The Ideal Tummy Tuck Candidate
Abdominoplasty surgery is ideally suited to the woman who has had several pregnancies developing laxity in the abdominal wall musculature (sometimes referred to as Diastasis Recti) frequently with skin excess. A flap of excess skin (sometimes referred to as a Pannus) can sometimes hang over the pubes. Weight loss is pertinent if previous gain makes the problem worse. This is very common.
Most people considering Tummy Tuck surgery are or have been overweight. Abdominoplasty is not a weight loss operation. It is a great procedure to make the appearance of those who have lost a good deal of weight better though. Take a Look at this example! Getting that weight down can make the procedure possible and also make the results look even better. Having a relatively stable weight at the time of the operation is important. Gaining or losing more than 10% or so of your body weight after can alter the result. So pre-operative weight loss is only helpful if you can maintain the new weight. Losing weight before surgery and then gaining back weight after can be counterproductive.
There are operations specifically for weight loss. The operations I perform are ideal after the weight loss, but result in little weight loss themselves. Bariatric operations do have risk associated with them, so they are reserved for patients with health issues that may be improved by large weight loss (high blood pressure, diabetes, heart failure, etc). Bariatric surgery can produce great candidates for cosmetic surgical procedures.
