prescribed narcotics, you will be able to drive once you stop taking them.
We’ll break it down into a more detailed timeline:
- First Week
The first week of recovery is usually the most uncomfortable. While rest is important for healing, you’ll also need to walk around for about five minutes every two hours to help prevent blood clots and promote the return of bowel function.
Along with having to wear compression garments, you’ll experience swelling, bruising, and soreness in the abdomen. You can also expect to experience exhaustion during the first one to three days post-op.
Pain medication will be prescribed and you can use ice packs outside of compression garments to further reduce swelling. Following the medication schedule as prescribed at the beginning will result in having to take significantly less medication for pain in the long run. During surgery, Exparel – a long-acting local anesthetic block – will be injected before you wake up to provide additional pain control.
- Second Week
The pain begins to subside and bruising continues to fade by the second week of recovery. While swelling decreases at this time, it is still present. Thus, you’ll need to continue wearing your compression garment.
Some patients feel well enough to return to work in seven to ten days, provided they don’t have a strenuous job. Any activity during this time should be slow and gentle though. Taking light walks is recommended during this time to increase blood circulation and prevent blood clots. If pain medication is still required, you’ll want to continue to follow the instructions as written.
Even if you’re feeling a lot better, you should continue to avoid lifting anything over 15-20 pounds or partaking in vigorous cardio.
Toward the end of that second week, you’ll be able to resume your normal diet and, should you wish, return to drinking alcohol in moderation. Because smoking is counter-indicated to proper healing, many patients choose their recovery time as an opportunity to quit smoking altogether.
- First Month
Around the third or fourth week, the pain, swelling, and bruising are greatly reduced. For some patients, they’re nearly or completely gone. Once you’re at that point, you’ll no longer need your compression garment.
- Second Month
For the vast majority of patients, life returns to normal and you’ll be able to resume more rigorous physical activity during the second month. Some patients are cleared around six weeks to do this, while others may have to wait until the end of the second month.
The Long View
Although the two-month point is when most patients are ready to get back out into the world, it’s not uncommon to experience some numbness for months afterward. There may also be occasional swelling as well as twinges of abdominal pain. All of this is normal and no need for concern. Different sorts of shapewear (such as Spanx) can assist with these.
Change Your Life With Body Contouring
While recovering from a tummy tuck can be a little challenging, the payoff is so worth it.
So if you’re ready to explore how a tummy tuck could improve your confidence and boost your self-esteem, contact us today.
We’ll guide you through the procedure, as well as the recovery, so you know exactly what to expect.
Breast Augmentation After Weight Loss
Have you recently undergone significant weight loss? If so, you may also be noticing a change or even loss in breast size.
If your reasons for weight loss are celebratory, this can be a bit of a downer. And if the weight loss was not welcome, it can be even more discouraging.
Fortunately, breast augmentation after weight loss is a common and highly effective procedure to bring brightness to your situation – whatever it might be.
Breast Augmentation After Weight Loss
The majority of breast augmentations, whether needed because of weight loss or simply by choice, are completed using implants. The two most common implants are silicone or saline.
Both silicone and saline implants are made from a silicone elastomer shell. The main difference is silicone implants are made fully of silicone and filled with a cohesive silicone gel, while saline implants have an outer shell that’s constructed of silicone and then later filled with saline.
Some people believe that silicone implants look and feel more natural. Plus, they come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and degrees of firmness so you know exactly what will be implanted.
Meanwhile, saline implants are inserted when empty and then filled with a sterile saline solution once in place. Some patients prefer the idea of saline solution versus silicone gel in their bodies. Yet, silicone gel more closely simulates breast tissue. So saline implants may end up feeling firmer than natural breast tissue.
The third option is fat transfer. In this case, a patient’s own fat is used to increase breast volume in a more natural way. After weight loss, though, this may not be an option. Ultimately, you can discuss your available options with your board-certified plastic surgeon.
What If You’ve Already Had Breast Augmentation?
If you’ve already had breast augmentation in the past, weight loss will likely affect the appearance of your breasts too. This amount of impact will depend on which sort of breast augmentation procedure and/or implant you have.
For patients who chose fat transfer, weight loss can noticeably affect the results of augmentation. Breast contour is created by fat and other tissue – the loss of which can change the overall appearance of the breast.
Meanwhile, implants are much less prone to significant impact from weight fluctuation. The implants will maintain their original shape and size. This is not to say, however, that there will be no impact. Despite the fact that the implants remain the same, the aforementioned fat and tissues that create the contour have decreased. The skin may now be stretched leaving the implants to sag.
