Episode 24 - Tummy Tuck Doctor To the Stars Tells Us What We Need to Know with Brent Moelleken

Transcript

Announcer: This program is brought to you by PersonalLifeMedia.com.

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Teri Struck: Hi! I’m Teri Struck, host of Beauty Now. Today we’re going to have an esteemed doctor and plastic surgeon, Dr. Brent Moelleken. He’s going to tell us about tummy tuck, all types of tummy tucks and how you can find the right doctor for you.

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Dr. Brent Moelleken: If the doctor doesn’t do a good physical examination, if the doctor keeps calling you, “Hey, do you want to schedule your surgery? Do you want to schedule your surgery?” You might want to think twice about doing surgery with that doctor.

Teri Struck: So, if you have this scar from hip to hip, can you still wear a bathing suit?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: If you have a scar from hip to hip, you typically can wear a bathing suit and many women even wore a bikini. Now, probably not the little teeny weeny string bikinis. It’s a little bit larger bikini because it is a long incision.

Teri Struck: Well, it’s good to know you can still wear a bikini (++) you have that big of an incision. It is a trade off because you have the hanging skin and you’d rather have the scar, for sure.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Yes, absolutely. It’s a good trade off for the right patients. But every person over 50 gets a stress test before having any anesthetic. The stress test is basically a test that a cardiologist does to see if there’s a hidden damage to the heart.

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Teri Struck: Welcome, Dr. Moelleken.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Well, it’s great to be here.

Teri Struck: Thank you so much and this is your second time with us. We did another show with you but today, we saw your spread in People Magazine with your beautiful wife, Dana Devon. We want to talk about tummy tucks and what tummy tucks are for different people.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Sure.

Teri Struck: So, why don’t you first start off, tell us about the many tummy tucks.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Well, there’s a whole range of tummy tucks. They go from minimally invasive procedures that literally can be done under local anesthesia, all the way up to full tummy tucks where people go typically to an aftercare. So, why don’t I just go through them, all the way from the very, very easy to the very, very hard.

Teri Struck: That would be great for all different body types.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: For all different body types and all different problems. Now, probably the easiest one is if someone has had a C section and they have a little irregularity of the scar. You know, the GYN doctor is very concerned about getting the baby out quickly and doesn’t always have the time to do a plastic surgery closure on the wound.

Teri Struck: Exactly.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: So sometimes there’s an irregularity in the C section. The plastic surgeon can actually remove fat, completely excise that and then saw it up again. That would be sort of the very easiest tummy tuck that could be done almost scar revision on the tummy tuck.

Teri Struck: So, you wouldn’t touch the belly button with that.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: No, that would be such a simple procedure that you wouldn’t touch the belly button and actually, it wouldn’t even be necessary to go to sleep for a procedure like that. Most of those kind of procedures could be done under local anesthesia if the patient want it.

Teri Struck: So, that’s actually minimal skin then.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: That would be just a minimal skin excision.

Teri Struck: And that was what something similar that your wife did exactly.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: No, no. Actually, hers was a hybrid tummy tuck. I’ll get to that in a second.

Teri Struck: OK. Everybody looks at your wife and says how skinny and beautiful she is and they don’t really think that she needs the tummy tuck. But, I know my sister won’t mind me saying this, but that’s exactly what she needs because she had twins and she’s very thin herself.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Exactly. Getting to that, a lot of women who have had children, of course, when a child is in the womb, the actual space that he takes up is enormous. It’s not just the weight of the baby. It’s the placenta, it’s the fluid. So, it’s probably 15-18 pounds that are sitting in that abdomen behind what’s called the fascia. The fascia is really – a patient told me this the other day – the skin of the muscle. That’s a way to think of it. It’s the lining of the muscle but it’s kind of the skin of the muscle and that’s a layer nobody knows about. That’s the layer that gets stretched out in pregnancy, in child birth and it’s very unusual for that layer to go back completely to the way it was.

Teri Struck: Are you saying that you can actually tighten the muscle?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Well, you don’t really tighten the muscle. People talk about tightening the muscle but actually, it’s not. Your listeners are very sophisticated, so it’s really like the skin of the muscle. The fascia is the lining of the muscle. It’s not the muscle itself, but it’s the lining of the muscle. That’s what gets stretched out. That’s what we tighten typically during what we would consider tummy tucks.

