The Abdominoplasty Procedure

Interviewer: All right. Well, like I said, he's going to join us at the Women's Show and be one of the featured speakers there, but first Dr. Michael Devlin joins us to talk a little bit about tummy tucks. Dr. Devlin: Now thank you. Interviewer: Good to see you! Dr. Devlin: Nice to see you. Interviewer: We'll talk more about the Women's Show coming up. I know a lot of people are excited about that. A lot of people may be excited, but may be dreading swimsuit season. It's on the way, and you worry about the tummy. Dr. Devlin: Oh, I know. We get a lot of women who come in. Whether they've had babies, and they've done a lot of working out and they can't get rid of that little separation that they have, a little bit of hanging over. People who've lost a lot of weight, those type of patients. Patients who have had a C-section in particular. They get that little part that just hangs over the top, and no matter how much diet and exercise, they just can't seem to get rid of it. So a tummy tuck is really a good option for them. Interviewer: So many times, mothers who have had babies. Does it kind of fix that C-section? Dr. Devlin: It does, because we make that incision below the C-section scar. We keep it low, in case you want to wear a low-cut bathing suit. You're not going to see any of the incision. We go in and we tighten up your stomach muscles from the top all the way down to the bottom. It gives you that flat, washboard stomach you're looking for. You can't do enough sit ups to get the results that we can get by tightening things up. Interviewer: Right. And you do like people who have tried to lose weight on their own, and are in pretty good shape before they do this, right? Dr. Devlin: Yeah. Actually, we're encouraging them to get to what their ideal or their goal weight is. If you need to lose more than twenty pounds, you really should probably wait to get a tummy tuck. If you think you're right at where you want to be, this is going to be a good time to do it. Interviewer: OK. Let's look at some pictures. Dr. Devlin: Sure. Interviewer: We were looking at these upstairs, and we were like, "Wow, is that the same person?" Dr. Devlin: Believe it or not, it is actually the same person. You go in, and you tighten up those stomach muscles, you remove all the excess skin, and you can end up with results like this afterwards. You're ready for a bathing suit at this time. Interviewer: Right. Dr. Devlin: You get a lot of women who say, "Oh, I'll never wear a bathing suit again." They come in, have this procedure, next thing you know they are just so excited. They can't wait to go pick out a new bathing suit. Interviewer: Do they get into bikinis again after many years? Dr. Devlin: They do, yeah. A lot of them said, "I'll never do it again." Next thing you know, springtime rolls around and they're in that bathing suit that they never thought they'd wear again. Interviewer: You mentioned people who've had weight loss surgery, which is becoming very common. There's that saggy skin. Can this fix that? Dr. Devlin: A most common weight loss procedure right now would be the lap band. If your weight has been stable for about a year after a lap band procedure, you're going to have all of that hanging skin. The fat's gone, but that skin is still there. The only way to get rid of that is with surgery. The procedure itself is very comfortable. We use a pain pump afterwards. It diffuses numbing medication, kind of like when you go to the dentist. For about three days after surgery, that numbing medicine is in there. You're up, walking around. Most people, believe it or not, are taking Tylenol the day after surgery. Interviewer: And that's it? Dr. Devlin: They're up walking around the day of surgery, very comfortably. Interviewer: If we're talking about moms, they're coming home to kids and babies. Can they lift and do those kinds of things? Dr. Devlin: They can lift after about the first six weeks. We kind of restrict what they do for the first six weeks. Most people say, "The C-section was so much more invasive, and it hurt a lot more." The tummy tuck, we don't do that. We're not cutting the muscles like they do with the C-section. We're just tightening them up. Interviewer: Let's kind of go through the procedures. Should they do anything to prepare for the surgery first? Dr. Devlin: Like I said, you want to be healthy. You want to stay off any blood thinner products like aspirin, that type of thing, Advils, any of that type of stuff, for about ten days before surgery. Ideally, you'd like to have your weight within twenty pounds of what you think your weight should be or what you want to be. Those type of things. Interviewer: OK. Then how long is the surgery usually? How long does it last? Dr. Devlin: The surgery itself takes about two to three hours to perform. It's outpatient surgery, so you get to go home the same day. You're up walking around. In fact, we encourage you to get up walking around, because that decreases your chance for blood clots. Interviewer: That's good. Dr. Devlin: You're up walking around, you're comfortable, and you can get phenomenal results just pretty much overnight. Interviewer: OK. Are there scars left over? Dr. Devlin: There are scars left over. It comes down below, and it comes up. We keep those so low that you can wear a low-rise bathing suit and not see the incisions. People are really excited about that. Interviewer: What I've found is by looking at the pictures, sometimes the belly button is a lot cuter after the surgery. Dr. Devlin: It is, often, yeah. That's where the art of this comes. You can get a lot of ugly looking belly buttons. If you look at some websites, the belly buttons aren't good. We really take our time with our belly buttons, because that's what shows afterwards. You can get a really nice looking belly button afterwards. Interviewer: That's wonderful. Now, can you combine this with other surgeries? Some people say, "If I'm going under, I want to have a couple things taken care of." Dr. Devlin: The most common thing that we do with a tummy tuck is called the "mommy makeover." That's where we do a breast augmentation and/or a lift in conjunction with the tummy tuck. You put those two together, that is a body transformation right there. Interviewer: That's a wow, isn't it? Dr. Devlin: That's a wow. Interviewer: All right, let's talk a little bit about the Women's Show. You're going to be there both days. What are you going to be doing? Dr. Devlin: We're going to be at the Women's Show. I'm going to be one of the featured speakers on Saturday. I'm going to be talking about surgical and non-surgical facial rejuvenation. We're going to have a lot of different giveaways at our thing. We're going to have little contests, and we're going to be giving away Restylane, other things like that. So come by, check us out. We'll be there all weekend. Interviewer: Oh, we're going to have fun. We're going to all be there. So there's the information about the Women's Show. It is Saturday and Sunday this weekend. There are the times for you. At the Conway Expo Center, of course there in Conway. We're going to all be there having a good time. Of course we want to remind you about Devlin Cosmetic Surgery on Executive Center Drive. There's the information there if you need to call. You would really like to just have a consultation with someone first, if they're interested. You can answer all their questions then. Dr. Devlin: Absolutely. Our consultations are free. You can give us a call, we'll get you in. We'll kind of go over step by step, we spend a lot of time with you letting you know what your options are. Interviewer: So you're not nervous when you make that decision. All right, thank you so much! Dr. Devlin: Thank you.