San Diego Mommy Makeover
Pregnancy and your children are some of the most meaningful and wonderful aspects of a woman’s life. However, even though you are a mom – doesn’t mean you have to look like one! Pregnancy can often leave you with unwanted changes to both your breasts as well as tummy, and no matter how much you work out, some of these issues will never go away. San Diego plastic surgeon Vincent Marin performs the “Mommy Makeover” procedure, which is designed to correct these unwanted effects of pregnancy and restore you to a “better than pre-pregnancy” appearance.
Cosmetic Changes and Pregnancy
The effect that childbirth has on your body is variable and largely related to your genetics, the number of pregnancies you have had, the size of the baby and how much weight you gain during the pregnancy. Some women are very fortunate and can have multiple children, and their bodies will “snap back” to their original form. Most women, however, suffer varying degrees of loss of fullness and position of their breasts with unwanted, excess skin, a new tummy “bulge” and frequently stretch marks on the abdomen.
What Happens to Women’s Bodies When They Get Pregnant?
Many cosmetic changes can come along with pregnancy due to hormonal changes and stretched skin – Mask of Pregnancy or dark spots on the face and stretch marks around the abdomen are just a couple. Plastic surgeon, Dr. Vince Marin, talks about preventive measures that can limit the chance of these things occurring.
Cast: Vincent Marin, MD
Answers to Common Questions About Mommy Makeover
Mommy Makeover – What to Know Before Going Under the Knife
Plastic Surgeon Dr. Vincent Marin answers the common questions many women have about a mommy makeover. Interview on San Diego FOX 5 News.
Cast: Vincent Marin, MD
Breasts
Breast related changes result from a number of normal biologic processes. Firstly, increases in certain hormone levels cause your breasts to increase in size in preparation for breast feeding. This “stretches” the breast skin to accommodate the newly enlarged breast tissue. Once you are done breast-feeding, your body no longer produces the same hormones and the breast tissue will disappear – often to a level less than what you had prior to being pregnant – called breast atrophy. Unfortunately, the skin “stretch” may not follow the same path. This leaves you with double damage. Most of my San Diego mommy makeover patients complain about a loss of breast tissue combined with “too much” skin leaving women with a droopy, empty breast.
Abdomen
Abdominal changes are more obviously related to the growth of the baby. As the child grows to larger and larger size, the abdominal muscles and skin must stretch to accommodate. After the birth of the child, many women are left with excess skin, with or without stretch marks, and commonly, a tummy bulge.
The amount of excess skin you may have is very different from person to person. This can range from virtually no excess skin to such a significant amount where women are unable to wear certain kinds of clothes and actively work to hide the excess in clothes. Stretch marks result from a “too rapid” stretch of the skin. Skin can only stretch so far, and once this is exceeded the skin “breaks” and this results in the formation of stretch marks or “striae.” Stretch marks are often an indicator of skin that has lost a significant amount of its elasticity or “spring,” and are frequently associated with unwanted excess abdominal skin. Finally, the abdominal muscles (rectus abdominus, obliques and transversalis) are stretched as well from the baby’s growth within the abdomen. The muscles frequently return to their original position as they are more resilient to stretch and have an ability to contract. However, the connective tissue in-between the muscles is commonly stretched and will not spring back as it is primarily collagen, which has no built in elasticity. Thus, no matter how many sit-ups or crunches you do, the muscles will strengthen, but the tissue holding them together will not improve. This produces a tummy “bulge” that you may be able to correct by tightening your stomach muscles. Mommy makeover abdominal surgery is designed to forever correct all of these unwanted aspects of pregnancy.
Cosmetic Breast Surgery Options
Breast surgery treatments are variable and designed to correct your individual problems related to both breast volume/size loss and excess skin.
Breast Augmentation
For women who have smaller breasts to start, sometimes the amount of skin stretch is mild, and thus the skin is not “overwhelmed” by the hormonal related breast changes. These women are often well served by a breast augmentation procedure alone. Both saline and silicone breast implants are options that can be
placed either above or below the muscle depending upon the particular need of
the patient.
