Mommy Makeovers with Dr Glen Lyle - Lyle Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics - Erica DeLong

Dr Glen Lyle with Lyle Plastic Surgery and Aesthetics answering the most common questions and concerns that come with a mommy makeover.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Do you want to five? Itis Erica DeLong with doctor Glenn Lyle.
I love doctor Lyle. I've beenpartnering with you for many years. But
you have your new practice going oneight months now. Lyle Plastic Surgery and
Aesthetic Center in Raleigh off for afull service boutique setting. But you're big
on mommy makeovers, So let's diveinto mommy makeovers because a lot of people
ask me. They're like, so, what do you think? And what
did you do? And this andthat. There's so many questions from women

(00:24):
about the mommy makeover. Yeah,and mommy makeover is a is a term
that's been used for a long time, but you know, it's basically addressing
all the issues that happen after beinga mom. But they can also be
you know, weight gain and youknow, I saw a patient today who
was coming in because she had hadthree kids, but she had also gained
a bunch of weight and had somegastric uh, you know, bypass or

(00:47):
bariatric surgery. So it's it's notits typically women. It's almost always a
breast procedure that could be a lift, reduction, augmentation uh, and then
a tummy procedure, and it's usuallya tummy tuck, could be a mini
tummy tuck. It's pretty rare tojust do like liposuction because usually with when
you have a child, the conditionleads to stretch marks, stretching of the

(01:11):
abdominal musculature called diastasis, some weightgains, some shifts that just don't seem
to get better. So it's generallythat combination, but it's not a one
time thing. People say, oh, how much is a mommy makeover?
Well, it really depends on exactlywhat you do, right, because you
can do thighlifts, armlifts, youcould do everything in combination together. Okay,

(01:32):
So who is typically whether you're amom or not, who's the best
candidate usually for mommy makeover? Well, I think you know pretty much,
any woman who's healthy, any womanwho has a desire, has has got
realistic expectations. A lot of timespeople say when's the best time, when's
the ideal time to do it?You know, is there a time frame,

(01:53):
you know, between the ages ofthis and that could be you know,
thirty to fifty is like an idealtime, but it really depends.
You know, you may have hadtwo kids by the time you're thirty and
you're in your thirties and you're takingcare of those kids, you're not necessarily
ready to do a mommy makeover.So the timing early is very depends on
that your circumstances. You may nothave enough money to do it early in

(02:15):
your in your in your family andyou're taking care of kids. And what
I find is people usually late thirties, early forties. But honestly, I've
done this and women up into theirseventies. So I call that like a
grandmammy makeover. But I like that, yeah, yeah, and it's still

(02:35):
a result of the pregnancy. Butthey're like, you know what, finally
it's my time, and they sayis it too late? Is it too
am I too old? It's like, you know, if you're healthy.
I have done this in actually evenwomen over seventy, but you know,
in their sixties and seventies. Onequestion people say is like, well,
how soon you know I'm done havingkids? I'm done? When should I

(02:57):
you know, when should I dothis? Well? You know, some
people say, well a minimum ofsix months. My I tend to say,
you know, how about a year? How about you you know,
spend that quality time with your hopefullyby then one year old and and then
consider it then from okay, sothey're asking like, how soon after kids
they can do this procedure? Yes, and technically I think the you know

(03:21):
what, most board certified plastic surgeonswill say, well, a minimum of
six months, and that's more forjust letting your tummy settle down and cover.
Mine's more about well, do youreally want to go into a big
surgery when you got a six monthold? You know? So I usually
tell people, you know, really, wait a year. That's kind of
my philosophy. Now you may havethe surgery and you're not planning to have

(03:43):
more children. What happens if youdo have another child post mommy makeover?
Okay, it's happened in my careermany times, that baby will come.
Your tummy tuck is not going toprevent you from having a baby. I've
had people have it in the normalspontaneous way. I've had people that have
had previous sea sections that have anotherC section. In general, I tell