Depending on where that area is loose. If it’s loose above the belly button and below the belly button, then we usually want to tighten all the way from the breast bone down to the pubic area. It’s sort of like an internal corset. If you think of it as an internal corset, like that’s being laced up, that’s what the plastic surgeon will do – he’ll tighten up that inner layer and the waist will get narrower and the bulges especially in the lower abdomen will get better.

Teri Struck: You can do this through the C section scar.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Well, now we can. There’s a technique called the hybrid abdominoplasty, the hybrid tummy tuck which we do basically through C section incision. We do a full tightening all the way from the breast bone all the way down to the pubic area through a C section incision. That is what the hybrid tummy tuck is and that’s what my wife had after her two children.

Teri Struck: What if you didn’t have a C section, then does this make a similar scar?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Yes. You make a very low incision, almost like a C section incision. You go through that incision and then you tighten all the way from the breast bone all the way down.

Teri Struck: So, when you’re going in – won’t you get us through a consultation?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: OK. The first thing that happens during a consultation – if a patient comes in, we go through their medical history. What are your medical problems? What medicines are you on? What surgeries have you had? These are some things for patients to look at. You want to make sure that the doctor’s asking you all those questions. You want to make sure that the doctor is not just interested in performing surgery on you. You want to make sure that the doctor is actually doing a physical examination and the history to make sure that you’re safe for the surgery.

Teri Struck: It’s really important that people are honest.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Absolutely. People need to be honest about the medicines they’re taking. They need to be honest about whether they smoke or they don’t smoke. You know, many problems, even tragedies can be averted if patients just are honest about what they do. Almost everything is manageable. You can work through almost everything.

Teri Struck: What about smokers? I heard that it’s really dangerous if you smoke and then you have surgery. Can you tell our listeners about that?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Yes. There are two issues with smokers. Of course, we would never operate on someone who’s actively smoking. That would just be very dangerous and it’s very high complication rate for those patients. Now, if the smokers stop smoking, and typically we’d have them stop smoking four weeks before the surgery and at least four weeks after the surgery. That patient still has a higher risk of having problems from their surgery even if they’re not smoking at the time they have their surgery.

Teri Struck: That’s because why?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Smoking causes damage to blood vessels and damage to the blood supply. When you make incisions and you do plastic surgery, you require a really, really good blood supply to heal the incisions and to make the scars nice and to make the scars small. People who have smoked, even if they were not smoking at the moment when they had the surgery, they’re at higher risk for complications.

Teri Struck: What advice do you give smokers to quit? How can do they do that? It’s so addictive.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Smoking is very addictive. People have all sorts of different ways of stopping smoking. In my experience, the best way is just cold turkey. I know that in my patient population, the patients were motivated enough to stop smoking four weeks before surgery. Then they have the surgery and they know they better not smoke. Otherwise, the next morning, they’re going to look down and there’s going to be complications sitting right in front of them.

Teri Struck: Like what? Take us through some complications. What have you seen?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Well, for example, a patient who smokes a cigarette after let’s say a facelift or a tummy tuck, they would then look down the next day at their incision and they would see a big black scab where the incision used to be. That’s from skin actually dying.

Teri Struck: That’s scary.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: It’s terrible. So, patients know, they know. “If I smoke a cigarette, the next morning, I’m going to look down, there’s going to be a huge piece of dead skin there.”

Teri Struck: So, again, it’s so important to be honest. If you’re smoking, quit, regardless if you’re going to have surgery or not.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Absolutely. It’s important to quick smoking but it’s important to be honest. There are some patients who aren’t able to quit smoking and that sort of patient should not have a plastic surgery.

Teri Struck: It’s really good advice. But there are doctors out there who will definitely do surgery on smokers and that’s really scary as well.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: You know, if you’re consulting with a plastic surgeon and you even smell desperation. If the doctor doesn’t do a good physical examination, if the doctor keeps calling you, “Hey, do you want to schedule your surgery? Do you want to schedule your surgery?” You might want to think twice about doing surgery with that doctor.

