One of the telltale signs of a poorly executed tummy tuck is a dog ear. When a tummy tuck is performed, we have to determine how much excess skin needs to be removed. This depends on your physical examination. For example, in this picture you can see that this patient has excess skin that goes all the way to the flanks. Depending on the location of the excess skin, this is how long your tummy tuck scar will be. If the surgeon tries to minimize the length of the scar when the patient has excess skin on the sides and does not cut enough on the sides, the skin is going to bunch, creating what is called a dog ear. This is a puckering on the ends of the incision of the tummy tuck. Notice in this picture that the patient has had a tummy tuck done previously and she has bilateral dog-ears due to excess skin on the sides.
You need to understand that trying to minimize the length of the scar from a tummy tuck can create this problem. Many times, patients want to have a great result with a very short scar, but in reality, your body and only your body will determine the length of the scar. The surgeon cannot just do a 1 cm incision and remove all the excess skin to give you satisfactory results. If you limit the amount of skin that the surgeon can remove because you’re concerned about the length of the scar, it is better for you not to have the tummy tuck, because you are not going to be happy with puckering at the ends of the tummy tuck scar.
You have to be realistic about how a tummy tuck can fix your excessive skin; depending on how much you have and the location of the skin, trying to cut corners to minimize scar length is a bad idea. Ultimately, the excess skin can only be removed by excising it. If you do not follow this recommendation, you will have dog-ears and you are not going to be a satisfied customer.