Motherhood Makeover
Age: 41 Motherhood Makeover
This mother of several children is 5’6″ and 170 pounds. She consulted with me with concerns about her breasts and her abdomen. She had an engaging and happy personality. She had wonderful skin (great thick dermis that is perfect for plastic surgeons). She was overweight for sure. She had made some progress with weight loss but was it was slowing significantly. She wanted “stripper boobs” but “not quite to that point”. On examination she had excess fat throughout her body but more importantly she had an abundance of fat on the inside of her abdomen. This is the visceral fat that is around the organs. By history, it runs in her family on both her mother and father’s side. She had no loose skin on her abdomen and no stretch marks which is miraculous considering the number of children she has.
I am always reluctant to perform liposuction on anyone who is overweight and simply needs to lose the weight. Surgery is not the answer in many cases. However, I felt that she was worth investing in. I felt she was seriously motivated and that it was possible that I can work with her to make significant positive life changes. She is seen here about six months after a removal of 5500cc of fat and a bilateral breast augmentation with 375cc high profile silicone implants placed beneath the muscles through an incision in the breast crease. There is a remarkable transformation to say it mildly! She is very happy with her results as is her husband. Her weight is now 160 pounds and she lives a much more healthy and active lifestyle. Notice how much flatter her abdomen is. This is not only from her liposuction but more importantly from her weight loss which shrunk the fat on the inside of her abdomen. Continued weight loss would make this even smaller and flatter. Her breasts are certainly more attractive. They are fuller, particularly superiorly and they are shaped better. They look even more interesting considering that when the body is made small the breasts automatically appear larger. The liposuction that I did under her arms and on the sides of her breasts improved the appearance significantly. I chose high profile implants because they tend to shape a larger breast with thicker skin better. They help to enhance projection of her breasts and to narrow them as well. This always looks more youthful.
She still needs to work on her weight and I can see that the shape of her breasts before surgery and the curvature of her rib cage will always make it easy for her breasts to fall off to the side. This is why it is so important that she wear a comfortable, yet supportive sleeping bra to keep them up front on the flatter, more “stable” portion of her rib cage. All breast enhancement procedures that come from my hands will need external support more often than not day and night in order to protect your investment. Liposuction in the best of hands is a relatively straight forward procedure that delivers the goods. Liposuction performed by unqualified individuals in back rooms is not acceptable and dangerous. Those who seek their liposuction by choosing a machine are missing the point. The outcome of your liposuction depends on your surgeon, plain and simple. Don’t become an unhappy liposuction patient, or worse, because you chose poorly.
Age: 35 Motherhood Makeover
This is a mother of three who is 5’3″ and 153 pounds who desired a “mommy makeover”. She is seen here after an abdominoplasty, bilateral breast augmentation and liposuction. These photos are taken at about six months after her procedures. She has lost 12 pounds since her procedures.
She had a full abdominoplasty with fascial placation (suture of the muscular layer that becomes lax and bulges after pregnancies). I performed liposuction of her trunk and extremities and removed 5200cc of fat. Her breasts were enhanced with 300cc smooth silicone implants placed below the muscle from an incision at the breast crease.
A “mommy makeover” generally involves the procedures that this patient had. It offers treatment alternatives for the breast, abdomen and body in an attempt to restore a woman’s figure to pre pregnancy days. You can see that her abdominal scar is quite red even after half a year. The scar is flat, but it is colored. This will take about two years to turn more skin colored. This redder scar in her case is unusual. The scar is red but it is not spread or raised.
Combining cases for cosmetic benefit requires some skill and good judgment. It’s not always advisable, and sometimes procedures need to be staged over time. This is critical to your outcome so listen carefully when you speak with your surgeon about the appropriateness of multiple procedures in your individual case. In general, I would not recommend that you have a large volume liposuction performed at the same time as several other procedures unless your surgeon is very experienced and has a track record of successful outcomes. It is my recommendation that more advanced procedures and procedure combinations be performed by those with the best training, the most experience and the greatest concern for your general health and welfare.
I plan on performing a minor revision of her “dog ears” when she is ready. These are the small dimples of tissue at the ends of the abdominal scar. This is not uncommon and will be done under local injection in about twenty minutes.
Age: 38 Motherhood Makeover
This mother of two presented to me for a “mommy makeover”. She is 5’4″ and 128 pounds. She had moderate sized breasts with some associated ptosis (sagging) of her breasts. She had relatively good skin and some uniform lipodystrophy about her trunk and extremities. She had an excellent bone structure which I thought would make for an impressive result with a liposuction. She elected for a breast augmentation alone and not a lifting procedure.
She is seen here about five months after a breast augmentation and a full body liposuction of 4250cc of fat. Because of the “boost” she has gained with her plastic surgery, she invested heavily in exercise and now runs up to ten miles at a time. You can clearly see in her post operative photographs the wonderful improvement in her shape with a more muscular-athletic appearance. Her weight has stayed the same because of her increased muscle mass. She has used plastic surgery to not only change the appearance of her body but to change her life and attitude for the better.
Age: 40 Motherhood Makeover
This mom, 5 feet tall and 115 pounds was interested in a “mommy makeover”. She complains that her breasts have fallen and she has very loose, stretched skin on her abdomen. On examination I noted that she has very smooth but inelastic skin that is very thin and loose. This is the skin she inherited from her parents. It compromises the results that you can reasonably expect because the tissue I am working with is of poor quality– I often tell patients that “I can’t build a two story straw hut.”
I elected to perform an abdominoplasty to tighten her loose fascia and remove the wrinkled skin on the lower part of her abdomen. I also performed an augmentation/reduction/mastopexy procedure. I used an implant for superior fullness and improved breast firmness, reduced a small amount of breast tissue to help shape the breast, and finally I tightened the skin and elevated the nipple areola complex to a more youthful position.
Overall the outcome is as about as good as I expected considering her loose skin. She very much appreciates her improvement but wishes her breasts were tighter. She is seen here about four years after her procedure. We are considering a revisional mastopexy procedure which would tighten the skin evelope. However, her results are satisfactory and it’s important to remember that sometimes the “enemy of good is better”, which means we might want to “leave good enough alone”.
Age: 41 Motherhood Makeover
This mother of two is 5’2″ and 151 pounds. She was interested in a motherhood makeover for obvious reasons. She was treated in two stages. The first stage was a large volume liposuction to reduce the fatty layer and the second stage was the abdominoplasty and the breast reconstruction. Her current weight is 135 pounds!
As you can only well imagine, this patient has essentially revolutionized her appearance and her life. She was able to lose the weight because she was motivated by the results from my procedures. It is not advised to have a larger volume liposuction and an abdominoplasty at the same time – this is the reason why I staged the procedures (safety first!). My most gratifying results are those obtained from my work and my patients investment in themselves.
Patient Testimonials