Teri Struck: Really good advice, really good advice. I had mentioned that Kanye West lost his Mom and we don’t exactly know the reasons why. But, I did find out that that doctor wasn’t board certified even though he’s been on Oprah, he’s been on several different shows. I distrust all of the time to make sure to get credentials on your doctor.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: There are a lot of things that you should do before you choose a plastic surgeon. One of them – basic, basic, basic things – is make sure that they’re board certified. Now, what does that mean because everyone has a board now.

Teri Struck: Right.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Everyone has a board. You can be the American Board of Fingernail Clipping. Then you can say, “I’m board certified by the American Board Fingernail Clipping.” So, if you want a plastic surgeon, you just Google it or Yahoo or whatever your search engine is - The American Board of Plastic Surgery. Then, you’ll see the website which is ABPlSurge.org. But you know, just Google it – The American Board of Plastic Surgery. Then, you can actually check your doctor. Is your surgeon certified? There’s a button on the website of The American Board of Plastic Surgery. You shouldn’t get a Botox injection. You shouldn’t get anything done before you make sure that your doctor is board certified. It’s a basic, basic step. You never can reduce risk to zero but you can certainly reduce the risk as low as possible by choosing people who are qualified to be doing this surgery.

Teri Struck: Doctors that are on this Board are governed by other doctors that are plastic surgeons. They do their research, they do the background, they do everything.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: You know, it’s not as a foolproof a certification as you might think. But it’s a great starting point. To make sure your doctor is board certified is step one. It’s not the last step you take. It’s the first step you take.

Teri Struck: Then, how can patients find out if there are other complaints against the doctor? Where do you go for that?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: You can go to the Medical Board website of your state. You can just Google the results saying, “The Medical Board of whatever state you’re staying, The Medical Board of California.” Then, that site will come up and then you can search your doctor. The Medical Board site doesn’t tell you everything. It doesn’t tell you if that doctor has had lawsuits unless they’re over a certain amount. So, the doctor could actually have had a number of lawsuits and it wouldn’t show up on the Medical Board website. But, it will show up if the doctor is on probation or if he’s had some really bad problems or has letters of reprimand or something in the file. That will show up on the Medical Board website. So, that’s a great second place to stop. You know, how was your doctor doing? Does he have all sorts of disciplinary actions against him? That would be not a good sign if you saw that.

Teri Struck: No, and again, we don’t know everything that happened. As you say, it can happen with anybody. But, it is so good to do a research and I stress that on every show.

We’re going to have to take a quick break to thank our sponsors. We’ll be right back with Dr. Brent Moelleken.

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Teri Struck: Hi! We’re back with Dr. Brent Moelleken. This is Beauty Now. Thank you for talking to us today. We’re talking tummy tucks. Welcome back, Dr. Moelleken.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Well, it’s great to be back.

Teri Struck: So, let’s get back to tummy tucks. Let’s talk about liposuction and tummy tucks together.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Right. Now, we don’t want to do too much liposuction at the same time as we do a tummy tuck because it can be dangerous for the patient. If we do liposuction, a lot of liposuction in the abdomen at the same time as we do a full tummy tuck, that can also be dangerous to the patient because we’re damaging the skin that we’re pulling down. Now, full tummy tuck means you’re actually taking out everything. You’re taking out a huge piece of skin and fat that would be between the pubic area and the belly button. So, it’s amazing how much skin and fat can come out. Then, you’ll literally pull the rest to the down, then the belly button comes up for air in its normal spot. That’s what a full tummy tuck is. It’s a big operation. It’s a big surgery.

Teri Struck: If you need the full tummy tuck, it is a pretty big scar. Could you explain the scar?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Yes. The scar in a full tummy tuck is literally from hip to hip because that’s how much skin and fat have to come out. Now, the full tummy tuck if for women. Often they’ve gained a lot of weight after they had their children or during pregnancy. They may have had 50-, 60-, 70-pound weight gains. Then, it’s very tough for the abdomen to bounce back after that much of a weight gain during pregnancy. If the skin is hanging or if there’s a lot of loose skin or if there’s a lot of fat in the abdomen, those women tend to be candidates for full tummy tucks than they do for the more minor tummy tucks.

