Adam Basner Breast Abominoplasty or Tummy Tuck

Hi, I’m Dr. Adam Basner and I’m a board-certified plastic surgeon. In this video I’m going to talk to you about abdominoplasty, also known as a tummy tuck. A tummy tuck is a very common procedures done for many, many people. It is usually done if people have loose skin on their abdominal wall and this typically happens either through weight loss or weight gain, aging and, of course, pregnancy. To understand the procedure, you really need to understand the anatomy of the abdominal wall. There are three layers that we deal with. There’s the skin on the outside. Just below that is a fatty layer and just below that are your muscles. Now if we see someone and they have good skin tone and good muscle tone then all they really need is liposuction. But many people are often trapped with loose skin on their abdominal wall and what we’ve come to realize over the years is that if you have loose skin, or loose muscles, there’s no amount of dieting or exercise that can correct that. The only way to do it is surgically by tightening the skin and tightening the muscles. Now that you understand the anatomy its very easy to understand how a tummy tuck is done. We start with a low incision. It’s a C-section incision but longer so it’s designed to be covered by any pair of underwear or bathing suits. The reason it’s a longer incision than a C-section incision is that for the people who want a tummy tuck this is where their loose skin is and the incision lets us tighten that. The way we do the procedure is we will make the incision through the skin and fat, the first two layers, until it hits the muscle layer and then we stop. Then we simply elevate the skin and fat up in the air to allow us to look at the muscles. If the muscles are loose, we fix it. Once that’s done, we take that loose skin and fat, we pull it down and we remove all the excess. So a tummy tuck would be very successful at removing any loose skin, removing fatty excess and tightening the muscles. This will give you a permanent flat abdominal wall. Recovery from a tummy tuck really depends on whether we tighten your muscles or not. If we do tighten your muscles then it does hurt and the best comparison we have is that it hurts like a C-section. And to put this in perspective, it’s usually about ten days until people are back to work. If we don’t tighten the muscles then it definitely hurts less. I will be able to tell you during your personal consultation whether you need your muscles tightened. Please take a look at my before and after photographs. There are many different types of tummy tucks. I have described the basic one to you. Usually, it’s combined with some type of liposuction to give us the best results. During your personal consultation I will be able to examine you and tell you specifically what is best for you. If you’re interested in consultation please contact my office and we’ll be happy to set that up for you. Thank you.