Umbilicus Surgery

There is a lot written about ‘mommy-makeovers’ and tummy-tucks. Like most articles, the prose has become a cliché and you can read the same message in multiple web-sites. These days everyone is an expert. Even front seat drivers are back seat drivers. And yet the results of the surgery continue to be surprisingly bad in many so called expert hands. What is even worse is that fixing a disaster is virtually impossible in many cases. In Plastic Surgery there are markers of bad surgery which show that the operating surgeon did not know the basics. It would be like a Formula 1 driver taking a corner too early and not changing down and braking before he goes into the turn. Basics.

When it comes to belly-buttons it is the same thing. Why would you create stitch marks when they don’t belong there and they are avoidable? Why make a circumferential scar which makes the belly-button look just like a button when you can make a heart-shaped one that breaks up the scar line and makes the umbilicus look natural.

Why make a belly-button horizontal because every standard textbook tells you to; when a tummy that is pre-partum (no kids) has a vertical one? Subtleties like this take years of experience to refine. So the next time you see your Plastic Surgeon ask about your humble belly button. What shape? What orientation?

And make sure that he is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and an Active Full (not International or Corresponding) Member of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Final caveat; they say that Americans will always do the right thing after they have tried everything else first. The good news is that a properly trained Board Certified Plastic Surgeon certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery has either tried everything else first or been shown how to do the right thing from the get-go, before he sets his critical and creative eye on your belly-button.