Teri Struck: So, if you have the scar from hip to hip, can you still wear a bathing suit?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: If you have a scar from hip to hip, you typically can wear a bathing suit and many women even wore a bikini. Now, probably not the teeny, weeny string bikinis. It’s a little bit larger bikini because it is a long incision.

Teri Struck: Well, it’s good to know you can still wear a bikini you have that big of an incision. It is a trade off because you have the hanging skin and you’d rather have a scar, for sure.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Yes, absolutely. It’s a good trade off for the right patient.

Teri Struck: Tell us about the belly button, where does that go?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Well, the belly button is still the belly button. It still the patient’s same belly button in the full tummy tuck. But, the skin gets pulled down so the belly button kind of have to come up for air in the new spot.

Teri Struck: Do you have to cut it though? Do you cut it around?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: You cut around the belly button so that the patient’s belly button stays. You know, it’s still the patient’s belly button.

Teri Struck: But, tell us about that scar, the little belly button scar.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Now, typically, if the surgeon is clever about it, it should be a very, very appealing sort of good looking belly button. There’s a whole science that goes behind how to make a belly button. You wouldn’t think of it but there’s all sorts of anchoring that’s done and then liposuction around the area and removal of fat so it’s nicely contoured and it’s hooded on the top and then it’s sort of depress it three, six and nine o’clock. It should really look appealing, not too big, not too small. It should really look like an appealing belly button.

Teri Struck: Again, another reason to go to a really, really good surgeon because it could be very really unsightly if you chose a wrong doctor and they don’t know what they’re doing or haven’t done a lot of tummy tuck.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Yes, there’s a lot involved in the tummy tuck. Tummy tuck is a big surgery.

Teri Struck: A really big surgery.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: It’s a really big surgery.

Teri Struck: So, tell us about the recuperation.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: In all our patients who have the full tummy tuck or even the hybrid tummy tuck, which is the small incision but the full tightening, in all our patients, we insist that they go to an aftercare. Aftercare is a place where there are nurses and they check blood pressure and they make sure that the patient is safe. They can check their oxygen level and they can call the doctor if there’s a problem overnight. If a patient goes home after a tummy tuck, if they have a problem, how would you necessarily know?

Teri Struck: What consider the problems be?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Often, people who have tummy tucks are a little bit older who have a full tummy tuck. For someone who’s in their 50’s or their 60’s who has a full tummy tuck, well, they’re not 20 so their heart maybe weaker. They may have underlying medical problems. There are big fluid shifts that can happen. People can have literally a heart attack after any big surgery.

Teri Struck: So, do doctors get echocardiogram or anything beforehand or do you just tell them to please bring all the proof in. How do you know if patients that know if they have a heart problem?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Well, that’s a good question. Every single patient that enters my practice who’s over 50 years old and then also some people younger, if there are reasons in their medical history, but every person over 50 gets a stress test before having any anesthetic. A stress test is basically a test that a cardiologist does to see if there’s hidden damage to the heart. People say, “Well, why do I have to get a stress test? I had a cardiogram. My cardiogram was normal.” But, the cardiogram only tells you if you already have damage to your heart. It doesn’t tell you if the heart’s very, very weak and ready to have a problem. But it the person goes to a stress test and they stress their heart and there are no problems, then we feel much more comfortable giving them an anesthetic.

Teri Struck: A stress test is basically what? Is that a treadmill?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Yes, it’s kind of a treadmill test. One gets on the treadmill, they walk and they run until their heart rate and their blood pressure reach a certain level. Then, the cardiologist knows. You know, “I put the person to the paces. I put their heart to the paces and their heart did fine. So, I’m reasonably certain that their heart is in good shape.”

Teri Struck: Who do you go to for that? Your internist?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Every internist knows a cardiologist. Many internists do their own stress test or they refer them to a cardiologist to do the stress test.

Teri Struck: Do you have to be referred from another doctor to go to a cardiologist?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: It depends on the patient’s insurance plan. Many people who have HMO type of insurances need to be referred by their primary doctor. But most plastic surgeons have relationships built up with doctors who can do stress test and with doctors who can do physical examinations. You know, basically, every patient who has surgery needs to be cleared by a doctor and get their stress test if they’re over 50 years old.