(04:08):
people, you know, you shoulddo it when you're done. You know,
we all know how things happen.Sometimes, you know, things change.
I've had people that some situation changedten years later they're married to someone
else or or an oops, andyou know it may affect the results.
You know, your you know,pregnancy will continue, and it's not like

(04:30):
your mommy makeover was necessarily preventative tothe same problems. But I generally encourage
people to do it. You know, if they come in and say,
well, I plan on having anotherkid in a couple of years, well
you might as well wait, right, But if it's like, well maybe
ten years later, I might Yeah, you can still do it, and

(04:51):
does it damage the work that youhave done and that they would have to
come back for another mommy makeover?Typically almost never another mommy makeover technically,
but for tummies, it's it's rareto have to do another full tummy tuck.
That's usually with a lot of weightgain and then maybe weight loss with

(05:13):
looseness. So it could be akind of a touch up. It could
be some more liposuction, maybe revisingit, although I have in my career
done a total repeat, totally brandnew tummy talk on someone who's had one
before. And then for the breast, you know, depending on what you
had, you know, you mayget some more sagging, you may get
some more enlargement. You know alot of times, unfortunately we all know,

(05:38):
people gain weight, they gain thatbaby weight, they don't lose it
all. You know, some peoplecome back and after another pregnancy and their
breasts are even bigger and they wantthem reduced or lifted more. Now,
when you talk about weight gain,ideally you want to stay what is it
within ten to twenty pounds of surgery, you want to stay in that weight
for what happens if you get liposuckdo you not gain weight in that area

(06:01):
or it's still you can gain weightwhen you get LiPo you're still going to
gain weight. And you know whenyou do liposuction, you don't You're not
just it's not like those fat cellsgo away. I mean the fat cells
do go away, but you haveother fat cells. And when we get
heavier, our fat cells get bigger. It's not like we gain fat cells.
Now, some people say, well, if you get liposuction in one

(06:27):
area, it's just going to comeback in another. There's some thought about
that. I think a lot oftimes the areas have been liposuction kind of
get scarred down and if you gaina lot of weight somewhere else, those
areas have been liposuction are sort ofscarred down and tethered, and then the
other areas are enlarging, so itjust looks like it's gone there. So
it's not like those fat cells arelike, oh, we got to get

(06:49):
big over here in our back becausewe can't get big on the tummy or
somewhere else. And when somebody isa candidate, what percentage fat should they
have on their body? Like what'shealthy range for a women to come in
that wants to do the surgery.Well, I don't really use fat percent
and then there's ways of doing that. I use more like body mass index,
which is not a perfect index forit. You know, if you're

(07:14):
a muscular professional athlete, you're,for a you know, a professional linebacker,
your BMI is going to be likethirty five. But it's not your
body your fat person. But BMIis what we use. It does give
for a normal otherwise, you know, just a normal person. That's a
it's a good reflection. I useBMI thirty five or less, preferably thirty.

(07:35):
It really depends. I know alot of people are very strict.
Doctors will say like, you know, you've got to be thirty or less
roun, I'm not doing you well, you know I've and why is that
though? Just for safety reasons,Well, there's some component of safety,
although studies have shown that you cando it very safely in a little bit
over into that over thirty is actuallyconsidered obese. You know, it's hard

(07:58):
to go to someone who's BMI isthirty and they're like, I'm sorry,
you're obese. But sometimes doctors justwant to deal with just one type of
patient. It's like could cookie cutter, Like, I just want you to
have no problems and just be thistype. I do all sorts. I
do thinner patients. I don't dothe really morbidly obese or significantly obese.

