With age, and commonly after childbirth, skin can lose its elasticity and remain permanently stretched out. In addition, the muscles of the abdomen can become weak and begin to spread apart from each other, resulting in weakened support of the lower abdomen. In addition, the abdominal skin may have stretch marks below the belly button. No matter how much weight you lose, or how many sit-ups you do, the skin and stretched out muscles will not shrink back into place.
An abdominoplasty, or tummy tuck, involves removal of the excess skin and fat of the lower abdominal wall and tightening of the wall muscles through an incision that is placed low along the bikini line. The skin of the upper abdomen is stretched down to meet the lower skin edge, and the excess skin along with the stretch marks below the belly button is excised after tightening the muscles of the abdominal wall.
Click on any photo at right to see a complete set of before-and-after images
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| Regular Abdominoplasty |
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| Extended Abdominoplasty |
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