Teri Struck: Good advice. Now, let me ask you about the cost. How can women afford this?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: You know, surgery is expensive and the cost of tummy tucks vary anywhere from $7,000 on up for a responsible surgeon doing the surgery.

Teri Struck: What’s the oldest patient that you’ve done?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: The oldest patient I think we’ve ever done a tummy tuck on might have been in her 70’s.

Teri Struck: How was her recovery?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Her recovery was very good. Of course, we’ve done a stress test and it’s funny. When you see a lot of people in their 70’s, there are some people who are very old in their 70’s. I mean, they may be 71 but they really look old. They’re not active, they’re heavy set. They’re kind of old already. Yet, we had patients who are in their 80’s who are very young. They exercise everyday. You know, one lady we did a minor surgery on recently was 88. We did a minor surgery on her and she did great.

Teri Struck: That’s hilarious.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: She was talking circles around me. We talked politics and she was talking circles around me.

Teri Struck: That would be my nanna. My nanna would talk circles around you. She’s hilarious.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: There you go. That kind of person is much younger. She walked everyday many miles and she was just very young for her age. So, every patient is a little bit different. Someone in their 60’s even might be too old to have a tummy tuck.

Teri Struck: Now, what’s your best advice for our listeners to stay young?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Two words – diet and exercise. If a patient can watch their diets, watch what they eat, we all know the bad foods, the fried foods, the fatty foods, excessive carbohydrates. You know, if they can watch their diet and if they can exercise.

Teri Struck: Now, what’s the worst thing in your refrigerator?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Worst thing in my refrigerator? Well, we have some low fat cheese and it’s always calling to me. I walk by the refrigerator and I hear it calling.

Teri Struck: That’s pretty bad.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: It is bad.

Teri Struck: No, those kind of cheese that’s actually probably pretty good compared to what’s probably is in my refrigerator. But it wouldn’t be from me, it would be my husband. So, I’m pretty sure of it. What other advice can you give somebody that wants a tummy tuck?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: The key things about undergoing a tummy tuck are: 1) make sure you chose your surgeon carefully. You should be very, very comfortable with the consultation. The surgeon should take his time. They should look at you carefully. They should do a good physical examination to check the areas of surgery. They should explain everything to you. What are the pros? What are the cons? They should be very frank. They should be very realistic about the expectations that are going to come out of this procedure.

Then, you want to make sure that you’re getting the right medical test. If you’re over 50 and the doctor is not ordering a stress test, you can say, “Gosh, don’t you think I need a stress test?” or something to that effect. But, if you don’t think that your doctor’s taking the right care of you pre-operatively, if you have any doubt at all, don’t do the surgery. You should feel very comfortable with your doctor. You should feel that you’re being taken cared of and that you’re in good hands.

Teri Struck: Do you think that it would be too much surgery to have a breast lift and a tummy tuck and everything in one day or do you think that’s normally OK?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: You know, I think the details of the recent case will come out. In general, all of our patients who get a tummy tuck do go to an aftercare. We will not do the surgery unless the patients are willing to go to an aftercare, period.

Teri Struck: That’s really good advice because you do want to be watched and you don’t want to just tab your friend watching you because they don’t know what to look for.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: You know, even if the patient doesn’t have a problem, it’s very disconcerting to be at home and to wonder, “Oh, my gosh! Is this normal? Is this not normal? What am I feeling? I forgot now, what medicine should I take? What should I not take?” It’s very disconcerting for a patient after a big surgery to be asking those questions and not to have a health professional around. So, if for no other reason than just the comfort level of the patient, it’s a good idea to go to an aftercare.

Teri Struck: How much do aftercare costs?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Aftercare cost can range anywhere from $500 up to around $1,000 a night. So, it’s not cheap.

Teri Struck: But it’s good insurance if you’re not putting any much on you body to just throw that in.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: No. Typically, people do this once in their lifetime and the decision is proof is in the media. The decision is very, very important. It’s much more important than what car you buy. It’s probably as important as what house you buy.

