Beauty & Body

New You Magazine asks: Liposuction vs. Tummy Tuck—what’s the difference?

Cash for your car

Looking for a little tummy control? Whether it’s those last five pounds you can’t ever seem to lose or that leftover post-pregnancy belly, there is a solution for you.

New You asked one of our resident body sculpting experts for the lowdown on the best methods for sucking it in.

Dr. Cuzalina responds:

Patients often wonder if they are a candidate for liposuction of the abdomen or if they may require a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty). It is certainly a wonderful question and the right answer relies on the correct diagnosis to achieve the best possible result for rejuvenation of the belly and waist.

Simply Lipo

In general, women or men who have a limited amount of excess fat on the belly and waist and have great skin tone as well as muscle tone are the best candidates for liposuction alone.

Men who have not had a history of extreme weight changes can usually get away with liposuction alone.

Women who have never had children and are in overall good shape but have isolated areas of fat are often ideal patients for liposuction alone.

Some women even after pregnancy are fortunate enough to have fabulous skin and muscle tone for liposuction alone.

With either gender, the skin must have adequate elasticity to ‘shrink’ smoothly after removing fat without any excision of skin.

Trimming the Fat

Problems can occur with liposuction when poor skin tone exists. In cases where skin laxity is present, a tummy tuck may be required to remove the residual loose skin and tighten the abdomen.

Common reasons for severe abdominal skin laxity include changes following pregnancy as well as following extreme weight loss. If the skin laxity is present both above and below the umbilicus (belly button), a “full” abdominoplasty is required, where the incision is made from hip bone to hip bone and around the umbilicus. This will tighten skin that is loose all the way from the border of the ribs down to the pubic region. However, if loose skin is present purely below the umbilicus, a shorter incision can be used to remove a little loose skin just above the pubic region (often referred to as a “mini” tummy tuck).

In addition to fatty excess and skin laxity, many women following childbirth will develop “rectus diastasis” which is a separation of the stomach muscle edges in the midline. Muscle repair with sutures can be performed during a tummy tuck, which helps further flatten the abdomen and narrow the waist.

About the author

Jane Emery