If you have cosmetic plastic surgery, it’s important to remember that incision line scars take some time to fully settle. Even so, patients want to know how to best manage their scars after surgery to reduce the visibility of the surgery scar. Especially where scars are longer – and where scar healing should be carefully managed – like a Tummy Tuck Scar after Abdominoplasty surgery.
Tummy Tuck Surgery Guide
Read more about Tummy Tuck Surgery
Reducing your Abdominoplasty Scar after Tummy Tuck Surgery
To help reduce your scar after Tummy Tuck Surgery, your Surgeon takes special care to place the incision lines below the belt-line or pant-line (there are, however, some limitations). Strategic incision line placement helps your Tummy Tuck scar appear less visible in swimsuits, underwear or lingerie.
- It’s super-important that you care for your scar properly, however, especially for several months following surgery.
- Rest adequately – Don’t try to do too much too soon.
- Be sure you alert your Surgeon if you have any incision line related concerns, such as a potential infection or disturbance to your sutures.
- If you develop an infection – or if you disturb your sutures by lifting a child or exercising long before you should – this can compromise scar healing.
- Take advantage of the Abdominoplasty scar treatments your Coco Ruby Surgeon provides.
For ALL surgeries, including Tummy Tuck and Breast Augmentation surgery, you WILL have a scar.
What else impacts an Abdominoplasty scar after Tummy Tuck surgery (or all surgery scars, for that matter)?
- Your skin’s innate healing capacity.
- Incision line healing can vary significantly from patient to patient.
- Your overall skin health, laxity and skin age can impact your healing and your surgery scar formation.
- Your genetics and skin type.
- Where you are on the Fitzpatrick scale impacts your tendency towards pigmentation and can impact scar formation (scar colour and potentially how raised the scar becomes).
- A tendency towards keloid scarring.
- What you’re eating or drinking will impact your healing and hence, your scar.
- Eat nutritiously and get plenty of fluid after surgery.
- Be sure you’re eating enough of the right things to facilitate healing.
- Pre-biotics and Pro-biotics might be helpful.
- Check what your Rapid Recovery package includes and be sure you follow your Surgeon’s instructions.
- The activities you perform after surgery – such as lifting, exercise, child care or household chores.
What you do – as well as how well you follow your Plastic Surgeon’s instructions after your operation – are all likely to have an impact on your scar, particularly whether or not you get the best possible scar treatment results.
Know what to expect, and do ALL you can to help reduce the visibility of your scar Abdominoplasty after Tummy Tuck surgery.
At Coco Ruby Plastic Surgery, we give our patients extra care and scar management treatments as part of their plastic surgery package.
Top Tips to minimise your Tummy Tuck Scar
Our Plastic Surgeons can give you a lot of great tips to reduce the visibility of your Abdominoplasty scar after Tummy Tuck surgery and other procedures.
Ask your Plastic Surgeon for details, but in general, Tummy Tuck Surgery Scar Reduction TIPS include:
- Staying out of the sun (sun exposure on scar tissue will make your scar look worse because that tissue doesn’t have the same protections sun’s rays as normal tissue).
- Healite II treatments (included for our patients, which might be helpful to have before and after surgery).
- Researching the value of using silicone strips and trying that strategy (note: these are not included with surgery but are worth exploring – Read our blog Silicone Strips: Do they really help your scars heal better?
- Using the special skin oil(s) or skin products provided to you by your Surgeon in our Rapid Recovery pack.
Our Coco Ruby patients receive a Recovery pack to help after Surgery
Coco Ruby Plastic Surgery Packages include a selection of useful products and treatments that may help reduce your visible Abdominoplasty scar after Tummy Tuck surgery.
Coco Ruby patients benefit from several things in terms of cosmetic surgery scars: our Rapid Recovery pack and our skin clinic delivered special Scar Treatments.
- The Coco Ruby unique Rapid Recovery pack contains products hand-selected to assist your healing processes over the first few weeks after your operation.
- Some of the items in our Package are designed to aid inner healing, and some products are to aid the skin and scar formation itself.
So, in addition to NOT overdoing it after surgery, for an Abdominoplasty scar after a Tummy Tuck you’ll likely want to take advantage of our in-house scar minimisation treatments.
- These are typically included with your surgery package.
- They are one of the many advantages of scheduling surgery with our Team’s top Plastic Surgeons in Melbourne.
- Check with your Surgeon and review your Quote for details.
Scar Treatments after Tummy Tuck Surgery
Scar Minimisation Treatments at Coco Ruby Melbourne
There are many components to successful scar reduction to help minimise your scars after Tummy Tuck Surgery.
1. Silicon Tapes and Gels
Our dermal clinicians like Strataderm and Stratamed gels. Silicon Tape products like mepiform may also be helpful for scar minimisation.
2. Healite II Light Therapy to encourage skin healing and skin rejuvenation
Healite II uses low-level light therapy (called LLLT) which may help photomodulate cellular function improving healing times and reducing pain, and promoting the rejuvenation of the skin. It’s even been used by some doctors right after plastic surgery procedures and is known to assist in healing wounds.
This amazing low-level light therapy treatment also has other handy uses. It can help treat acne and is sometimes used for sports injury management or during physiotherapy to treat muscular pain.
3. Dermapen Skin Needling is useful for some Scar Treatments
You might receive Dermapen Collagen Induction Treatment (CIT) – also known as skin needling – to help your scar heal or to help the scar become less visible.
4. VLaser or Fraxel Laser Therapy may be helpful for some Abdominoplasty Scar Treatment.
Fraxel Laser Therapy is sometimes used as a scar minimisation treatment, either as a stand-alone treatment or combined with other treatments. If you are asked to undertake Fraxel laser treatments to minimise your scar after Tummy Tuck surgery, you are likely to need several treatments spread apart by several weeks.
