Tummy Tuck - What Happens to the Belly Button During a Procedure? | Adam L. Basner

Hi, I’m Dr. Adam Basner and I’m a board-certified plastic surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. Many patients want to know what happens to the belly button when we do a Tummy Tuck. Well, for most people, the belly button actually stays right where it is. What we do is we lift the skin and fat on the abdominal wall up to the rib cage, pull it down and remove the excess. But right before we do that we make a little incision around the belly button so when we lift the skin and fat of the abdominal wall up the belly buttons stays centered where it is and then when we pull the excess down we make a tiny button hole in the belly button and pull it through. Occasionally, for thin people, we do what’s called an umbilical float procedure and in that case what we do is when we lift the skin and fat of the abdominal wall up we actually detach the belly button from the muscles and when we pull it down we do lower it a tiny bit half inch to an inch nothing really noticeable then secure in place slightly lower. We usually do this only with very thin people because it limits the amount of skin we can get out but for some people this gives them the best results if they don’t have a lot of loose skin above the belly button.