When you meet the surgeon, you will discuss your goals for your appearance and have a chance to review before and after photos of previous patients.  Your surgeon may offer you some suggestions based on your body type and describe some possible outcomes of the surgery.  During this time you can both come to a plan of action for the abdominoplasty and you can learn details of how the procedure will be carried out.

You can at this point ask the surgeon for references if you haven’t made up your mind for sure.  References will be past patients who can testify to the surgeon’s skill and the satisfaction they received from the results.  You can then make an appointment for the surgery.  The surgeon will provide you with additional instructions at this point.  Be sure to follow these instructions so that you have the safest and most effective possible abdominoplasty operation.  You will also be given post operative care instructions.  Recovery from abdominoplasty is an involved process which will involve several nights of hospital care before you get to go home, after which point recovery will continue to involve a compression garment for about a month.

If you have any questions or concerns, your consultation is the time and place to ask your surgeon about whatever is on your mind.  If there are options for anesthesia you will be able to declare your preference at this point in the process.  A consultation is an important step in abdominoplasty because it allows you to become more informed, meet your surgeon, and make key decisions about the process.