Combinations

Having more than one procedure at the same time saves recuperation time, money, and creates more added value to a simple tummy tuck. 

At least 1 hour of surgery time is saved when a secondary procedure is added to a primary procedure.

The reason is that before a surgeon begins to operate, there is at least 30 minutes to 1 hour of preparation time for both the surgeon and the anestheologist. Also, there is usually 30 minutes of additional anestheology time required at the end of a procedure to make sure you wake up properly from anesthesia. Since a plastic surgeon's time is billed at around $2000 per hour and an anestheologist's time is billed around $500 per hour, these can be substantial savings. Furthermore, there is all the nursing time for pre-ops, post-ops, OR, and recovery.

Some physicians claim that having multiple procedures is more dangerous than having a single procedure. However, according to studies carried out in California in an accredited outpatient facility in Southern California between 1998 and 2007 on 268 surgeries that involved a tummy tuck and a breast lift, the complications  on one surgery or two surgeries were comparable.

The plastic surgeon who conducted this survey was quick to add that all these surgeries were performed by board certified plastic surgeons in fully staffed and accredited facilities. These results would probably have been different had the surgeons had less experience or if these surgeries had been done in non accredited facilities. Therefore, we suggest that you speak to your surgeon about combination surgeries and ask if there are savings should you decide to avoid multiple recoveries.

Possible Combinations:

Mommy Makeover: The so called mom job includes a breast lift and or augmentation with a tummy tuck. It makes sense. After a pregnancy, it's not just the distended tummy that women have to contend with, but also distended breasts. During lactation, a woman's breasts will enlarge to several times their original size. After she has finished giving milk, the mammary tissue inside the breast will shrink, but oftentimes, the skin will not be able to retighten around the shrunken breast. Consequently, gravity will take over and the breast will hang. To correct this problem, there are 3 possibilities:

• Do nothing. If it doesn't bother you or your partner, why bother.
• If the nipple hasn't dropped more than 1 inch below the center of your breast, a simple breast augmentation will usually suffice.
• If the nipple has dropped more than 1 inch, you might need a breast lift (mastopexy) or possibly a lift with a breast augmentation. 

Liposuction and Tummy Tuck

In many cases, liposuction is used to de-fat the area surrounding an abdominoplasty. However, this does not include other areas such as the flanks or the inner thighs, two areas where fat tends to accumulate. Liposuction of these two areas in particular can help improve the overall esthetic look of a tummy tuck. You can see this for yourself by uploading a picture of yourself to our Tummy Tuck Visualizer and seeing what you would look like without love handles and or inner thighs that are touching.

Liposuction, Tummy Tuck, and a Butt Lift

Why waste the fat! If you are having liposuction, why not reinject it where it is needed. The Brazilian Butt Lift procedure is one of the most popular new procedures in Plastic Surgery because it works. With age, our buttocks tend to fall (that darned gravity again), so by reinjecting adipose tissue (fat)  from our own bodies where there is zero chance of this tissue not being accepted, we add volume to an area that needs it.

Abdominoplasty and Abdominal Etching

This is a man thing. Most women would not want to have a prominent 6 pack even if they could have one. Although diet and exercise is certainly the best way to achieve this look, it also possible to do it with an etching process. Normally, there is a small layer of sub-cutaneous fat between the skin and the abdominal muscles. By gently sculpting this fat with a lipo cannula or excising it with a traditional scalpel, it is possible to achieve this look.

Tummy Tuck and Face Lift

A Naturel Face Lift is another possibility to be added to a tummy tuck. Go to www.FaceLiftMDs.com to learn about all the advantages of this procedure.