Anyone Know About Tummy Tucks?

[Angie]

I'm considering getting one due to the loose skin/excessive stretch marks from having babies. My question is, how will this effect me as a belly dancer? Anyone know? Thanks!
Angie

 

[Shanazel]

Sent you a PM.

 

[Zorba]

For what its worth, one of my instructors had one and is very happy.

 

[antares]

I'm considering getting one due to the loose skin/excessive stretch marks from having babies. My question is, how will this effect me as a belly dancer? Anyone know? Thanks!
Angie

I have the same question. I'm really considering to have a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) because of a saggy belly with a very noticeable bump in the middle of it. In fact, people still ask me if i'm pregnant, while my youngest daughter is already 6 years old
Believe me, those stubborn fat deposits just refuse to go away no matter how much i diet and exercise. It gets a bit better, but i lose weight everywhere, but almost nothing over there.
Certain movement such as camels and -especially- belly rolls are not as defined as when performed by dancers with less fat in their bellies. Finally, it is very difficult to find a costume that fits and looks really nice.
To make the long story short, i'm considering abdominoplasty but would like to hear from other bellydancers who have had this procedure or know bellydancers who have. Please help me. I really like my curves, but my belly is really a disaster !

Thanks in advance!

antares.

 

[Eshta]

A good friend of mine just had a 'mini-tuck' for similar reasons, apparently they just removed the excess skin and the scar will be way below her hip belt. It's too early to give a progress report but it doesn't sound too traumatic compared to a full-on tuck and she expects to be dancing very soon. Good luck!

 

[alosha]

From my understanding, there is some nerve issues with healing, but it's usually only in the skin layer. I had excess skin from my babies, and started doing very firm massages on my tummy skin once or twice a day, and have noticed a HUGE difference in the tighness of my skin. I've been using coconut oil as a moisturizer during one of the massages, and my stretch marks are pretty much fully faded (most are less than a year old).

Anyhoo, the massaging is worth a shot before going with surgery.

 

[antares]

@ Eshta: I'm hoping a "mini-tuck" will be an option for me, and then in combination with liposculpture. But i have to discuss it with a plastic surgeon. I'm still trying to learn more about the possibilities before a chose one (or more) surgeons and go talk with them. I have read that recovering from a miny tuck is much shorter than from a real tummy tuck.

@ Alosha: what do you mean with there is some nerve issues with healing? I don't understand it. I'm sorry, English is not my mother language.

You are right, massaging with moisturizing lotion before and after birth really helps. It doesn't have to be an expensive brand or something. I used bodylotion with vitamine E. I'm sure that it did help for my skin to retract and become as tight as possible, given the circumstances.

I had both my daughters with only 17 months appart. Both times i really had HUGE bellies. People used to stare at me on the streets and ask me wherever i went to wether i was expecting twins or triplets. I think my huge pregnacy bellies were due to a combination of facts. I'm not so long, but my first daughter was at her birth 57 cm long. Besides, i gained a lot of weight. On top of all that, there was a lot of amniotic fluid. This was clearly seen by my doctor on an echography he made the last week. Myfirst daughter was in no hurry to be born so they had to make echographies, etc. Mostly, there is not much fluid left when you are "late". I had a lot, really a lot. Hence the BIG belly, hihihi....

I can really endorse that massaging with moisturizer helps. If i hadn't done that, i have no doubt it would be much worse now. However, because of the amount of strechting that ocurred during both pregnancies, there is excess skin and those stubborn fat deposits. My belly is kind of saggy and has a bit of an odd shape :0 and i'm affraid only surgery will give it a better shape. I'm getting tired that people keep asking me wether i'm pregnant and that t-shirts roll up and slips roll onder my little "apron" LOL.

 

[alosha]

Since some of your skin is moving to a different area, the nerves have to re-learn where they are. From what I've heard, it usually fixes itself within 6 months or so.

I know nothing from personal experience though, so I could be totally wrong.

