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Recent comments

• Posted to RE: Smart Lipo vs. Smart Lipo MPX on 30 Dec 2008

  Smartlipo, Coolipo, Slimlipo, Vaser lipo, Power assisted lipo and the many others are tools physicians use toward a goal. They are tools for the physican and not so much for the patient. To imply that any one tool is far superior to the others is indeed misleading. We're not yet at a point where these tools will be the sole determinant of the outcomes. Practitioner expertise and skill are still very important. In other words two physicians of equal skill will most likely give you similar results for liposuction no matter what tools they use. The one using Smartlipo will probably do the procedure faster and with less fatigue than the one doing traditional liposuction. Why should that matter to the patient? Is it because a brilliant MBA with savvy marketing skills tells the patient to? To answer your question directly, Smartlipo MPX is an improvement on Smartlipo technology. A Smartlipo physician will find the MPX more efficient than the original Smartlipo at laser lipolysis. Again this is a physician tool which should not affect outcomes, all things being equal. I'd probably not travel the long distance just for the technology.  

• Posted to RE: Fraxel Repair vs Erbium Yag Laser: downtime and results on 10 Dec 2008

  Some basics first: The Fraxel Re:pair is an ablative fractionated CO2 laser. A fair comparison would be to a fractionated ablative Er:Yag laser. My experience is with Sciton's ProFractional XC. The difference between the two technologies is that CO2 lasers always produce heat whereas Er:Yag lasers may or may not produce heat. In fact the ProFractional XC can be set to produce enough heat to emulate a CO2 laser on the one extreme or to produce no heat at all on the other extreme. To answer your question, though, the results and downtime will be similar. Your decision should be based on other factors. People of ethnic origin or mix other than Caucasian should probably not consider a CO2 laser. Fractionated ablative Erbium technology expands to darker skin patients the availability of ablative fractional skin resurfacing. Ablative skin resurfacing is clearly one area in the field of laser medicine and surgery where there is need for profound knowledge and probably experience on the practitioner's part to get desired results. The potential of lasting damage and significant injury is high. Incidentally the results can be most pleasing and dramatic indeed. That said, the medical community does not have a consensus to date as to which technology would be considered the gold standard. Review of the medical literature at the annual conference of ASLMS (American Society of Laser Medicine and Surgery) in April 2008 clearly indicated this. The current debate in the medical community is whether, in fact, heat is or is not benefial.  

• Posted to RE: Confused about liposuction after care on 30 Sep 2008

  The general consensus is that 6 weeks of compression garment wear is optimal. Periods as short as 2 weeks have been advocated for Smartlipo. I am of the opinion that this is only true for very small areas of fat with minimal suctioning after the Smartlipo laser. Deep tissue massage, Velashape, Acoustic Wave Therapy and all the other similar procedures are helpful adjuncts. You do not have to do them. If you do absolutely nothing but wear your compression garment you will be just fine. Remember that it takes up to 12 months to get to your final result. Allow yourself some time. The hardness of the treated area tends to be inflammatory tissue which will eventually soften. Your physician and you should closely follow your progress. It is not unknown to need revision of the procedure months down the road. All this available information on the internet is great and affords the medical community an educated consumer. However, there is no substitute yet for an evaluation by a physician and maybe a second a opinion.

• Posted to Just Had Fraxel and IPL on 19 Apr 2008

  Fraxel Repair is the latest in the Fraxel family of fractional resurfacing lasers. The other two are Fraxel Refine and Fraxel Restore. The Repair is an ablative CO2 laser which only came out in January 2008. The Active FX (CO2) and ProFractional (Erbium) are two other ablative lasers. There are a few others on the market. Depending on what settings are used you should be able to get excellent corrective results for wrinkles, sun damage spots and acne scars in a single treatment with the ablative fractional lasers. As pointed out here, there will be some down time. My reading of the testimonials here suggests people are comparing several different technologies. The results from ablative resurfacing should be quite dramatic. The buzz these days is about ablative fractional resurfacing (both CO2 and Erbium). Maybe some who have had this procedure could comment here. Any Fraxel done prior to January 2008 was most likely non ablative and yes that does require several treatments.