In this case, the best course of action is a breast lift. This body contouring procedure won’t alter the volume of the breasts or breast implants. Instead, the objective here is to reshape the breasts to restore a more uplifted and youthful appearance.
Looking to Boost Your Breasts After Weight Loss?
There are many reasons for losing weight. But if you’re generally dissatisfied with the appearance of your breasts now that you have, don’t let it bring you down.
Lift your spirits with firmer and perkier breasts.
Contact us today to find out which sort of breast augmentation after weight loss is right for you.
Methods for Getting Rid of Excess Skin
Carrying around the extra weight of excess skin can be a lot to bear – both figuratively and literally.
In cases where excess skin is the result of desired weight loss or a pregnancy, it is most certainly an unwanted side effect. And it can put the kibosh on an otherwise joyous occasion.
Then as if the sheer assault on self-esteem weren’t enough, extra skin can cause discomfort in the form of chafing, irritation, and rashes. Fortunately, there are methods for getting rid of excess skin.
What Causes Excess Skin?
The most common cause of excess skin is extreme weight loss – though it’s not the sole culprit.
Our skin is designed to expand and contract. Collagen, which provides firmness and strength, accounts for 80% of the skin’s structure. Meanwhile, elastin is there to help the skin stay tight and “bounce back” from stretching.
The problem is, when the skin is required to expand for prolonged amounts of time, the collagen and elastin fibers are overextended and become damaged. This is the case for people who have been overweight for years or even decades.
While pregnancy can also cause excess skin, in most cases, the skin typically retracts within several months postpartum – as the length of time the skin is stretched in only nine months. Multiple pregnancies, however, can also challenge the ability of collagen and elastin to do their work.
The general rule of thumb is that the longer one has carried extra weight, and the more extreme it is (100 pounds or more), the stronger the likelihood that there will be excess skin after losing it.
What Other Factors Affect Skin Elasticity?
Extreme weight loss alone can be enough to create excess skin. But there are other factors that can work in tandem with weight loss that will also negatively affect the skin’s elasticity.
Obviously, older skin with less collagen and elastin production will not bounce back like younger skin does. The amount of sun exposure the skin has experienced will also affect this. Even smoking reduces the skin’s ability to produce collagen and elastin.
Then, of course, there’s always good old genetics. Some of us are just more blessed with resilient skin than others.
So then what’s a person who’s troubled by excess skin to do?
Methods for Getting Rid of Excess Skin
There are myriad ways to manage excess skin – though depending on the above factors, some ways are far more effective than others.
Exercise
Many people will start with an exercise program to combat excess skin. And in most cases, exercise is a positive activity that we’re certainly not going to discourage!
Yes, building muscle mass through weight training can help to decrease the appearance of excess skin by replacing muscle mass with lost fat. But once again, if extra skin is the result of massive weight loss, there’s no amount of exercise that will completely eliminate it.
Firming Creams and Cosmetic Procedures
Similar to exercise, firming creams and cosmetic procedures could be helpful for those who aren’t struggling with a lot of excess skin or if the skin is mostly just loose around the eyes and mouth.
Firming creams with retinoids and hyaluronic acid are the most effective – especially for older skin. And cosmetic procedures including chemical peels, ablative laser resurfacing, and botox injections could help to tighten and smooth the skin.
Yet similar to exercise, firming creams and cosmetic procedures alone are not going to be enough to get rid of excess skin from major weight loss.
Body Contouring Surgery
The only true way to get rid of excess skin after major weight loss is through plastic surgery. This usually consists of a range of body contouring procedures performed by a plastic surgeon and designed to address excess skin folds on the arms, legs, torso and/or buttocks.
The initial step during these procedures is to remove skin. From there, the surgeon will also tighten and lift the targeted areas to improve contour. This delivers a more natural and pleasing shape. And these surgeries are long-lasting, provided that the patient’s weight remains stable.
As such, body contouring surgery to get rid of excess skin is typically scheduled once weight has stabilized for a least a few months after massive weight loss. And after the procedure, patients need to maintain a healthy lifestyle to ensure success.
Are You Troubled By Excess Skin?
Whether you’re dealing with sagging skin around the face, or hanging skin after major weight loss, we can help you with the best methods for getting rid of excess skin.
Contact us today for a free consultation. One of our board-certified plastic surgeons will assess your overall physical health before discussing with you which procedures will be most effective.
Then get back on the road toward a more confident and comfortable you!
The Health Benefits of a Tummy Tuck
The Health Benefits of a Tummy Tuck
Do you struggle with back pain that comes from poor posture?