 

[Farasha Hanem]

My problem is, I'm 48 years old, so my skin elasticity just isn't what it was when I was young. I used cocoa butter during both my pregnancies, but it didn't do any good---I still developed stretch marks on my tummy and breasts that look hideous. Plus, I had an emergency C-section with my first baby, so I have a huge vertical keloid scar that makes me look like I have a butt on my front end, too. I've been trying very hard to be accepting of all this, and although I've learned to "live with it" to a certain point, I've still got the urge to undergo a tummy tuck.

Since I've almost completely stopped drinking soda pop, I've lost quite a bit of weight (I'm now down to 100 pounds, sorry don't know what that is in kilos or stones). I eat right, exercise, and bellydance, and although I look better than I have in years, I still have excess hanging skin, along with all the above issues. Am I a good candidate for a tummy tuck?

Oh, anteres, you're not alone---as I said, I'm 48, and before I lost that 12 pounds, people asked me ALL the time when I "was due." I got asked that question so many times by customers, I would cry on the sales floor.

 

[tutankhamun]

Any surgery is a certain amount of unwanted shock for the body. You have to consider it seriously. Have you had any operations before? How does your body deal with scarring? Some people develop excessive scars and are very unhappy?

Have you tried any alternative methods? A friend of mine got rid of stretchmarks by increasing the amount of water she drank, using essential oils (rubbing in tea-tree/rosemary in a carrier oil ) and lots of exercises.

I would first try alternative methods and only then resort to a surgery.

 

[antares]

Hi there,
@ Tutankhamun:
I've really given a lot of thinking before going for it. Considering surgery is being the last step in a big row of things i've tried. It would be long to name them all. I have excercised consistently and eaten very "clean". I went twice a week to the gym and exercised the rest of the week at home with work out DVD's. I used mainly The Firm DVD's. This is an Award winning exercise program that includes (steps) aerobics, free weights exercising (with dumbells) and a lot more.
Obviuosly, so much exercising and healthy eating had to give results. I lost a lot of weight, but could never return to how i was before having children. The last 5 kilograms JUST never went off, no matter what i tried. At one point i got to do 300 sit ups a day. No kidding. I swear it! Of course, i started doing 25 and increasing the amount every few weeks. I did cardio to burn fat, etc. I got to kind of have an "upper six pack" because of so much "clean eating" cardio and different kinds of sit ups. But that stubborn bump in the middle of my belly just refused to go away. I must say that i had a very fit condition in that time and a gorgeous complexion (of course, from al that exercising and healthy eating) But the bump was still there. It was even more noticeable because my upper torso was fitter and leaner! In fact i lost fat in all the unwanted places too, for instance my face and my breasts. You can't spot-reduce. It happens that it is very difficult to get rid of unwanted fat in certain areas of your body.

Later on i "discovered" bellydance and since then, i find aerobics a bit less fun to do. But bellydancing is also a way of "working out" , isn't it ?

I did all that exercising and healthy eating because i like to be fit and being in good shape, not because i wanted to be thin. I'm not naturally thin. I have that sort of pear-shaped latina body, if you know what i mean. I've always had curves . I also wanted to try to flatten my belly without having surgery. The fact is that you also deal with diastasis (a separation of the two halves of the rectus abdominis muscle) Diastasis is often responsable for still looking pregnant when you are not. The belly just not flattens, no matter how many sit ups you do. In fact sit ups can make it worse. Diastasis is corrected in a tummy tuck, which is why you finally get a more naturally looking belly, and not a belly like you are still pregnant and with that "crazy" bump in the middle!

In short, getting rid of stretch marks is not what i want. My strecht marks are -thank goodness- hardly noticeable. It's just that bump and "apron" what i want to get rid of :lol:.

Tumescent Tummy Tuck Abdominoplasty You can see here what i mean by the "bump" all those "before" bellies look like mine!

@ farasha: I can really understand that you feel the urge to go for surgery! Of course, we all know that real beauty is inside, and you get strecht marks/ bump in your belly, etc..... but you get also beautiful, loving children, etc. The fact is that it is difficult to accept all those changes. We are human too I just went for it if i was you.

 

[DrBermant]

I'm considering getting one due to the loose skin/excessive stretch marks from having babies. My question is, how will this effect me as a belly dancer? Anyone know? Thanks!
Angie

Belly Dancing requires a fine tone of muscles and is influenced by the relationship of the overlying tissues. Loose skin and stomach tissues can make for a bizarre look on any motion.