(08:20):
But I find a lot of thesepatients, you know, they're having a
hard time losing the weight. They'venever been like, never been a BMI
of twenty five. Maybe they startout at twenty eight, had kids,
now they're over thirty two. Ido encourage weight loss, though I'm not
trying to say that. I justoh, yeah, this is the way
to lose weight. But maybe theycan start a program. It's like,
okay, let me start working onthat weight loss, get some assistance there,

(08:41):
then have a plan to come backand see you so that way they
have better results in the end.Absolutely, I see people all the time
like that, and I don't Somedocs will say, I'm sorry if you're
not at this BMI, I don'teven want to see I'm not going to
talk to you. I will seepatients in that little bit over the thirty
five range to help them get agoal and a target, and also to

(09:03):
look at their body and tell them, look, that's never going to get
better. I don't care how muchweight you lose, not that I'm going
to do it at that point.But some people have concerns that they think
weight loss will help, and itreally won't. I'm not saying it won't
help it look better, but it'snot going to make it go away.
If your belly, I'm sorry,if your belly is hanging over and you've

(09:24):
had a c section and you've gota scar and it's like it always looks
like a pooch or something. Idon't care how much weight you loss,
it's not going to If you don'tlike it now, you're not going to
like it with more weight loss.Now you should lose the weight, but
it's going to look better. Withsurgical removal. Now, when it comes
to preparing for the surgery, youknow you hear where you're okay, you

(09:46):
can't smoke, or you can't dothis, or you can't take these vitamins
weeks leading up to the procedure orthe we go V or a zimpic which
is really popular. You have tostop that what three weeks before surgery?
Yeah? Why do they do that? Is it because of the antiestes?
Yeah, okay, so we'll answerall those. But will go V and
ozempic and all these weight loss drugs, they will slow your gastric emptying.

(10:09):
That's kind of how you stay full. But if you and it lasts a
long time. When you put someoneto sleep, you want them to have
an empty stomach. And what peoplehave found is that when you go to
sleep, even after you have beenfasting for a day, like just typically
not a day. We usually wantyou to fast from like midnight, that

(10:31):
they would be putting a tube downand these people were asperating stomach contents.
When you go to sleep for surgery, you want to have nothing in your
stomach. And you know, Idon't care if it's water or well,
water's a little different and so they, you know, antthesiologists had picked this
up and said, oh wait,you need to be off of it.
And even when you're off of it, we still want you to just be

(10:54):
on liquid diet for a few daysbecause it's kind of letting that food sit
in your stomach. And that's partof what it does. There's other things.
The other things like smoking. Smokingis going to be bad for the
healing of your skin. It's badfor your heart, it's bad for your
lungs. People don't think of itas being bad for your skin. It
reduces the circulation. So even smokers, former smokers are always at a higher

(11:16):
risk of losing skin, especially fora tummy tuck or a breast lift or
a face lift. When you hadand they say, well, you know,
I had a gallbladder and I didn'thave any problem. Well, gallbladder.
They make a little tiny hole andlook in there with a camera and
take your you know, your gallbladderout. You know, when I do
this surgery, we lift the skinup, separate it from its blood supply,

(11:37):
you know, stress it out.And if you have smoke, well,
if you have been a smoker,those blood vessels have been permanently changed,
and if you're actively smoking, it'llshut them down and you will have
problems healing. So we want peopleto be off of smoking a minimum of
six weeks. If you're having somethingbig like a tummy tuck or a breast

(11:58):
reduction or or facelift, three monthsand even then I have to be more
conservative because that effective cigarettes. Andhopefully this is a public service announcement.
Cigarettes are not good for you.You really need to be off of cigarettes.
And I hope that people stop smokingand they never pick it up again,

(12:18):
right, and then hey, I'vedone something else for them. And
then when it comes to vitamins,why the need to be off of vitem
is it two weeks prior? Yeah, there's some vitamins like vitamin E and
some you know, things like gingerand you know that are not really vitamins,
but they can increase your bleeding.Okay, now it's not like life
threatening bleeding, but it's what Icall pesky bleeding. It's just annoying when

(12:41):
you're doing surgery and things are oozingall over. It's kind of annoying.
When you're a surgeon. You wantto keep it nice and dry and clean
and free of blood and there arecertain medications not all vitamins. We kind
of tell people stop your vitamins becausea lot of people have multi vitamins unless
like, well I take a multivitaminal, how much vitamin E does it
happen? And vitamin E is oneof the things that makes your platelets kind