As much as you might try to sit or stand up tall and straight, it doesn’t seem to help. Before you opt for back surgery though, you may want to consider a tummy tuck.
It may sound counterintuitive. How could a tummy tuck possibly ease your back pain?
We’ll explore this aspect of the procedure, along with the MANY other health benefits of a tummy tuck.
Benefits of the Drainless Tummy Tuck
- Improves Abdominal Tone
If you’ve experienced a pregnancy or extreme weight loss, your stomach muscles may have become distended. The muscles are no longer able to adequately tighten to pull the belly in and give it that taut appearance. And no amount of diet or exercise is effective.
One of the benefits of a tummy tuck is that it not only removes excess skin and fat to flatten the belly, but it also tightens those weak and distended muscles to improve abdominal tone.
Aside from giving you a flatter stomach, improving your abdominal tone leads to better posture. When the abdominal muscles are weak, they’re not able to give the spine the support it needs. This often results in a curving of the spine called lordosis – more commonly known as “sway back.”
Following a tummy tuck though, it’s common for patients to notice that their posture has significantly improved. And with improved posture comes less strain on the spine and relief from certain types of back pain.
So that’s how a tummy tuck can help relieve back pain. But what about the other health benefits of a tummy tuck?
- Helps with Obesity Recovery
It’s important to note that a tummy tuck is not considered a weight-loss procedure. Typically, only a few pounds of tissue are typically removed. But research shows that having a tummy tuck can help previously obese patients maintain a healthy weight.
According to the medical journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Swiss researchers found that bariatric patients who received surgery to reduce the size of their stomach were more likely to keep the weight off when they combined it with a tummy tuck.
In fact, patients who combined the two procedures regained an average of only a pound per year. By contrast, bariatric patients that didn’t opt for body-contouring procedures gained an average of four pounds per year.
Researchers speculate that the tightening of the abdominal muscles compresses the stomach, thereby reducing its capacity and increasing the ability to feel full after meals.
Managing weight and avoiding weight gain is especially important when it comes to those with diabetes. Since weight has a significant effect on the occurrence of insulin resistance, considerable weight loss renders the body more efficient in utilizing the insulin it produces.
By lowering insulin resistance, some diabetic patients are able to alter and more easily manage their previous medications.
- Reduces Stress Urinary Incontinence
Many women (and some men) experience “leakage.” Especially when they cough, sneeze, laugh or exercise. This bladder control problem is referred to as Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI).
SUI occurs when the pelvic floor gets stretched, weakened or damaged and no longer sufficiently supports the bladder and urethra. Pregnancy and childbirth can cause it, but so too can excessive coughing or nerve injuries to the lower back or pelvic surgery.
Most of the time, SUI is treated without surgery. Several studies have indicated, however, that in more severe cases a tummy tuck can aid in recovery. During the procedure, soft tissue near the pelvic area is used to create a slight bladder obstruction. The result is an obvious reduction in incontinence.
- Increases Exercise Tolerance
While increasing your ability to exercise harder and more frequently isn’t technically a medical benefit, the results of doing so have a direct impact on one’s health.
Removing excess skin and strengthening the abdominal muscles can certainly make exercise easier. You’re able to do exercises you weren’t able to before. But just as importantly, it increases your self-esteem and confidence at the gym.
In fact, it’s not unusual for patients who undergo a body contouring procedure to be more motivated to stick to an exercise regimen. Their clothes fit better and they feel more comfortable in their workout setting with their slimmer waistline and newly contoured shape.
A regular exercise regimen also decreases anxiety and depression. So it’s a win-win all around.
- Corrects an Umbilical or Ventral Hernia
A hernia happens when the muscles inside the abdomen weaken in one spot and allow for a loop of intestine or abdominal tissue to push through the muscle layer.
When a ventral hernia occurs at the site of a surgical scar, it is called an incisional hernia. Some patients who have open abdominal surgery will develop a ventral hernia at their incision.
If the hernia occurs at the navel or belly button, it’s referred to as an umbilical hernia. This can occur with or without a prior incision.
If an umbilical or ventral hernia is encountered during a tummy tuck surgery, it can be repaired. Strengthening and restructuring the abdominal wall also decreases the likelihood of another hernia forming and requiring emergency surgery.
Take Advantage of the Health Benefits of a Tummy Tuck
While getting a tummy tuck is sure to boost your confidence and leave you feeling better about yourself, it could do so much more.
So contact us today to find out if the many health benefits of a tummy tuck apply to you.
And start looking and feeling better!