I just completed a video documentary of the of Tummy Tuck and Belly Dancing. This was a fortuitous event.

I document my patients' problems and the effects of how the tissues move after surgery. Videos are much better than still pictures to demonstrate the problem and effectiveness of the solution. I then added years ago recording the emotional impact of the problem and surgical solution.

During my normal documentation, I noticed that my patient was trying out her new stomach muscles very early on in her healing. You can see that in the first video component at 2 weeks. At later sections (1 month and 3 months after surgery) I incorporated questions on her belly dancing progress. The unfortunate issue was that by not knowing that she had a serious hobby of belly dancing before, I had not known to document the distorted motions that her loose skin and muscles while dancing. She had avoided videos herself before the surgery because of her dislike of what it looked like. The belly roll evolution from right after surgery to 3 months is the only such video of the healing after tummy tuck surgery in a belly dancer that I know of.

She did her first solo dance at 3 1/2 months after surgery and sent me the video. Unfortunately, that video shows her costume and face and she has not given me permission to link to it. The expressions on her face were a great pleasure to watch.

Following the above link you can find details about her original complain for loose tissues after pregnancy and weight loss with the before and after pictures. There are her other links to videos of her experiences after surgery. The 6 day after surgery video was done with her compression garment for comfort issues.
Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, MD

 

[Chani]

Anyone know about tummy tucks?

Belly Dancing requires a fine tone of muscles and is influenced by the relationship of the overlying tissues. Loose skin and stomach tissues can make for a bizarre look on any motion.

Oh, what bull twang.

Bodies, real bodies, perfectly real bodies on perfectly real people are meant to jiggle when you move. What would be bizarre would be for there to be no jiggling when one bellydanced. I am 46 years old and have had 4 pregnancies. I love the stretch marks on my breasts. I love that my tummy skin moves when I shimmy. I am a real woman and these things don't make me look bizarre when I dance but the opposite - they are part of what makes me beautiful. You are pushing an artificial version of beauty which I find irrelevant to dancing.

 

[DrBermant]

Oh, what bull twang.

Bodies, real bodies, perfectly real bodies on perfectly real people are meant to jiggle when you move. What would be bizarre would be for there to be no jiggling when one bellydanced. I am 46 years old and have had 4 pregnancies. I love the stretch marks on my breasts. I love that my tummy skin moves when I shimmy. I am a real woman and these things don't make me look bizarre when I dance but the opposite - they are part of what makes me beautiful. You are pushing an artificial version of beauty which I find irrelevant to dancing.

It is certainly a fine and reasonable approach to be happy with one's body the way it is. That is a good method for those who can be content that way.

Actually I do not push anything, but instead satisfy what my patients ask me to restore when I am able to. Some relish in scarification mutilation, some relish is the badges they earn after trauma or tumor, some love the changes they had after pregnancy or weight loss. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The patient in that video did not agree with you but complained she had to hide herself from what she considered a deformity that she did not like. Patients do not come to me because they are content.

Each to his / her own.

Take some time to listen to the emotion behind the changes that I have been documenting with my sculpture. Tummy Tuck Patient Experiences. I am in the process of updating that section to include the video with the audio component. But video editing takes too much time and the process is slow.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, MD
Learn More About Tummy Tuck Abdominoplasty Surgery

 

[Chani]

It is certainly a fine and reasonable approach to be happy with one's body the way it is. That is a good method for those who can be content that way.

It's much harder for people in our modern society to be content with their normal bodies when there are those suggesting unnecessary surgical modification is reasonable.

Actually I do not push anything, but instead satisfy what my patients ask me to restore when I am able to.

I disagree. You have said that you do not dance and I do not believe you are here to learn about dancing but instead to peddle your wares. Your posts reflect this. The members here aren't your patients. Why are you here if not to promote your business?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

And the concept of beauty is distorted when people start seeing surgical modification of normaly healthy bodies as a normal thing to do. Its because of what you do and how people like you refer to the natural as being bizarre that many people seek to change their natural beauty. To me the beauty of belly dance is in the natural unaltered form of the dancer

The patient in that video did not agree with you but complained she had to hide herself from what she considered a deformity that she did not like. Patients do not come to me because they are content.

