Tummy Tuck in Baton Rouge, LA with Dr. Robyn Daugherty
Pregnancy, weight fluctuation, and age can leave your abdomen looking less than flat. Unfortunately, no amount of exercise or diet can fix a sagging abdomen. However, tummy tuck surgery, also known as abdominoplasty, can help tighten and repair weakened abdominal muscles and remove excess skin and stubborn fat to restore a slimmer, flatter abdominal contour. Tummy tucks can help to restore the appearance and function of your midsection, as well as increase your confidence and comfort.
With utmost precision and artistic creativity, Dr. Robyn Daugherty is a Baton Rouge tummy tuck surgeon who strives to help you reach your aesthetic goals through quality surgical care. You deserve a plastic surgeon who listens to your goals and values your time—you deserve the care of Dr. Daugherty.
Restoring your confidence and your waistline with the best tummy tuck in Baton Rouge, LA is easier than ever. Contact Daugherty Plastic Surgery at (225) 235-3884 or complete our online form to schedule your consultation today!
Listen to Dr. Daugherty's Podcast on Tummy Tuck
What Is a Tummy Tuck?
Tummy tuck surgery (abdominoplasty) is a rejuvenation procedure designed to remove excess skin and fatty tissue from the abdominal area. A tummy tuck procedure may also involve tightening the underlying muscles, resulting in a flatter, leaner abdomen and a faint scar that runs along the lower abdomen below the bikini line.
Typically, a tummy tuck addresses:
- Excess fat and skin on the abdomen
- Stretch marks below the belly button
- Muscle separation, diastasis recti
- 360-degree truncal liposuction to improve contours
With a shorter incision and faster recovery time, mini tummy tucks address the area below the navel only. A mini tummy tuck is much less invasive than a traditional tummy tuck.
Tummy tucks can be included as part of a mommy makeover procedure. A mommy makeover is a group of post-childbirth and breastfeeding body rejuvenation procedures that may also include:
What Are the Benefits of a Tummy Tuck?
Tummy tucks are an ideal body contouring procedure for patients who are close to their desired body weight but uncomfortable with the appearance of their abdomen. Tummy tuck surgery effectively tightens and flattens the midsection and addresses excess skin or stubborn fat pockets to improve abdominal appearance and increase self-confidence. By maintaining your healthy lifestyle and weight, you will be able to enjoy long-lasting results from your Baton Rouge tummy tuck.
Following your tummy tuck or mini tummy tuck procedure, you can expect:
- A sleeker, tighter midsection
- Excess skin removal
- Abdominal diastasis correction
- Improved abdominal tone
- More proportioned body contour
- Renewed self-image
Am I an Ideal Candidate for a Tummy Tuck?
Typically, tummy tuck candidates in Louisiana are patients who may have loose abdominal skin and fat concentrated in the abdomen, weakened abdominal muscles, or a protruding abdomen and are looking to permanently improve the appearance of their abdomen.
As a tummy tuck procedure is not intended to remove excess weight—rather, it improves body contours and definition—Dr. Daugherty recommends that you are close to your ideal, stable weight for 6 months prior to your procedure.
Tummy tuck candidates should:
- Live a healthy lifestyle
- Be non-smokers or willing to quit prior to surgery
- Be finished with childbearing
- Have realistic expectations
- Understand the surgical risks
- Be willing to maintain a healthy weight
Patients who are not candidates for a tummy tuck are:
- People with excess weight or who are at their heaviest.
- People with visceral fat or fat below the abdominal wall around the organs – this fat cannot be removed surgically.
- People actively losing weight. A patient’s weight should be stable for 6 months prior to their procedure.
- People who wish to become pregnant again.
Contact Us Today
Dr. Robyn Daugherty is a double board-certified plastic surgeon with extensive training and experience conducting procedures of the breast, body, and face. She is committed to improving and enriching her patients’ lives with beautiful, natural-looking plastic surgery results and exceptional patient care. Dr. Daugherty invites you to meet with her for a friendly and informative consultation to learn more about your goals and discuss your treatment options.
Your Tummy Tuck Consultation
As an active wife and mother, Dr. Daugherty knows the value of your time. During each patient consultation, Dr. Daugherty focuses on hearing your complaints, goals, and what you envision as your ideal endpoint. Dr. Daugherty will review the details, risks, and benefits of a tummy tuck procedure, and she’ll be honest about which treatment options can best address your concerns and particular situation.
Before leaving your consultation, Dr. Daugherty will ensure you feel informed and comfortable making decisions about your tummy tuck procedure. With high quality care, compassion, and dedication to each patient, Dr. Daugherty is your choice for exceptional tummy tuck results in Baton Rouge.
Why You Should Choose Dr. Daugherty as Your Tummy Tuck Provider
As an artist and a perfectionist, double board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Robyn Daugherty chose plastic surgery because of the precision it demands and the creativity it allows. Teaming extensive medical expertise with her artistic touch, Dr. Daugherty understands how plastic surgery can improve and enrich her patients’ lives with beautiful, natural-looking results that increase self-confidence and esteem.
