Denver Smart Lipo doctors

Thank you for your question. I appreciate your approach to learning from a variety of sources to inform your decision to undergo body contouring surgery.

RealSelf.com is a great website precisely because it brings together specialists from different backgrounds and of differing opinions and viewpoints. You mentioned that you wanted SmartLipo "due to the advantages I have heard about." Well, certainly we are all looking to see what those advantages are, but things are never as simple as the marketing pitch may make them sound.

My view is that plain-old DumbLipo is likely what I'd use to treat these areas, even if I were given a SmartLipo machine for free and I was treating my own family members.

I am following the SmartLipo craze with interest, particularly having had three of my colleagues tell me the same thing, that "Well it may be slow and I have seen burns, but boy does it make the phone ring." These surgeons went on to say that often they will only perform part of the surgery with SmartLipo and that many times they will actually perform the bulk of the surgery with a traditional device.

Hope this helps,

Nick Slenkovich MD, FACS

Your question states that you want to have SmartLipo on your abs and flanks. Presumably you are intending to have fat removed from the subcutaneous tissues of the abdomen and flanks, for which SmartLipo is but one technique.

I agree with others that have made the point that the surgeon at the end of the liposuction cannula is far more important than the energy or tip at the tip of the cannula. When was the last time you asked your tailor or mechanic to use a specific brand or type of machine or tool?

SmartLipo is but a tool to achieve an end, and one that is debated within plastic surgery as to its merits. Some of us plastic surgeons remain open-minded, yet skeptical enough to want to see real data first. Particularly in the case of SmartLipo, where energy at the tip of the device is well-known to have significant potential for burns where non-energy based techniques do not have this risk.

Hope this helps.

Nick Slenkovich MD, FACS

Smart Lipo to the neck is safe and effective. We even use it on patients with little fullness in their necks, as the laser will assist in skin tightening. If anything it has expanded the range of candidates who are eligible for stand alone liposuction to the neck. Traditional (non laser assisted) liposuction to the neck is dependent on the patient having good skin elasticity, so that the skin can recoil back after the fat is removed. We now can perform this on appropriate older patients that were not candidates for the traditional procedure.