Your Questions
Your Questions
Q: Dr. Eppley, I am 35 years old. I had a child nearly 18 years ago. I have excess skin and stretch marks. I would like to consider getting a tummy tuck. My chief concern is down time and cost involved. I am recently divorced and self conscious about my looks. But worried about going through plastic surgery.
A: The thought of elective plastic surgery is certainly scary for most people, particularly an operation like a tummy tuck. Such a procedure, while making a dramatic improvement in one’s stomach and waistline area that is not achieveable by any other means for someone with excessive abdominal skin, requires a commitment of both time and resources. It is not for the faint-hearted and there is no easy or simple way to do it. The bigger the change, particulalry on the body, the mopre of everything it takes to do it. The best way to think about it is that you will need three weeks to have an adequate recovery and total costs would be in the range of $7500 to $8500. Those two basic considerations are good screening tools to determine if you should move forward with taking your desire for a tummy tuck to the next level of an actual in-office consultatiobn.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Q: Dr. Eppley, I was looking at the tummy tuck pictures and was interested. I looked again the next day and I was able to get a closer look and the scars are very big. I have decided I’m going to try and go to a center for weight loss and see how that works first. Approximately, how much does a tummy tuck with flank liposuction cost?
A: While a full tummy tuck will solve the problem in a manner otherwise not achievable, the ‘price’ to be paid for it is the trade-off of the a long horizontal scar. While very effective, you have to be certain that this aesthetic trade-off is worth it to you. That is why I could not agree more that you pursue every non-surgical option first and only consider surgery when you have become convinced that all other methods are not achieving what you want. Much of plastic surgery is about trading one problem for another, you just have to be certain that the other ‘problem’ is more acceptable that what you have now. In the case of a full tummy tuck that aesthetic trade-off is the scar. The approximate total cost of a full tummy tuck with flank liposuction, which is what you ideally need, is around $8500 all costs included.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana