Expert or lease holder ?

People practicing proprietary techniques such as Smart Lipo are lease holders.  They have leased or bought a machine from a company.  There are extravagant claims about the effectiveness about this technique (skin tightening, less recovery, greater fat removal).  

I have reviewed the data of skin tightening with representatives of the company, and remain thoroughly unconvinced of unpublished "studies" performed by doctors with a financial relationship with the company.  

I challenge doctors who are touting a procedure on this forum to indicate their financial interest in the company they are touting.  That is the requirement of the ASPS and ASAPS before presenting material.  That way patients will know they are hearing an opinion from a doctor who has a financial interest in the company, and make their decisions accordingly.  Many of the physicians doing research for laser companies have received honorariums for speaking, subsidized rates on the machines they use, and have received patient referrals from the company. 

Objective studies or hype?  You decide.

dear dscheffter,

Any doctor can be good at any procedure if they do enough of them.  Tumescent liposculpture with microcanulas is the golden standard now days.  Smart lipo can do fine  but can also cause some unwanted puckering of the skin or permanent nerve or skin damage.  The amount of skin contraction from the microcanulas verses laser liposuction would be a good study to see if there is one which is better than the other.   I suspect not.   Traditional liposuction with the medium to larger canulas  and under general anesthesia is no longer done by those of us who have extensive experience.  It had its day back 20 years ago. 

Expect to pay more for the tumescent technique liposculpture with the microcanulas since it is more time consuming and technique dependent.   It definitely is worth the extra money though for better results. Not only is it safer but recovery is quicker and less painful.  Expect to pay about $5000 -7000 for abdomen and hips as an example.

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Many new trends exist for liposuction. Ultimately, you can get wonderful results with any technique, but be careful, because you can also get less than satisfactory results with any technique. Firstly, I would submit to you to try and seek liposuction with a Board Certified plastic surgeon, certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery.  A good place to start is at surgery.org, the website for The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.  Ask your surgeon if they feel they perform their liposuction with smart lipo/laser assistance only or do they also employ some form of 'true' liposuction along with it to aspirate the fat.  Some surgeons will first perform some form of traditional liposuction first and then introduce the smart lipo probe under the skin to try and heat up the skin to try and get better skin contraction.  The jury is still out....but being investigated.

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Thankfully, there are many options available for liposuction. Although tumescent liposuction is tried and true, some patients may require additional procedures with laser energy or ultrasound energy to emulsify and destroy fat cells during the procedure. I employ all three methods in my practice based on individual characteristics. All three procedures can acheive outstanding results.

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