Goals of the hourglass tummy tuck
Goals of the hourglass tummy tuck
Introduction
If you have a look at the amazing muses that inspired the artists of all time to set their beauty in stone as sculptures or on canvas as paintings, you will probably notice that most of them have beautiful curves. Despite what some tend to believe, the feminine ideal of beauty is not a woman who is very thin, but a woman with curves in all the right places; a woman with the hourglass body shape.
The hourglass body shape is characterized by a small waist, wide hips, and wide shoulders. A small waist can be difficult to achieve for women with a sedentary lifestyle or who don’t have a healthy and balanced eating regimen. Even if you have a small waist but narrow hips, this will not necessarily lead to beautiful aesthetic body shape. The good news is that with the help of plastic surgery nowadays, we can correct the imperfections of the body profile.
A new and modern procedure called the hourglass tummy tuck was especially developed to help women get the shape of their dreams. The procedure entails a combination of liposuction, tummy tuck, and fat transfer to the hips and is recommended for women who suffer from imperfections of the abdominal wall such as skin sagginess but also have small hips and adipose deposits on the midline, namely the flanks.
In this article, we will discuss in detail the procedure and also what are the goals of the hourglass tummy tuck.
Hourglass tummy tuck
The hourglass tummy tuck is not on the list of services provided by many plastic surgeons. The procedure is very delicate and at the same time complex and it should only be performed by someone with a keen eye for detail and a fine sense of aesthetics of the feminine body. The procedure can last up to five hours or more, depending on the anatomical characteristics of the patient and the amount of skin that needs to be removed from the tummy.
Because it is quite a lengthy procedure, the preferred type of anesthesia is general anesthesia. After general anesthesia is administered, the plastic surgeon will perform the first step of the procedure, which is abdominal liposuction. Liposuction will also be performed on the flanks for patients who have an excess of adipose tissue there. The role of liposuction is to make the waist as small as possible.
After liposuction is done, the next step is the tummy tuck. The plastic surgeon will make an incision on the lower part of the tummy over the pubic area. The incision can be shorter or longer, depending on the amount of tissue to be removed. The surgeon will use the incision to detach the skin from the abdominal wall and lift it up to the level of the rib cage. This gives him access to correct the imperfections of the abdominal wall such as diastasis recti and umbilical hernia if present. Moreover, it allows him to re-drape the skin over the tummy and remove the excess. In the process, the belly button might need to be repositioned as well, but only if the excess of skin on the tummy is more severe. For the mini tummy tuck, there is no need to reposition the navel. Once the skin excess is removed, the plastic surgeon will close the incisions and move on to the next step, which is fat transfer to the hips.
Meanwhile, the fat that was collected with the help of liposuction that was purified via centrifugation process is now ready to be used for reinjection into the hips. The fat is injected into the hips with a special syringe that won’t require significant incisions. After the procedure, compression garments will be put on the patient and he will be moved to recovery where he will spend the next few hours.
Goals of the hourglass tummy tuck
The goals that can be achieved with the hourglass tummy tuck won’t be visible immediately after the procedure. It can take up to three months or even more for the final results to transpire. This happens because immediately after the procedure the patient will be confronted with a certain level of swelling and bruising of the operated areas. These are normal side effects of the procedure that will disappear in time without any additional treatment. However, to make sure you get rid of the swelling and bruising fast, the plastic surgeon might recommend taking Arnica Montana supplements, using ice packs on the operated areas, and wearing the compression garments and girdle non-stop after the procedure. The compression garments are mandatory to be worn non-stop for a minimum of three weeks after the procedure, but the surgeon might advise you to wear them only during the day for a few more days.
After three to six months, the goals of the procedure will start to transpire. Here are some goals that can be achieved with the hourglass tummy tuck:
- A firm and flat tummy
The procedure is mainly performed with the aim of correcting the imperfections of the abdominal wall that create the unsightly appearance of the tummy. After the muscles of the abdominal wall are strengthened and the skin excess is removed, the patient will enjoy having a flat and firm tummy. Keep in mind that this doesn’t translate into no skin folds on the tummy when sitting down. This is an unrealistic expectation and patients should be aware of this. If the patient doesn’t have any skin folds when sitting down, he also can’t maintain a straight position when sitting up as there would not be enough skin tissue on the tummy.
- A small waist
A desirable result and one of the goals of the hourglass tummy tuck is to achieve a smaller waist. This is the reason why liposuction is performed on the flanks and on the abdominal wall – to reduce the thickness of the adipose tissue in the area in order to reduce the overall dimensions of the waist. How small your waist can become after liposuction is dependent on the dimensions of the abdominal wall, so keep in mind that there is only so much that the plastic surgeon can do, and the effects of liposuction are only on the underlying adipose tissue and not the other tissues.
- Wider hips
The last stage of the procedure entails the use of the fat collected during liposuction to be injected into the hips to give them more volume. Wider hips are representative of feminine beauty, and this is the only way to create beautiful curves in all the right places. Adding more volume to the hips with fat delivers a natural result and leaves insignificant marks in terms of scarring.
- The hourglass body shape
As the name of the procedure suggests, one of the goals is to achieve an hourglass body shape. This means that we aim to get similar dimensions for the hips and shoulders and a waist that is 20 to 30% smaller than the hips. The hourglass body shape is the most beautiful silhouette, and only less than 8% of women nowadays are born with it.
Conclusion
The goals of the hourglass tummy tuck are getting a flat and firm tummy, a smaller waist, wider hips, and an overall more feminine body outlook by creating the hourglass silhouette. The procedure is very much in demand nowadays and recommended for women who want to look more feminine while also correcting some imperfections on the tummy and the hips. Keep in mind that to achieve the best possible results, you need to find a talented, experienced and board-certified plastic surgeon who performs this procedure routinely. Most patients are eligible for the hourglass tummy tuck if they have adipose deposits on the abdomen and flanks, narrow hips, excess skin on the tummy, and no contraindications to the procedure.
Make sure to discuss in details the goals of the procedure and how your tummy will look like after the surgery with the plastic surgeon during the pre-operative consultation.
