Aesthetic or cosmetic surgeries are a branch of plastic surgery that is performed by surgeons in order to improve the overall facade of people. These surgeries may be isolated, which is performed only to enhance a particular feature of the body or could be a reconstructive procedure to help restore the original shape of a body feature. Abdominoplasty or tummy tuck is a procedure that falls under cosmetic surgery which is usually performed in order to get rid of the excess skin and fat in the middle and lower abdomen region. People usually opt for an abdominoplasty when they have gone through multiple pregnancies, or usually suffer from frequent weight issues, which add a lot of extra tissue, skin and fat to the body.
What happens is that the muscles in the wall of the abdomen become loose and flaccid. In order to attain a fitter and firm abdomen, people go under the knife to tuck in their tummy. The fat is removed by a process called liposuction where it is burnt off. Abdominoplasty can help minimize stretch marks too in women. But one thing should be kept in mind that the process of tummy tuck would not eliminate wrinkling all together, but it does help in the maintaining the elasticity of the skin. But everyone is not an ideal candidate for abdominoplasty; one has to be physically healthy and have a stable weight and should be a non-smoker too to qualify for the surgery.
The tummy tuck surgery can take anywhere between one to five hours to complete depending upon if it is a complete or a partial abdominoplasty. However in either of the cases incisions are made in the lower and middle abdomen, above the pubic area; in case of a complete one the cut is made from hip to hip while a much smaller incision is made when it is a partial abdominoplasty. Initially after the surgery there might be little discomfort and heavy physical activities are to refrained from.