(13:05):
of slippier, so to speak,and you end up loosing more, bruising
more. Again, it's not lifethreatening, but it just reduces your bruising
and maybe blood loss. And thenwhen it comes to the financial aspect,
I mean, of course, itis a big investment, which almost every
female I've ever spoken to or guys, when they make that investment, it

(13:26):
is well worth the spend for thembecause it was life changing. Do you
have services like the care credit andthings like that to help people? Yeah,
we have care Credit. We havea few others, but care credit
has been our most you know,I I do as much as I A
lot of my patients use some sortof credit. I'm hopeful that most people

(13:48):
that do this, they've saved themoney, right, you know. I
think sometimes when you have surgery andyou put it on credit so to speak,
it's like you have the surgery andthen for two years, you're paying
for it. There's something about that. It's just you know, no one
has a lot of people don't havethe luxury of having that kind of money
sitting around, so I you know, and usually the credits are not gonna.

(14:11):
We're not gonna. It's not goingto cover the whole thing. So
it's like a part of it.So even if you say, hey,
that that surgery costs I don't know, fifteen thousand dollars, you're not gonna
it's not going to be all oncredit. At least the care credit or
the ones that I know, theyrarely will you know, fund that whole
thing and surgery with you because I'malso a patient of yours. You pay
one thousand dollars in a deposit tohold your spot, and then it's two

(14:35):
weeks prior to the surgery. Allthe funds are due. Yep, yep,
they're due, whether they're you know, a care credit. I mean
that's pretty much the way any plasticsurgeon works. I mean very few people
do like you know, uh,payment plans or at least I don't.
You know, it's elective surgery andit's you know, it's it's something where

(14:58):
you know, we just collected andwanted at the time of surgery. And
I guess it's something too if you'vewanted it, Like I wanted to have
surgery for years, and so likeI had an account set aside that I
would funnel money and that I didn'treally have easy access to. So that
was like my mommy makeover fund,you know, and that way. I
have young kids and busy life anda lot of expenses, but nothing touched
that. So that way, whenit was time for surgery, it's like,

(15:20):
here you go, here's my mommymakeover money. Yeah, and that
was a good option for us becausecredit card aprs now are crazy and so
you end up paying double when youput it on the car. I really,
you know, I'm hopeful that mostpeople do that. And you know,
it's interesting after COVID, a lotof people were affected, you know,
obviously financially, but a lot ofpeople worked from home. They didn't

(15:43):
really lose a lot of money,but they weren't traveling and they weren't spending
a lot on all this outdoor activity, so they saved money. So there
was a little bump in elective cosmeticsurgery, which was not really predicted right
away, So I think that's sortof gone away a little bit. Economy
changed. Economy is doing pretty wellnow, but there was a period of

(16:03):
time when there's a lot of concernpeople were holding on to their money.
So you know, our industry doesfluctuate a bit. Mine doesn't that much
because I've been in practice a longtime, but you know, some people
really see downturns with the economy.And then after the surgery, so you're
there. Most patients typically go homethe same day after a mommy makeover.

(16:25):
What is the care like afterwards,because I know you've got to have a
loved one to drive you home andkind of help you if you have young
kids or things like that. Yeah, I tell people you're looking at about
for typical mommy makeover a two weekperiod where you're really home bound. You're
not laying in bed all day.You're up and around, but you're not
doing housework, you're not driving,you're not you know, if you have
kids, you know, younger kids, you're not dressing them and stuff like

(16:48):
that. You're and hopefully you havea good support of husband, partner,
family. It's great when you havefriends or family that you know can do
it. Because they're going to beyour nurses for a while. If you
have drain tubes, they have tohelp you with that. Sometimes dressing changes,
but usually it's it's not a lotof care. We try to minimize

(17:08):
the amount that you actually have todo to take care of yourself. So
typically the first week is the worst. In the first week is when you
really need a lot of help.The second week. I usually see you
in a week and if you havea drain, take it out. If
we you know, kind of getyou more comfortable. Most people have turned
the corner if they're taking payments,and they're usually not taking paymdicine by then.