I didn't watch that video. I'm here to learn about bellydance not surgery. I did however have a look at your before and after tummy tucks and was surprised to see the before shots all (aside from one) looked like normal beautiful bodies. I find it sad that these patients would take the risk of surgery and spend such huge amounts of money unnecessarily.

Take some time to listen to the emotion behind the changes that I have been documenting with my sculpture. Tummy Tuck Patient Experiences. I am in the process of updating that section to include the video with the audio component. But video editing takes too much time and the process is slow.

No thanks. Like I said. Just here for the dancing.

Hope this helps,

You have only helped to reinforce my belief that you are using this forum as a form of cheap advertising.

I suppose we will have to agree to disagree.

Thankfully I only need to read the threads that contain information that is actually helpful to me.

 

[lizaj]

Chani...you've said it all. When people join a belly dance forum, I'd like to think it is because they love to dance or love to watch dancers and are interested in finding out more about the dance. I can't see that the good doctor is really interested in doing more than...well what?
I can't wholly condemn women who have such surgery..although I have an ever-expanding waistline, I shall stick with diet but then I am not a younger woman who might want to dance professionally nor was I one who was left with a belly in a poor state by childbirth.
But I much prefer that belly dance forums such as this are places for members to discuss a variety of issues not just peddle their wares whatever that might be and that they are genuinely what they say.

 

[Chani]

I can't wholly condemn women who have such surgery.

Oh, yes, I am certainly not standing in judgement of adults who seek surgery for whatever reason, even if it is purely for vanities sake, and would only hope that they make informed choices for themselves considering both the risks and benefits of surgery. I myself have seriously considered a breast reduction. Fortunately, breastfeeding all of my children has blessed me with a natural recduction in breast size but I fear the good doctor would deem my breasts worthy of a lift now.

What I had issue with was somebody posting on this forum for the purpose of promoting surgical procedures. Even those "content" to be in our natural state can have insecurities and it is sometimes a matter of just getting out there and dancing despite any lack of confidence in our appearance - in fact repeatedly putting myself out there has helped me in many ways to embrace my natural appearance in a way I hadn't before dancing.

I think this forum is a place where insecurities might be preyed upon by a surgeon looking for bodies to "sculpt". Perhaps, instead of looking for clients here, Dr B might direct some of his patients to this forum here where they can learn about a fantastic way to improve their fitness and body image.

 

[lizaj]

Oh, yes, I am certainly not standing in judgement of adults who seek surgery for whatever reason, even if it is purely for vanities sake, and would only hope that they make informed choices for themselves considering both the risks and benefits of surgery. I myself have seriously considered a breast reduction. Fortunately, breastfeeding all of my children has blessed me with a natural recduction in breast size but I fear the good doctor would deem my breasts worthy of a lift now.

What I had issue with was somebody posting on this forum for the purpose of promoting surgical procedures. Even those "content" to be in our natural state can have insecurities and it is sometimes a matter of just getting out there and dancing despite any lack of confidence in our appearance - in fact repeatedly putting myself out there has helped me in many ways to embrace my natural appearance in a way I hadn't before dancing.

I think this forum is a place where insecurities might be preyed upon by a surgeon looking for bodies to "sculpt". Perhaps, instead of looking for clients here, Dr B might direct some of his patients to this forum here where they can learn about a fantastic way to improve their fitness and body image.

If Dr B is what he says he is, is the first thought that comes into my head.
We do have a record of wind-up merchants on this forum ( s do others)
And I fully agree with you Chani, cosmetic surgeons have their place in our society but it is not their place to play on a warped sense of body image.
As far as I am concerned they are trained with tax payers money to put right what is seriously damaging to a person's well-being. There will be different interpretations of that, I know.
Why one should pop up on a belly dance forum is beyond me.

 

[Aniseteph]

Mega-rep to Chani. :clap: :clap: :clap:

Belly Dancing requires a fine tone of muscles and is influenced by the relationship of the overlying tissues.

Well yes insofar as a movement will look different on a gym-toned flat tum than something jucier, but to me that is totally missing the point of belly dance. Tell it to Fifi - the heart and soul of belly dance isn't about anatomy.

