If you’re dissatisfied with the way your body looks after giving birth, you’ll be happy to know that there’s an answer. A mommy makeover is a combination of cosmetic procedures performed to restore your pre-pregnancy appearance. A typical makeover might include a tummy tuck, breast augmentation, breast lift or breast reduction, and liposuction of problem areas including the legs, arms, or trunk. If you’d like more information about the procedure, contact female plastic surgeon Dr. Katerina Gallus at Restore SD Plastic Surgery in San Diego, CA today to discuss your options with a qualified medical professional.
Who Should Consider a Mommy Makeover?
Pregnancy affects everyone differently, and if it has negatively affected the size and shape of your breasts, resulted in a sagging tummy and stretch marks, or if you’re having trouble losing pockets of fat on your waist, abdomen, arms, or thighs, you may want to consider the procedure. The procedures are targeted at improving areas that have been affected by hormonal and physical changes that occur during pregnancy. If you’re unsatisfied with your post-pregnancy appearance, restoration is just a short phone call away.
What Are the Pros and Cons?
Every procedure has pros and cons attached to it, and a mommy makeover is no different.
Pros
- Restores a more youthful bust and flattens the tummy
- Clothing, including swimwear, will look and fit better
- Helps you return to a slimmer, pre-pregnancy body
Cons
- Breast implants (if gotten) are not meant to be lifelong
- Getting pregnant again may compromise the results
- Weight gain post-procedure may compromise results
Not everyone experiences the same pros and cons with their makeover due to the various procedures available and the unique needs of each individual.
What Makes Someone a Good Candidate?
This set of procedures is designed to reverse the physical changes that occur during pregnancy and while the body naturally ages. Experiencing certain characteristics post-childbirth may lead you to consider the procedure. For example, if you have sagging breasts, uneven breasts, decreased breast volume, drooping nipples, or stretched areolas, you may want these addressed.
Additionally, some women find that their breasts have become so much larger after pregnancy that they are out of proportion with the rest of their body and sometimes cause back pain. Anyone in either (or both) of these situations should consider the procedure.
The makeover procedure doesn’t just focus on rejuvenating the chest and breasts. If your tummy has loose skin and stretch marks or your waist has become thick and undefined, or if you have excess fat in the love handles, hips, and thighs, you should consider the procedure as it can help vastly improve these problem areas.
How Is a Mommy Makeover Performed?
As mentioned above, the makeover is actually a series of procedures that target specific areas of your body that you’re unsatisfied with post-pregnancy. It should be noted that pregnancy is not a prerequisite for the procedure, and anyone who is experiencing dissatisfaction with one or more areas of their body can reap the benefits that the procedure provides.
Tummy Tuck
A flabby abdomen post-pregnancy is extremely common due to reduced skin elasticity, excess skin, and stretching of the inner girdle of connective tissue and abdominal muscles. A tummy tuck, or abdominoplasty, removes the loose, excess skin, and fat and tightens the loosened connective tissue, which removes stretch marks and excess skin in the lower abdominal area below the belly button.
First, your surgeon will remove most of the excess skin and fat between the belly button and pubic hair in an ovular or elliptical shape. Then, the fascia (connective tissue) that lays over the abdominal muscles will be tightened with sutures. The skin around the belly button will be repositioned and the belly button itself is brought out through a small incision and then sutured in its natural place. Finally, the incision is closed with sutures. A scar will be left that runs along the natural crease with the bikini line.
Liposuction
Liposuction is often used to improve the contour of the flanks or hips and is often recommended by surgeons performing a tummy tuck. Liposuction can also be effective in contouring the chest, thighs, neck, upper arms, and knees.
During surgery, your surgeon will inject a sterile liquid and a local anesthetic to control pain. This injection is sometimes accompanied by epinephrine to help minimize bleeding. Once you’ve received your anesthesia, your surgeon will create small incisions near the area where fat is to be removed. Then, a thin, hollow rod (known as a cannula) will be inserted through the incision and suction is used to force the fat out through the cannula via a high-vacuum hose. Once the requisite amount of fat has been removed a compression garment will be applied to the area.
Breast Lift
Pregnancy often results in saggy, uneven breasts, decreased breast volume, drooping nipples, and stretched areolas. A breast lift addresses all of these factors to help restore a youthful shape and lift to your breasts. The procedure itself can be designed to enlarge or reduce the size of the breasts, depending on what your goals are.
