The largest segment of body contouring and breast augmentation patients that Dr. Teitelbaum sees are young women who simply want to get their bodies back after having children. Child bearing extracts a huge toll on the breasts and the abdomen, but thanks to modern plastic surgery, a woman can have children and still feel as beautiful as she did before her pregnancies.
A similar process occurs in the breast and in the abdomen. On the outside, the skin stretches in both places, but sometimes does not contract back all the way, leaving it loose. On the inside, volume can be permanently lost in the breasts, and the muscles of the abdominal walls stretched and splayed apart.
The extra breast skin combines with the decrease in volume to create what can be a detrimental change in the appearance of the breasts. The extra stomach skin - and perhaps the presence of a Caesarean section scar - drapes loosely over the expanded underlying muscle to dramatically change the appearance of the stomach.
Diet and exercise will improve these areas to some extent, but the reality is that some of the changes from pregnancy are structural, and can only be improved by plastic surgery.
A wide array of surgical options is available to these patients. The ultimate choice of operation depends on three factors: how pregnancy changed their bodies, how they want to look, and what scale/cost/recovery/risk profile of an operation makes the most sense to them personally. Many of these patients undergo both a breast and abdominal plastic surgery procedure at the same time, while others have the procedures done at different sittings.
The breast can undergo an augmentation, a lift, or a combination of both. Generally, patients that describe themselves as "deflated" or "collapsed in" and are willing or desirous of more volume are candidates for augmentation. Women that are more "droopy" or "hanging" are more typically candidates for a breast lift (mastopexy). If they want more volume, then they may choose to have an implant in addition to the breast lift. There are many different types of lifts, and women need to choose together with the surgeon which trade-off of scar for shape is right for them. And some women that are deflated do not want implants and choose to have a lift. There are others that are droopy but do not want the scars of a lift, and they can choose to have a larger implant to fill them up (though they may sag more in the future.) Various permutations of implant type, size, and pocket location, combined with various techniques for breast lift, result in a large number of plastic surgical options for these patients.
For the stomach, some women merely have a little excess skin after their pregnancies that is immune to diet and exercise. On the other end of the spectrum, some women have loose, redundant, and stretch-marked skin, a bad caesarean section scar, and a very lax abdominal wall. Most women fall somewhere in between, and a variety of abdominoplasty techniques are discussed with the patient to determine which one is most appropriate for her.
Nothing distinguishes the specialty of plastic surgery from the remainder of the surgical disciplines as much as this category of patients. While orthopaedic surgeons can look at an x-ray of a broken bone and decide the best method of treatment without ever meeting the patient, the formulation of a surgical plan for these post-pregnancy patients can only be done through close discussion with the patient of her particular wishes.
View before and after photos of Body Contouring for post pregnancy patients.
This website also has photographs of breast and tummy patients in the breast augmentation and abdominoplasty before and after photo sections.
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