Tummy Tuck near Beverly Hills, CA

For adults, loose skin and excess fat along the abdomen can be frustrating and challenging despite efforts to get rid of it. Significant weight loss, childbirth, and aging are the primary reasons why you may not be able to regain a tighter and slimmer tummy. An abdominoplasty is a body contouring plastic surgery procedure that can successfully transform your stomach area, achieving the youthful-looking results you want. Beverly Hills, CA plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Hakimi performs tummy tuck surgery that is based on your specific needs. This popular surgery at Dr. Hakimi's office allows you the opportunity to have a toned, smaller abdomen and renewed confidence. If you're in Newport Beach, the Valley, or Los Angeles, CA, call us today to learn how a tummy tuck can eliminate excess fat and skin while also tightening your ab muscles.

“With a great aesthetic sense and attention to details abdominoplasty can be one of the most rewarding body contouring procedures. This procedure is more than removing skin and fat and creating a tight drum-like abdomen. The goal is to sculpt the abdomen, recreate curves with smooth transition to hips. Achieving this goal requires liposuction of the abdomen and sometimes back along with tightening of the abdominal muscles, leaving a narrow scar in the bikini line. Achieving this while avoiding surgical stigmata is what distinguishes a perfect from a very good result.”

-Dr. Michael Hakimi

Tummy tuck surgery can be offered to both women and men in Newport Beach, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA and surrounding areas. If you battle loose or wrinkly skin in addition to excess fat in your stomach area, this body contouring procedure can help produce a slimming and more toned look. Plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Hakimi suggests you be at a stable weight before undergoing this treatment as a tummy tuck is not a weight loss procedure, rather it surgically corrects loose skin. A form of liposuction is usually incorporated during the procedure to remove fat. If your stomach area has good skin tightness, but you still are not satisfied with the appearance of your midsection after diet and exercise, you may be more suited for liposuction. 

A tummy tuck (also known as an abdominoplasty) is performed while you are under general anesthesia. There are numerous surgical options that come into consideration, depending on your specific goals and needs. For starters, the incision shape is chosen based upon the amount of excess skin. Some patients with severe sagging skin may require an extended tummy tuck. A full or extended tummy tuck places the incision from hip to hip, just on top of the pubic region. Other patients who are concerned with minimal skin laxity may be better candidates for a smaller incision. These patients still benefit from an abdominoplasty but will simply have a smaller scar. Regardless of the type, all tummy tuck procedures at Hakimi Plastic Surgery involve the removal of hanging skin and liposuction. You can expect your tummy tuck to take between 1 – 5 hours.  You will be expecteed to walk the same night after the surgery to prevent blood clot formation and also to expedite swelling improvement. You can generally resume a normal routine somewhere around two weeks and exercise closer to two months or when you are given permission by Dr. Hakimi. Your tummy area will feel some discomfort and tightness, but you will look and feel normal again after recovering.

How much does a tummy tuck cost?
During your initial consultation, Dr. Hakimi will customize your unique treatment plan based on your specific needs and goals before discussing costs. He will be able to better estimate your costs once the type of tummy tuck, technique, and anesthesia choices have been made. To ensure you get high-quality results from a skilled plastic surgeon, we help to make your tummy tuck easier to afford by accepting many payment methods and helping you find low-interest financing.

What type of tummy tuck should I get?
You will probably get one of the three main types of tummy tucks: full, mini, or extended. During your initial consultation, Dr. Hakimi will ask about your concerns and goals before performing a physical exam. Then, he can better decide which tummy tuck will produce your best results. A full tummy tuck is good if you want to correct issues in both the upper and lower abdomen, whereas a mini tummy tuck is better for issues under your belly button, such as a "pooch." The extended technique can address issues in the stomach, along with your hips and upper thighs.

Why does your surgeon ask you if you smoke? And how does smoking affect plastic surgery results?

It's not just the health risk of smoking, it's the nicotine in the stuff that you smoke that causes vasoconstriction. You see, if you smoke and you're a healthy individual and there are no surgeries, it's probably going to be fine in the short run. Yes, long term it has problems. But when we undermine the skin for a tummy tuck for a facelift, the skin doesn't have that many blood supplies.

All the blood supplies coming from under, whether it's your tummy or your skin, they're cut surgically. It depends on very small, tiny blood vessels. And every time you smoke that nicotine, whether it's smoking or vaping, can cause vasoconstriction, can make those blood vessels get thinner and smaller, and that can compromise the blood supply and the skin can die.

Today, I canceled the case, a mommy makeover because the patient vaped yesterday. And when we tested her urine on the morning of surgery, which we frequently do, she was positive for nicotine. So in case your doctor asks you why, and if you do it, it's because it can compromise the result of your surgery.

Why does your surgeon tell you not to lift heavy objects more than five or six pounds for five to six weeks?
You see, when you make an incision on the skin or the muscle, that area, even after we sew it up, it's never as strong as it was before the surgery. Scientifically speaking, it takes about six weeks for the skin or the muscle to gain 80% of the strength that it had before the surgery. So that's why we tell you not to lift more than six pounds because it takes about six weeks for that area to be able to tolerate anything heavier than five or six pounds. Today I had to take care of a gentleman that I operated on a few weeks back, and because he was feeling so good, he decided to not be compliant with the restrictions and lift a little bit heavier and popped a couple of sutures. Don't do it.

Why do we need drains in plastic surgery procedures?
In my practice, I only place drains in tummy tucks. But in general, the concept is that when you raise the skin from the muscle, for example, in tummy tucks from the pubic area all the way to your chest, your body's natural response is to make some fluids, some clear yellowish fluid to fill up that dead space.

Now we place a drain, we put it to suction. That suction does two things, it provides a vacuum to hold the skin closer to the muscle until healing happens and scar formation happens.

The second thing it does, is it drains that clear fluid that forms slowly until scar formation happens and that dead space is closed. Your surgeon usually asks you to write down the output from the drain, because that's how we know how much dead space there is, and if your body's still making fluid, and if you're ready to have it out. Sometimes 24 to 30 CCs of fluid in 24 hours is small enough that we feel comfortable removing the drain because your body's able to handle it at that point.

A variety of factors can lead to a stretched-out stomach that leaves behind hanging skin, and we understand it can be a daily struggle. Tummy tuck surgery is generally the primary way to overcome this. If you are bothered by the stretched-out skin in your abdominal region, whether it is significant or not, skin tightening surgery by Dr. Hakimi in Beverly Hills, CA can help you get the look you dream of. Please contact the office of Hakimi Plastic Surgery to learn more.