(17:30):
I usually rarely give them more thana week and they can start doing
some things that second week. I'vehad some people who are like, hey,
man, I feel pretty good.Can I drive? Some people who
I know that I wasn't carpool aftera week, and I was like,
I probably should have done that,but I totally listen to carful. Yeah,
but you use numbing cream or isit you use a medication within the

(17:52):
surgery too. Yeah, it's thethings called experl It's actually a long lasting
numbing medicine. It lasts a coupleof days and it just helps you kind
of get out of there. You'restill in pain, obviously, but it's,
uh, it just kind of easesit so you're not waking up like
like, oh my gosh, that'sthe worst. It's the worst pain in
the world. It's very manageable,right. And actually some do I,

(18:15):
you know, encourage people to usenon narcotics for a big, huge mommy
mommy makeover. I still think peopleneed something stronger. But if you can
take we don't like you to takemotrin ahead of time, but you can
take motrin after, you can takeregular tile and all. And there's some
other non narcotic things that are thatare helpful as well. And then how

(18:37):
far past surgery you're doing your oneweek check up, hopefully the tubes are
removed them. But then how farand how frequent do people come to see
you? Well, I like tosee people. My typical intervals are one
week and then three weeks later,which is sort of the four week mark,
and then you know, two monthslater, which is a three month
mark. But I see people anytimeif they need to. You know,

(18:59):
we try to in our office.We want you to be able to eat.
You're concerned about something. We haveI have a physician assistant, I
have great nurses to come in.Even if I'm in the operating room and
you're like, hey, I'm worriedabout something, it's like, come on
in. They communicate with me.I'm at the office every day. We
always work it out so you're neverleft, you know, like, oh

(19:22):
my gosh, what's going on?Even on the I'm the guy answering the
call. If you're calling me onthe weekend, you know, as long
as I'm in town and I havecoverage. If I'm not, you know,
I'll come see you. We've heardall things with doctor Glen Lyole,
Mommy makeovers, how you can bea candidate, the process. Do people
partner with other procedures that are noncosmetic, Yes, well they're I guess

(19:45):
they're non surgical, non surgical,yes, yep. So yeah. As
a matter of fact, one ofthe devices we have is called thermiva or
Thermiva. It's a radio frequency devicethat's actually good for They call it feminine
wellness, but it's basically like vaginaltightening and helps with you know, some
of the effects of sort of sexualwellness, and a lot of times you

(20:10):
know, you had three kids,and you know, things aren't things are
have had an effect everywhere and soand this isn't something I was necessarily was
on my radar. But the deviceI have is very effective at improving that
part of your of your feminine health. And so we've had a lot of
patients who will come after and say, well, my body looks better.

(20:33):
Next I got to deal with someof the internal and and it also helps
some of the external appearance. Anduh so that technology has really been something
that a lot of women, youknow, see and this is part of
my practice. I have other things. I have other devices that are good
for skin tightening, you know.So you know, the the mommy makeover

(20:56):
is sort of like the remodeling.You know, your remodel and you're putting
you know, you're you're remodeling thehouse, whereas the some of the setic
things are more like a new codeof paint or something on our house,
that kind of thing. Do youever tell anybody no because they've become addictive.
They're like, okay, I fixedthis, now I need to fix
this. Do you ever say tosomebody like, hey, maybe back off
a little bit because they're trying tofix everything. Yeah, I think it's

(21:19):
really about managing expectations. And thereare some people that just, you know,
I feel like there's got to bean answer. There's got to be
some device or something that's going tofix everything. And I think those patients
you really have to kind of talkto and say, you know, maybe
there's some lifestyle changes you need tomake, and you know, maybe you

(21:40):
know, maybe you should look atsome other health things that are going to
make your skin look better. It'snot always a quick fix with a device,
right, you know. We getthose, not too many, you
know. I think probably if you'rein Beverly Hills or Manhattan, you might
see a lot more of that.We get a little of that in this
area, but not as much ifyou've been thinking about a mommy makeover or

(22:04):
any procedure. Doctor Glen Lyle withLyle Plastic Surgery and Aesthetic Center, decades
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