When to have a Tummy tuck after pregnancy.
Liposuction or tummy tuck after pregnancy after a pregnancy might be 6 months if you are healthy with no complications, and your primary physician thought this would be OK.
Whether you need a Tummy tuck should be decided by your Plastic Surgeon with your input after a full consultation.
I am not convinced that you need this, at least from your photos presented. (Frank Rieger M.D., Tampa Plastic Surgeon)
Body Contouring After Pregnancy
There are many options for body contouring after pregnancy. Patients typically need to wait 3-6 months following pregnancy prior to body contouring to equilibrate. This is sometimes longer if they are breast feeding. It is important to examine you before making recommendations on what will serve you best. (Gaurav Bharti, MD, Johnson City Plastic Surgeon)
How long after pregnancy for a tummy tuck? Also, full or mini?
If you were a candidate you would be creasy to go. But based upon the posted photos I doubt you are a candidate for either.
Tummy Tuck after Pregnancy
It does not appear that you need an abdominoplasty. I would recommend several consultations examination. In regards to your question I would recommend that you wait six months after your delivery before considering for having body contour surgery. (Earl Stephenson, Jr., MD, DDS, Atlanta Plastic Surgeon)
Abdominoplasty after pregnancy
The time required after pregnancy before undergoing an abdominoplasty procedure will vary depending on how much weight gain there was during the pregnancy and whether you are nursing. You would want the tissues to reach their baseline before having an elective surgery and I would anticipate the time interval could be anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months.
It appears you have a small umbilical hernia with minimal laxity of the skin envelope of the abdomen. An examination of your abdominal wall fascia would help guide your treatment. More than likely, you have at least some mild diastasis recti (separation of the abdominal muscles) which would need to be tightened. This repair would also repair the umbilical hernia. I would expect you would qualify for a “mini” abdominoplasty, since there appears to be minimal skin excess.
The stretch marks are challenging, but I have seen some promising results with fractional laser treatment. I would not tell you they can be totally erased, however, the laser can reduce the redness and flatten and narrow the scars with each treatment. (Steven J. Smith, MD, Knoxville Plastic Surgeon)
How long until tummy tuck?
I don’t know that there is an exact time period that you need to wait following a pregnancy before getting liposuction or tummy tuck after pregnancy. I usually tell patients that they should wait until their body has stopped undergoing the changes related to the pregnancy. Based on your pictures, I can’t see the “ton of loose skin” that you describe. In fact, most of my patients would kill to have your stomach! Perhaps this loose skin could be appreciated more during a consultation by a board-certified plastic surgeon who could examine you in person. As for your question about mini vrs full tummy tuck, the longer the incision, the more skin can be removed. A mini-tummy tuck is much more limited with regard to how much skin can be removed. Ideally, in a full tummy tuck, the wedge of skin between your belly button and your pubic area and extending to the hips on each side can be removed. Any stretch marks outside of that area usually cannot be removed. (Edwin C. Pound, III, MD, Atlanta Plastic Surgeon)
Your photos certainly do not show the skin redundancy that your comments suggest, but if you have a lot of loose skin, you might be a candidate for surgery at any time. It is ideal to have body contouring surgery at your ideal or desired weight, and since you are five pounds from your goal you are pretty close.
The only stretch marks you can reasonably expect to get rid of will be involving the tummy portion below your belly button. Any stretch marks above the belly button will move toward your lower tummy after surgery, but will almost certainly still remain. In terms of “mini” versus” “regular”, the mini-tuck can mean different things but usually refers to the length of your scar. The more excess skin you have, the longer the scar needs to be, but if your scar is well placed and heals nicely, the length of your scar is just about irrelevant. A longer inconspicuous car with smooth skin and no folds or pleats is far preferable to a short scar that is of poorer quality or has skin bunches, which is the likely result if the scar is intentionally made shorter than actually necessary to achieve the desired contour.
A board certified plastic surgeon well experienced in body contouring surgery will be able to advise you on your best options. (Ram Kalus, MD, Charleston Plastic Surgeon)