At the start of the procedure, you will either receive a general anesthetic or a combination of local anesthesia and intravenous sedation. The incisions associated with a breast lift will vary depending on the amount of excess skin, nipple position, individual preference, and the suggestions provided by your surgeon. Once the incisions are made, your surgeon will reposition and reshape your breast tissue and remove any excess skin. The nipple and areola will be repositioned to a more youthful location. If necessary, the size of the areola can be reduced.
Finally, your surgeon will tighten the remaining skin while closing the incisions. Sutures will be layered deep within the breast tissue to help support your newly shaped breasts. Sometimes, skin adhesives and/or surgical tape are used to help close the skin and keep it supported.
Breast reduction
Breasts often swell to a fuller size and shape during pregnancy. Some women’s breasts will remain larger post-pregnancy and can affect you in different ways. For some, the seemingly permanent increase in breast size is a welcome change, for others, the breasts have become so large that they cause pain, poor posture, rashes, breathing problems, skeletal deformities, and even low self-esteem. Breast reduction surgery can solve these problems by removing both fat and glandular tissue as well as tightening the skin, resulting in smaller, lighter breasts.
Depending on what your goals are and your surgeon’s recommendation, you will be given either intravenous sedation or general anesthesia. Your surgeon begins by making incisions on your breasts through which excess fat, glandular tissue, and skin will be removed. The nipple, still tethered to its original blood supply, will be repositioned and, if necessary, the areola will be reduced by removing skin at the perimeter.
The underlying breast tissue will then be lifted, reduced, and shaped until the incisions are brought together to reshape the (now smaller) breast. Sutures will be layered within the breast tissue to create and support the newly shaped breasts, and then the skin is closed with additional sutures, skin adhesives, and/or surgical tape.
Breast Augmentation
Breast augmentation, also known as mammoplasty, is a procedure that increases or restores breast size using implants of silicone gel, saline, or fat grafting.
In a breast augmentation procedure that uses implants, your surgeon will make an incision and lift the breast tissue, thereby creating a pocket in the area, and place the saline or silicone gel implant into it. The placement of the implant will be underneath the pectoral muscle located between the breast tissue and your chest wall or underneath the breast tissue and on top of the pectoral muscle. Once completed, you will be wrapped in either a gauze bandage or a surgical compression bra. In some procedures, tubes are used for a short time to drain the site.
Can You Combine a Breast Lift and Breast Augmentation?
If pregnancy has left you with the desire for your breasts to be larger as well as more shapely, you may want to combine breast lift and breast augmentation procedures. Since both procedures take place in the same area of your body, it’s much easier for your surgeon to do both procedures at once than it is to heal from one only to undergo another in the same spot.
How Should You Prepare for the Procedure?
When you begin to prepare for your mommy makeover procedure, your surgeon will provide you with thorough preoperative instructions, answer any and all questions you have regarding the procedure, take a detailed medical history, and perform a physical exam to make sure you’re fit for surgery.
Depending on your desires and physical condition, your surgeon may recommend weight benchmarks or lifestyle changes both before and after surgery. If they do, make sure to stick close to them. These recommendations are given to help ensure the best results as well as minimize the chances of complications arising.
The Day of Surgery
When the day to undergo your mommy makeover arrives, your surgeon will give you an estimate of how long your surgery will last based on the types and the number of procedures you’ve decided to undergo. You’ll be given medications to keep you comfortable during the procedure, and you and your doctor will discuss which sedation method is the best choice for you. Several monitors will be set up during the surgery for your safety. The monitors will help check your heart rate, blood pressure, pulse, and the amount of oxygen circulating in your blood.
After everything has been set up, your surgeon will follow the surgical plan you both discussed before your surgery. Sometimes, circumstances arise that cause a surgeon to modify a technique to ensure the best result.
Once your mommy makeover is complete, the targeted areas will be wrapped in surgical dressings and might include surgical drains. You’ll be taken to a recovery area where monitoring will continue closely and you’ll be able to rest from the surgery. Before you leave for home, your provider will teach you how to empty, record, and reset the drains (if you have any).
Depending on the number and scope of procedures you had done, you may be able to go home that very same day. Sometimes you will spend a night or two at an aftercare center where you can be closely monitored by a nurse.
Schedule your San Diego Mommy Makeover consultation
A mommy makeover is a set of cosmetic procedures designed to counteract the negative side effects on your body that pregnancy can produce. These can include stretch marks, saggy breasts, love handles, excess lower or upper body fat, breasts that are too large, and breasts that are misshapen. Pregnancy may have altered the shape of your body, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. If you’re interested in the rejuvenating effects that a mommy makeover has to offer, contact Restore SD Plastic Surgery in San Diego, CA online or call 858-224-2281.
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