Breast Lift/Mastopexy
Not uncommonly, our San Diego mommy makeover patients are happy with their breast volume, but left with some degree of excess skin after pregnancy and breast feeding. For these women, a breast lift or mastopexy is designed to help restore the breast shape to a more youthful position by elevating the nipple and tightening the breast skin. There are a number of different approaches we can use to lift the breast, and this is based upon the appearance of the breast and your specific goals. Our ultimate end point is to limit the amount of scarring on the breast, but not at the expense of getting an attractive, youthful appearing breast.
Breast Lift with Implants
The most frequent situation, however, is that after one or multiple pregnancies women are unhappy with both the amount of excess skin, as well as the loss of volume or size of their breasts. Under these circumstances, patients are candidates for what is called an “augmentation mastopexy” or a combination of a lift and an implant. This procedure is a bit more complicated as we are making the breast smaller (by tightening the skin) and larger (with the use of an implant) at the same time. Thus, this procedure must be individualized for each patient as there are so many potential variables. Despite the complexity, it is with this procedure that I produce some of the most dramatic changes and some of the happiest patients.
Breast Reduction
There are a smaller number of my San Diego mommy makeover patients who, after pregnancy, still have unwanted excess breast tissue. This is almost always associated with some degree of excess skin as well. Patients who suffer from this are candidates for a breast reduction. Nearly all surgical techniques for breast reduction both make the breast smaller as well as lift the nipple and areola to a more youthful location on the breast. Here, the primary goal is to reduce the amount of breast tissue and associated skin restoring a smaller and more youthful breast size and shape. There are scars associated with this procedure as there is no other means to remove the excess skin and breast tissue (liposuction can be used with minimal scarring only in very mild situations).
Many insurance companies reimburse patients who undergo breast reduction surgery, but this is frequently related to the amount of breast tissue removed.
Commonly, this number is 500 grams or slightly more than 1 pound per breast. This number is not adjusted for height or weight and unfortunately deemed equal for every woman. Insurance coverage must be individually addressed for each patient prior to proceeding with breast reduction surgery.
Abdominal Surgery
The primary goal of mommy makeover abdominal surgery is to correct excess skin, reduce the presence of stretch marks and tighten the abdominal muscles. All post-pregnancy issues that cannot be corrected with even the most rigorous diet and exercise routine.
This is usually in the form of a “tummy-tuck” or abdominoplasty. Abdominoplasty surgery comes in different forms that need to be tailored for differing degrees of problems – mini, standard and extended. While every patient wants the smallest possible scar, no patient wants only a partial correction of their problem. Thus, in my hands, the scar length is dictated by the amount of excess skin we have to remove to achieve your particular goals. The more unwanted skin you have, the longer the scar, but I will do everything possible to keep this to a minimum. It is not uncommon in any of the techniques to also use liposuction to help sculpt and blend areas on the waist and hips to achieve a more “complete” correction.
A mini tummy tuck will treat problems that exist below the belly button – commonly the lower abdominal “pooch.” A smaller scar can be used here and the lower abdominal muscles are tightened to help rid you of problems from the belly button down.
A standard tummy tuck is by far the most common approach to correct post-pregnancy abdominal problems. This allows me to address upper and lower abdominal weakness, excess skin, changes to your belly button and stretch marks that extend to slightly above the belly button. The scarring for this technique is often from hip bone to hip bone, placed very low on the waist to not be seen in a bikini or low waisted jeans.
Finally, and extended tummy tuck is designed for women whose issues are not contained to the front of the abdomen only, but also have excess skin and fat that extends around the waist to the lower back. This is an area that can be more evident in jeans or pants where there is excess skin and fatty tissue above the waistline. An extended abdominoplasty will help to correct this problem by removing additional tissue extending around to the lower back. The trade-off is that the scar will be longer in order to accommodate the additional excision.
San Diego Mommy Makeover Consults
Contact our La Jolla office to schedule your consultation with Dr. Marin.
Call 858.356.5187 or complete this form and someone from our office will get back to you.
Marin Aesthetics
Dr. Vince Marin
1431 Camino Del Mar
San Diego, CA 92014
Phone: 858.356.5187
Toll Free: 888.638.9894
Fax: 858.551.9071
Dr. Marin provides plastic surgery services to the entire San Diego County community.
