It's a
tiny body part, but for some, it can make a big difference during swimsuit
season, say plastic surgeons who've seen an uptick in requests for belly button
surgery.
New York
City plastic surgeon Dr. Matthew Schulman said he's had more requests this year
from women with "outies" who want an "innie" belly button.
Dr. David
H. Song, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and chief of
plastic surgery at University of Chicago Medicine, agreed. "There's a lot
of belly button surgery going on," he told CBS News.
"I
do a fair amount if them. A lot of patients are paying way more attention to
their belly buttons than ever before. People are getting more in shape and
starting to pay attention to themselves. And showing off the midriff is in
style," Song said.
The
procedure is called umbilicoplasty and it's most popular with women.
"As
a society we're becoming a lot more open to plastic surgery and a lot more aware
of how we look," Schulman said. "There's a lot of social media
influence. With the popularity of Instagram and Snapchat, our images are out
there in the internet world forever and for everyone to see. It makes people
more self-conscious and aware of their bodies."
He added,
"I think people are starting to realize that there's actually something we
can do for their belly button, that there's a solution."
The belly
button is your first scar, where the umbilical cord -- which connects a fetus
to a pregnant mother's womb -- detaches after birth and falls off, Song
explained.
Whether
you end up an innie or an outie is typically determined by genetics, though
some medical experts say post-birth care of a baby's umbilical area may make a
difference. For example, if it's cleaned in alcohol, the cord may dry up more
completely and be more likely to leave an outie.
But
sometimes people may become an outie later in life after getting pregnant or if
a lot of weight is gained.
Dr. Scot
Glasberg, a plastic surgeon in private practice in New York City and past
president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said an outie may be the
result of an umbilical hernia, meaning some tissue from inside the abdomen has
popped out and into the belly button.
"What
I often see is a patient comes in with an outie and it's actually a small
umbilical hernia," said Glasberg. "You go in and fix the hernia and
then you tack it down to the tissues underneath to try to make it an innie.
That's the most common scenario," he said.
Schulman
said he also sees a lot of patients who want to correct old belly button
piercings.
"Some
women have old belly button piercings that they don't wear anymore and don't
like the look of anymore, that they got back when Britney Spears wore one, and
everybody was walking around with a midriff shirt and a belly button piercing.
All those 17-year-old girls are now 32-year-old mothers. I'm doing a lot of
those," he said.
"Belly
button piercings look very strange later in life when you don't have a ring in
it and you've had a baby. The piercing is higher than the belly button. It can
end up an inch or two above the belly button," Schulman added.
Belly
button surgery requests are particularly common in conjunction with a tummy
tuck or a mini tummy tuck, plastic surgeons say.
"We
see the age range in the post child-bearing years, in women anywhere between
their late 20s and up to their 50s and 60s," Song said.
Song, who
performs at least a dozen belly button surgeries a year without tummy tucks and
about 20 to 30 with a tummy tuck, said it's important patients seek a board
certified plastic surgeon.
He said
to be sure the plastic surgeon is certified by the American Board of Plastic
Surgeons, which is recognized by American Board of Medical Specialties.
A lot of
people call themselves cosmetic surgeons, he warned, and may say they are
certified, but he told CBS News, "There are a lot of boards not recognized
by the American Board of Medical Specialties.
The cost
of surgery runs the gamut depending on where you live, said Glasberg. New York,
Beverly Hills, Dallas and Miami plastic surgeons tend to charge more. If a
hernia is involved, insurance will likely cover the procedure, but if it's
purely a cosmetic procedure, the price may range anywhere from $2,500 to
$5,000. With a full tummy tuck, it may run in the ballpark from $8,000 to
$12,000.
A
straightforward umbilicoplasty can take an hour or two, and usually involves a
local anesthetic. But a more involved abdominal surgery may take three or four
hours in an outpatient surgery setting and require general anesthetic. Recovery
time can range from a day or two to a couple of weeks.
Post-surgery,
Song said, "I don't like to let my patients soak in water, like a pool or
ocean, for at least three or four weeks because they do have an incision that
needs to heal."
He says
people thinking about belly button surgery for bikini season might want to plan
for spring so they are healed up and able to swim by the time summer arrives.
Mary
Brophy Marcus
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