Teri Struck: Definitely, it’s your life. It’s putting your life...

Dr. Brent Moelleken: It’s your life.
 
Teri Struck: …your life in a surgeon’s hands.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Right. I think of a patient who was coming to me from Texas to consider having surgery. This patient – believe it or not – was a nurse. It was a nurse. We told her, “Here’s the cost of the surgery. We need to have you go and get a stress test for your heart because you’re over 50 years old.” She said, “You know, I’m not getting that stress test. I’m fine. I’m not getting that stress test.” Ultimately, she did not have surgery with me because she found a doctor who is willing to do her surgery without a stress test, and this was a nurse.

Teri Struck: That’s really scary.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: That is scary.

Teri Struck: When your doctor is telling you to do something, you should really do it especially for your own protection.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: It’s unbelievable.

Teri Struck: It’s for your own protection.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: But I guess nurses sometimes and doctors make the worst patients because they think they’re above the law.

Teri Struck: You know what? Glad you said that, that I’m married to a doctor. I know that!

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Right.

Teri Struck: But you guys really have to take your own advice, that’s for sure.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Absolutely.

Teri Struck: But again, I want to stress that that’s worth the extra money, the aftercare and doing all the extra test. You can go into your surgery and feel really good about it and you won’t really be worried.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Yes. There are problems can always occur with any surgery but we want to minimize them, let’s be as safe as possible. If there’s one lesson comes from this terrible event and that’s been in the media, let that be the lesson that let’s be careful with our patients. Let’s be careful in choosing a doctor. It’s a very important decision and it’s something that you probably do once in your life.

Teri Struck: You don’t skimp on that.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: You cannot skimp on (++)

Teri Struck: (++) that you don’t skimp on that. So, in closing, we only have a couple more minutes. What else do you want to say about it? I want to know about a body lift tummy tuck. Is that something that goes all the way around and does that not considered a tummy tuck, so to speak? Or, is that a tummy tuck who’s got in the front and a cut in the back?

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Well, there’s a whole gradation of surgeries that happen even starting at the big tummy tuck and then going up for patients especially who’ve lost a ton of weight. Now, if someone loses 150 pounds after gastric bypass, the skin is hanging everywhere and the surgery is customized to that patient’s needs. So, sometimes we’ll do a tummy tuck but then the flank area – the area to the side of the tummy – is sagging. We actually have to extend that incision and take off that extra skin all the way around to the back. That would be sort of an extended tummy tuck. A tummy tuck with a flankplasty, there are different names for them. Sometimes, if the whole side is sagging down after massive weight loss, then the body lift procedures can come in. That’s where you literally take off a huge piece of skin and fat and then move everything up in the process. Those procedures are becoming really popular now because there are always patients who have gastric bypass. You know, my hat’s off to many of the celebrities who’ve been very open about their gastric bypass surgery because now, many more people are realizing, you know, “I don’t have to live being way, way overweight. I don’t have to live with that anymore.” There are surgical procedures that can be done to help it.

Teri Struck: I know. I want to do a show on that one as well because there’s so much to understand about lap band or gastric bypass. Then, after everybody has lost so much weight, you can get a body lift, but that’s completely different. Do you have to (++).

Dr. Brent Moelleken: At least an aftercare. Then sometimes you have to hospitalize patients for the really, really big procedures.

Teri Struck: That’s because they’re cutting off so much skin, it’s more dangerous.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Yes. A complication rate, of course, go up as the magnitude of the surgery goes up. So, for big body lift or huge or massive weight loss patients, the complications rates get a lot higher than it would for a standard tummy tuck.

Teri Struck: I’m so sad, we’re running out of time. I’m going to have to have you back and talk more about body lift. We’ll have to have you part three for that.

Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it and I appreciate everything.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: My pleasure.

Teri Struck: We’ll have you back again.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: All right.

Teri Struck: Thanks a lot.

Dr. Brent Moelleken: Bye bye.

Teri Struck: Bye bye.

This is Teri Struck with Beauty Now. We’re saying goodbye to Dr. Brent Moelleken. If you want transcripts of today’s show, please go to PersonalLifeMedia.com. We could also link you to his website so that you can get a consultation.

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