Motherhood is a wonderful gift. It’s a gift that changes your life for the better, but some of the changes you notice in your body may not be quite as welcome. If you feel self-conscious about your postnatal body, you may need a mommy makeover in Miami at Flores Plastic Surgery in Miami, FL. Keep reading if you’d like to learn about what happens during the makeover.
What Happens During a Mommy Makeover Miami?
Every woman’s body is unique, both before and after childbirth. Therefore, a mommy makeover in Miami isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to postnatal bodies. Rather, it is customized completely to your unique needs. When you come in for an initial consultation with Dr. Flores, he will discuss your problem areas with you and recommend which procedures would help you reach your goals most effectively. Here’s a brief summary of some of the most popular procedures.
Tummy Tuck
By far, a tummy tuck, known in the medical community as abdominoplasty, is the most popular choice for moms who feel they need a mommy makeover Miami. Abdominoplasty is a procedure that was originally designed to tighten the abdominal wall, remove excess abdominal skin and tighten the remaining abdominal skin. However, the scope of the procedure can be tailored to your unique needs.
What Happens During a Full Tummy Tuck
A full, or traditional, tummy tuck, affects the entire abdominal wall. The walls of the abdomen are tightened and sewn together if they are torn. This muscle tightening makes you look lean, svelte and beautiful, but there are medical benefits of tightening your abs, too. For example, tight abs allows for better posture which treats certain types of chronic back pain, and ventral hernias can be treated during this procedure, too.
Besides tightening the walls of your abdomen, this procedure also involves removing excess skin and the upper layers of fat that are closest to your skin. Once all of that is taken care of, the remaining skin is lifted into a taut, youthful, attractive position, the incisions are closed with sutures and then you are bandaged.
What Happens During a Mini Tummy Tuck
If you are perfectly satisfied with the appearance of your upper abdomen, then a mini tummy tuck may be perfect for you. This procedure does not involve the tightening of your abdominal walls. Rather, it only removes excess skin from beneath your navel, removes a bit of fat from beneath your navel and lifts and tightens the remaining skin. During this procedure, the navel will not be repositioned.
What Happens During an Extended Tummy Tuck
During an extended tummy tuck, the walls of your abdomen will be tightened, a small amount of excess fat will be excised from your upper and lower abdomen, excess skin will be removed from your upper and lower abdomen and the remaining skin will be tightened.
After that, your lower back, hips and flanks will be contoured. If you have a great deal of excess fat, you may want to combine this procedure with lipoplasty, a fat removal procedure.
Lipoplasty
Lipoplasty is a procedure designed to remove excess fat from regions of your body that have been unaffected by a healthy diet and regular exercise. It is ideal for women who gained a significant amount of fat during pregnancy but are still at a healthy weight. It can be used to remove excess fat from virtually anywhere, including the:
- Calves and ankles
- Upper arms
- Abdomen
- Hips
- Buttocks
- Thighs and knees
- Chin and neckline
- Middle back
What Happens During Lipoplasty
Lipoplasty can be performed under general anesthesia or local anesthesia. If you opt for general anesthesia, you will be asleep during the procedure, and your entire body will be numb. This is ideal if you are having stubborn fat removed from several parts of your body. Local anesthesia won’t put you to sleep and only numbs the part of the body being worked on. This may not be ideal if your makeover affects several regions, like your breasts and abdomen.
This procedure starts with cleansing the targeted area or areas and administering anesthesia to ensure your comfort. Then, minuscule incisions are made through which a cannula is inserted. A cannula is a thin tube that, in this case, a suction device is passed through so excess fat can be suctioned out from beneath the skin. Once the excess fat is removed, the cannula and suction device are removed and the incisions are closed with a compression dressing.
Breast Augmentation
The breasts are the second most common concerning region after childbirth. Women who breastfeed often find that one breast is significantly smaller than the other breast. Breast augmentation can correct asymmetry and enlarge one breast so that it is the same size as the larger breast. If you feel like both of your breasts are a little empty and you would like them to be larger, augmentation can be used to enlarge both breasts, improving both their size and shape.
Before your breast augmentation, general anesthesia will be administered so you will not experience any pain or anxiety, and the incision locations will be cleaned. Incisions may be inframammary (beneath your breast), axillary (in your underarm) or periareolar (around your nipple tissue). Through these incisions, Dr. Flores will separate your breast tissue from the walls of your chest and place implants between your breast and muscle.