As a busy wife and mother of 4 boys, including twins, Dr. Daugherty understands the bodily changes and insecurities that so many of her patients have faced. Dr. Daugherty’s goal is to help you restore your body confidence with naturally beautiful results. We want to make you look like you—only better.
What Can I Expect During a Baton Rouge Tummy Tuck Procedure?
Dr. Daugherty customizes tummy tuck procedures for optimal results for each patient. However, here are some general steps you can expect.
Reclaim a Slimmer, More Youthful Waistline!
You’ll love the long-lasting tummy tuck results you get from Dr. Robyn Daugherty, one of the best tummy tuck surgeons in Baton Rouge! Contact Daugherty Plastic Surgery at (225) 235-3884 or complete our online form to schedule your tummy tuck consultation today!
FAQ
Baton Rouge, LA Tummy Tuck
Your surgeon should be board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery – not a Cosmetic surgery board. The ABPS only certifies rigorously trained plastic and reconstructive surgeons at a limited number of approved programs across the country. There is an arduous process that each candidate must complete after training in such a program to obtain board certification by the ABPS. This is a right of passage that is necessary to deliver the best standards to our patients. It is also important to look at the before and after portfolio of your surgeon as well as patient experiences.
The cost of your tummy tuck will be determined by your individual needs. Following your consultation, Dr. Daugherty’s team will give you a breakdown of the costs.
Ideal candidates should be a healthy, goal and stable weight. Ideally, patients should have completed child bearing.
This is individualized patient to patient. Dr. Daugherty will perform truncal liposuction on all patients at the time of an abdominoplasty or tummy tuck. While all comers will see improvements, patients starting out in better shape with less truncal fat will have a better chance of muscular show after surgery.
On the day of surgery, the nurse will review key post operative instructions with you and your caretaker. You will have an IV placed for fluids and antibiotics and a foley catheter to decompress your bladder and make sure that your fluid status is good during surgery. Dr. Daugherty will mark you and answer any last minute questions, then you will head to the operating room where you will go to sleep for the procedure. You will wake up in the recovery room and once awake and alert for discharge be allowed to go home with your caretaker.
Typically, tummy tuck recovery time is 4-6 weeks. During this time, you will require assistance completing many normal tasks, especially if you have young children.
You can have liposuction at the time of the tummy tuck. Your surgeon may be limited on full body liposuction depending on how much fat you have to remove. There are safety limitations for overall time on the operating room table and total amount of lipoaspirate that can be safely performed in the outpatient setting.
You should avoid exercising for 6 weeks following your tummy tuck. However, you should begin walking as soon as possible.
In order to protect your muscle repair, you should avoid lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk for the first 6 weeks post-operatively. The baby can crawl into your lap, but you should not pick them up.
Yes – you are physically capable to become pregnant and to carry a normal, healthy pregnancy. However, the weight gain, stretch on your abdominal muscles and stretch on your skin can ruin your results after the baby is born. Ideally, patients have finished childbearing prior to undergoing tummy tucks.
Following a tummy tuck, patients should sleep on their backs with their upper bodies slightly elevated to avoid putting pressure on the abdomen. Patients should avoid stomach sleeping for at least 6 weeks following a tummy tuck.
3-4 hours depending on the amount of liposuction and the amount of skin to be removed. The more of either, the longer it will take.
Smooth and contoured abdomen, a natural looking belly button, a low scar
A tummy tuck is not a weight loss procedure. The ideal candidate is at their goal, stable weight and has excess skin after pregnancy or weight loss and potentially a diastasis rectus or separation of the ab muscles. This is absolutely not an “easy button” that you can press at your heaviest weight. If you are unhappy with your weight or at your highest weight, diligent diet and exercise or maybe even surgical weight loss should be undertaken as a first step. There will be removal and tightening of skin and liposuction performed, but these techniques can only do so much.
Most of the sutures placed for this operation are absorbable and do not need to be removed.
Yes – Dr. Daugherty will place two drains that are typically removed at the 7 day mark. The drain output needs to be less than a certain amount prior to removal for your safety.
Yes. Your own belly button stays attached to you. A new site will be created where the belly button is sewn into the stretched skin.
An incision is made into the stretched skin flap. The belly button is located under the skin, pulled up externally and sutured to the surrounding skin to recreate the umbilicus.
Not necessarily. In patients who have not had children or who don’t have a large diastasis or separation of the rectus muscles, muscle repair may not be necessary.
In the areas of liposuction and lower portion of the abdomen, swelling can occur for months after the procedure. It is typically mostly resolved by six months and fully resolved by one year post surgery. These areas can feel hard and have intermittent fullness or bloating. Heat and massage as well as time will help.
The most painful part is the muscle repair. You will be prescribed muscle relaxers and pain medication to help with this.
No, it’s actually good and necessary to get up and walk around after surgery. Your abdomen will feel less tight with time.
The most common complication is a small wound in the incision line or a spitting suture once everything has begun to heal.