If someone is unhappy about their body and want surgery then that's fine (although I was expecting something more, er, dramatic in the "before" on that dancer clip to be honest - had a bit of a WTF? moment).

This is a great place to ask other dancers if they've had something done and how it affected their dancing. It might have been an interesting angle hearing from a surgeon and seeing before and afters on a skilled dancer, but now this just feels like peddling to me, especially since I looked at the website. . It feels like someone exploiting the belly dancer angle to get his name out there some more. It's all making me queasy now.

I couldn't find a clip of a dancer talking about how surgery affected her dancing but here did you really mean the title to read "Video Expenses Tummy Tuck Surgery for Belly Dancer"?

 

[DrBermant]

Chani...you've said it all. When people join a belly dance forum, I'd like to think it is because they love to dance or love to watch dancers and are interested in finding out more about the dance. I can't see that the good doctor is really interested in doing more than...well what?
I can't wholly condemn women who have such surgery..although I have an ever-expanding waistline, I shall stick with diet but then I am not a younger woman who might want to dance professionally nor was I one who was left with a belly in a poor state by childbirth.
But I much prefer that belly dance forums such as this are places for members to discuss a variety of issues not just peddle their wares whatever that might be and that they are genuinely what they say.

Actually, my joining this forum was for public education and to share experiences of those who used surgery to restore elements that they were not happy with. The video link is an unusual documentation of recovery of the healing process of a belly dancer's muscles. The same techniques of documentation could be used by those not interested only in doctor bashing to document their own healing after an injury or for that matter progression of technique mastering. Consider using the same methods of video standardization I developed to understand the problem I was sculpting and results I achieved, to the dancer's perfection of a particular move over time. For the years I have been looking at belly dancing videos, I have yet to see one of such design.

Plastic Surgery is not for an "ever expanding wasteline." It is not a replacement for dieting nor losing weight. It will not stop those gaining weight. That is all part of an unrealistic hype by surgeons hungry to operate on anything that walks in a door. Plastic Surgery cannot make someone who is overweight not look overweight. That general layer of fat covering the body is unhealthy and does not permit the contour of the underlying muscles to show though. And by the way, I agree that excessive weight loss is also unhealthy. Yes, I have seen videos of those with way too much fat on their bodies dancing or performing.
Using the same video format I have been trying to educate about, those who love a particular issue can themselves document why loose hanging tissues look great or natural while dancing. The audio can then be used to explain their emotion behind their beliefs. That is where my documentation came from and why I am on this forum.

Beyond that there are other misconceptions I come to forums to help dispel. Tummy Tucks do not have to be painful and have a long miserable recovery. Yes, that is true for older techniques. My other passion beyond public education is to evolve techniques that are less painful with faster recovery. That is the reasoning behind the video documentation in the first place. Track where we start, what it takes to get there, and where we end up.

But I will take that up in another thread.

For those content with their bodies, that is fantastic. But putting down others who chose to do so is not fair. It is like a nudist complaining about how those magnificent costumes detract from the body's beauty. And no, I am not advocating video documentation of a nudist's idea of belly dancing. The concept just does not appeal to me. The difference is that for the patient I posted, her belly dancing video after surgery was her first she said she ever did. When I asked to see a before surgery video of her dancing to see how the tissue moved, she told me she was too embarrassed to record that movement. Too bad I do not have permission to share that performance to see the joy on her face no longer having to hide what she did not like. For other patients, it may not be the dancing, but what type of clothing they are able to wear or activities they feel comfortable doing. Listening to their stories of going to the beach in their first bikini enjoying no longer having to hide has the same power as the dancing experiences.

Like type of clothing / costumes, Plastic Surgery is a tool that some chose to use and others not to do so. Everything has its place. Documentation and education have the power to help understand options, movement, emotions, successes and failures.

And lastly, let us look at the title of this thread: anyone know about tummy tucks? In answering such questions I am bringing decades of experience of patients who have traveled from around the world asking for my sculpture. To me it makes little sense to bash someone trying to help with posting answers based on extended experience, posting real examples and real experiences and documentation.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, M.D.