Why Don't More Doctors Do Zerona Laser Surgery?

Hi Peanut Butter,
The procedure "sounds too good to be true. Many physicians are hesitant to put their reputations on the line for an unproven technology. Whatever effects that are seen over the 2 to 4 weeks that results are reported over is likely due to exercise, diet, and most importantly, Curva niacin supplement. More physicians do not use Zerona because they have researched the science behind it, and it is very misleading, flawed, and deceptive. They likely also have moral and ethical character that keeps them from taking money from unsuspecting patients on a treatment that they know is not effective. Good luck and be well.


Dr. P /reviews">Zerona.
Good luck and be well.
Dr. P

I think the reason that the  Zerona laser is not offered by many plastic surgeons and other physicians is that the science behind how it works as well as the companies claims are hard to believe. I say this as the former director of Research, Department of Plastic Surgery, at USC. Our private Plastic Surgery office in Huntington Beach, California has tried Zerona laser and has not had a positive experience and my advice to you is to save your money for liposuction which works on everyone.

 

Zerona is a generalized “whole body” slimming non-invasive low level laser treatment coupled with oral medications, daily minimal water intake requirements. It  uses photochemical rather than a thermal or ultrasonic mechanisms  to alter the fat cell by making the fat cell membrane more permeable - letting fat out that is absorbed by the body. The company aggressively markets to many medical specialties as a medical breakthrough that works dramatically on most patients. This was not our experience.

According to Zerona, after 6 treatments and 2 weeks, the majority of patients will realize between 3-9 inches of generalized slimming, rather than localized fat reduction in a specific spot. Although FDA approved at this time and favorable controlled studies have been done it is our office experience that this technique was not efficacious. We first tried it on 6 members of our office staff, including myself and one of our patients who is a professional blogger (you can look up her experience on "tweentyfouratheart. com. There were no significant changes despite following all directions faithfully.  We have stopped offering this treatment and have returned our machine.

Zerona does reduce fat a little bit but the improvements tend to disappear in a few months if patients don't keep exercising and dieting alot since it does not permanently get rid of fat cells.  Tumescent liposuction under local anesthesia with the micro canulas is still by far the best method of seriously getting rid of fat cells for good.  Sincerely,

David Hansen,MD

Zerona, and other non-invasive treatments, are getting more and more popular.  The Zerona laser is a non-invasive, non-painful treatment that makes fat cells "leaky" and facilitates fat loss.  We will see more doctors using Zerona and other low level lasers for this type of fat loss treatment.  Right now, it is a very new field but I believe it has a huge future.

Perhaps one reason why not as many doctors use this low energy laser technology is because the laser and it's technology was promoted even before it received FDA approval. In addition , it was promoted to nonphysicians- further fueling MD resentments and suspicions 3) finally it uses a new technology which many physicians find difficult to understand. Nonetheless we started to utilize the technology once it received FDA approval and have staff members who report significant improvement. My office manager who has almost 2 years of experience with it- who performed the measurements herself- says she never had a patient with less than a cumulative improvement of 3 inches.( many had 6 to 12 inches) However many were not pleased as they could not see the difference unlike with Zeltiq- cool sculpting in which you can look down at a discrete spot and see a difference. I believe - as does the government regulated FDA which studied these technologies extensively and said that Zerona has over 3 inches of cumulative loss- from multiple measurement sites- even without use of any supplements. I will therefore allow and encourage my patients and staff - who meet the appropriate criterion -to take advantage of both of these new technologies.