00:00The tube of skin that comes out from this procedure,
00:05that is where that piercing has lived for all those years.
00:12I'm Jacqueline and I'm getting my belly button piercing hole removed today.
00:16I got my belly button pierced when I was 16 years old.
00:19It was the early 2000s and basically everyone had their belly button pierced.
00:25One night I went to the emergency room with my mom
00:27because I had like a growth inside my belly button hole
00:32and ended up being a really bad infection.
00:34So I took it out then and I haven't worn it since and that was 12 years ago.
00:38I am not afraid of needles.
00:40I have actually been battling breast cancer since December of this year.
00:45I have no family history and I do not have the genetic mutation.
00:49So immediately I had a double mastectomy and followed by a few other things
00:56and I just finished chemo about a month ago.
00:59A belly button piercing removal? No big deal.
01:02Beauty means confidence really.
01:05Feeling good about yourself and being happy with yourself.
01:09Hi, I'm Dr. Jubin Gabay.
01:10I'm a board certified plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills.
01:13Belly button piercing removal is something that I've been doing for a while
01:17and as people realize that it is something you can do something about,
01:22I get calls all the time.
01:25Tell me what bugs you about this.
01:28Let's talk about how we can fix it for you.
01:30Well, first of all, the way that it looks, you know,
01:34it's just like an ugly hole in the middle of my stomach.
01:37And second of all, it kind of fills up every once in a while with some stuff
01:42and I have to squeeze it out and it's really gross and I just don't want to worry about it
01:47anymore.
01:48Looking at this right now, you can actually see that the darkness of the top here is part of the
01:54shadow,
01:55so I can just get rid of this and by itself it's going to make it look better.
01:59Great.
01:59Any questions about any of this?
02:01No.
02:02All right.
02:02Excited.
02:03Good.
02:03Well, let's do it.
02:04I am most anxious about seeing any kind of blood, but if the end result is what I came here
02:11for, then it's okay.
02:13I am going to lay down some cleansing agents, clean the skin, make sure all the bacteria is killed.
02:21I mark out the piercing above and below so that I know where to cut.
02:28Then I put in some local anesthetic to make sure she doesn't feel a single thing.
02:41And also this anesthetic has epinephrine in it, which squeezes down the blood vessels and prevents bleeding,
02:47a very important thing.
03:02Once I'm ready to start, I begin by making a tiny little incision around the top of the piercing
03:11hole and the bottom of the piercing hole.
03:17From there, I sort of work my way down and up and free up that tube of skin that connects
03:25the top and bottom of the piercing hole.
03:31Once the tube is freed up completely, I'm able to easily pull it out, snip it away, and it's gone.
03:45Then I will do my closure in multiple layers.
03:50First, I put a dissolvable suture deep in the deeper layer of the skin.
03:57And that really is helpful to help take tension off of the top layers of the skin.
04:03After I put in the deep stitches, I put in a couple of superficial removable stitches at the top layer
04:12of the skin.
04:13Those will stay in for just about a week.
04:15I will cut them out, and she is good to go.
04:21The whole thing takes less than half an hour from beginning to end.
04:26Wow!
04:27You see how, again, it's just, it's smoother now.
04:31So, you know, the stitches are there, but when that, you know, when that goes, it's just a straight shot
04:35down.
04:36It's going to be invisible.
04:37My initial reaction was that it was so easy.
04:39I didn't feel a thing, and it was really, really quick.
04:43When you get a belly button piercing, there is a top and a bottom.
04:47The top is sort of above the belly button.
04:50The bottom is, you know, inside of the belly button.
04:53That's where the piercing goes through.
04:55So, when I cut this out, I cut around the top, I cut around the bottom.
04:58There is literally a tube of skin that interconnects the top and bottom of that,
05:03and that is where that piercing has lived for all those years.
05:08It has been 10 days since my belly button piercing hole removal,
05:13and honestly, I could not be happier that I did it.
05:17It was so easy, the healing process.
05:19It was like no pain at all.
05:22It already looks great, so I'm really looking forward to seeing the results over time.
05:27No more stuff coming out of my belly button hole.
05:31Working with Jacqueline is very special for me.
05:33I've known her for a long time.
05:35She has a very, very powerful background story.
05:39So, really, it's funny.
05:40Every time I see her, it's really a special experience for me in the office,
05:46and doing this was, you know, even better.
05:48After the year that I've had, this procedure was nothing,
05:51and I'm really excited to see what it looks like in the future,
05:55and I'm so glad that I did it.
05:56Thank you for watching Refinery29.
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