The Type of Implant You Choose Affects What to Expect During the Procedure
If you opt for saline implants, the sterile saline solution will be injected into the silicone shell after the shell has been placed successfully. Contrastingly, if you opt for silicone implants, the shells will already be filled with silicone and they just need to be centered appropriately during implantation.
Breast Lift
A breast lift, or mastopexy, is another commonly sought procedure after giving birth and breastfeeding. Many women find themselves with severely sagging breast and skin tissue to accompany their smaller breast or breasts. A breast lift is the perfect complement to a breast augmentation when nursing has resulted in smaller breasts. It is also the perfect complement to a breast reduction when hormone and weight fluctuations have resulted in larger breasts.
What Happens During a Breast Lift
During a breast lift, your breasts are reshaped and lifted to provide you with a firmer, rounder, more youthful look. To ensure your nipple is placed appropriately, the new position of the nipple will be marked while you are standing. As with any other procedure, your body will be numbed so you won’t experience any pain or discomfort before any incisions are made.
Incisions are made around the areola and may extend down the front of your breast. Alternatively, the incisions may extend along the sides of the areola. If significant lifting is needed, the incisions may extend down the front of your breast and horizontally underneath your breast. Through these incisions, the breast tissue is lifted and reshaped and the areolas are moved. They may also be reduced in size. Excess skin tissue may also be removed.
An Important Caveat
It’s important that you can clearly and effectively communicate what you want your breasts to look like after a lift. Let us know during your initial consultation if you are perfectly satisfied with the volume of your breasts. If your breasts are only being reshaped and lifted, your bra size should not change. If excess skin is removed during the procedure, you could lose up to half of a cup size and require a small augmentation to maintain the volume of your breasts.
Breast Reduction
While most mommy makeover Miami involve a tummy tuck and breast augmentation or tummy tuck and breast lift, some women find that their breasts become too large for their personal preference. If extreme hormone swings during pregnancy increased the size of your breasts to the point that you feel conscious, we are more than happy to include a breast reduction in your suite of body contouring procedures.
What Happens During a Breast Reduction
During a breast reduction, incisions are made in discrete locations so there is no visible “scarring” while the incisions heal. The locations of the incisions depend on the extent of the reduction you are seeking, and Dr. Flores will discuss your options with you during your initial consultation. Most commonly, one incision is made around the areola, one is made within the inframammary fold and a vertical incision is made to connect the circular and “horizontal” incisions.
However, if you are only looking for a small reduction, you may only need a circular incision around the areola and a vertical incision ending at the base of your breast. Regardless of the technique used, excess skin, fat and glandular tissue will be removed. The remaining breast tissue may be reshaped and the remaining skin will be lifted.
Arm Lift
An arm lift, known in the medical community as brachioplasty, is another procedure commonly performed after childbirth. Pregnant women can store excess fat anywhere, from their inner thighs and buttocks to their forearms and upper arms. Unfortunately, the weight from the lower legs and lower trunk come off first. It can be years before stored fat is burned from the upper abdomen, breasts and upper arms.
Even worse, when your body finally burns through its energy stores in your upper arms, it can take your upper arm skin anywhere from six months to several years to return flush against your muscles. If you are concerned about loose upper arm skin and fat that just won’t budge, brachioplasty may be appropriate for you.
What Happens During Brachioplasty
During brachioplasty, your upper arms will be tightened and toned so you can once again feel confident in the cutest halter tops and tank tops. If your muscles are already decently toned, we may just need to remove a little excess fat and tighten the skin. If you haven’t done a tricep dip since high school, we can tighten your upper arm muscles just like your abdominal walls can be tightened and toned.
Regardless of the exact results you’re looking for, Dr. Flores will mark the incision points to guide him during the procedure. The incision will start at the elbow and zig-zag up to the axilla. Any excess fat will be removed via excision or lipoplasty, the skin will be stretched, any excess skin is removed and the arm will be stitched back together. Finally, a compression bandage will be applied to the upper arm.
Discover How to Reclaim Your Physique Today
If you’ve been dissatisfied with your postnatal body and diet and exercise aren’t doing enough to get you back to the way you were, you may be a good candidate for a mommy makeover Miami. To discover which procedures will help you reclaim the prenatal body you were so proud of, contact us today at Flores Plastic Surgery in Miami, FL to schedule your initial consultation. Dr. Flores will review your medical history and physique goals to customize a plan just for you.