Is laser lipo or radio frequency assisted lipo better for tightening skin?

To put things in context I’ll begin by sharing a bit about my background. I’ve been a board-certified plastic surgeon for 22 years. The first 10 years of practice I did general plastic surgery including all various reconstructive and cosmetic procedures. This of course included Liposuction as well. About 12 years ago I began specializing more exclusively and doing more and more liposuction and fat transfer procedures. For the last 10 years my practice has been exclusively devoted to doing only liposuction and fat transfer procedures and I no longer do anything except liposuction and fat transfer.
There are plenty of plastic surgeons who have lots of experience doing liposuction but there are very few who specialize exclusively and doing only this procedure.
Along the journey I have learned quite a few things. like all great crafts truly mastering any particular craft is a lifetime pursuit and true perfection is never achieved but those who are great to drive towards it.
Delivering consistent quality liposuction results is far more difficult than most people including plastic surgeons believe. Most plastic surgeons think they are far better at Liposuction than they actually are.
The number of plastic surgeons who can accurately assess patients and consistently deliver flawless results without any contour irregularities whatsoever is fairly small.
The variation in outcomes of liposuction depending on who does the procedure is greater than any other plastic surgery operation I’ve seen. In other words the choice of provider is paramount and minimizing being left disfigured or getting a stunning by transformation.
In the end there are only two variables that determine what liposuction results will look like. The first is the patient’s individual candidacy for the procedure and the second is the skill and experience of the provider. The choice of equipment has very little to do with outcomes.
Choosing surgeons based on the equipment they use is equivalent to choosing a contractor based on the brand screwdriver they use or buying bread from a breaker based on what brand oven they have for choosing a mechanic based on what their building looks like.
I’ve tried all the various forms of secondary treatments for skin tightening including doing thousands of laser assisted liposuction procedures. Adding a secondary laser treatments at nothing to what Liposuction can deliver on its own. I don’t know any plastic surgeon who has sufficient experience who does not believe otherwise.
I’m afraid the same is true for the newer devices as well. The two most popular devices currently on the market our bodytite and Renuvion a.k.a. JPlasma. wanting to offer the highest quality of care I purchased Renuvion believing that it actually could add to my liposuction results. I used a device for about a year and literally saw no noticeable difference in skin tightening. I actually did objective measurements between skin incisions or skin markings before and after surgery and saw zero changes on none of my patients during an entire year. I have since sold in device and wish I didn’t buy it or believe the hype the sales people were spewing out.
The only procedure that will truly create skin tightening for individuals who have significant skin laxity is excision of extra skin with a procedure like a full tummy tuck. There is no other option for skin tightening. for facial procedures there are some alternatives that actually work because the face is unique in its ability to tolerate a blaative treatments such as laser resurfacing. skin on the body cannot tolerate those treatments without excessive risks so in the end Liposuction really hasn’t changed and the only variable that matters is who does the procedure.
That said the choice of providers is incredibly important and is the single variable that determines what the results will look like.
If you choose providers based on the equipment they use you are likely to miss the opportunity of finding the most experienced and talented provider.
To find the best provider I suggest having multiple in person consultations and avoiding virtual consultations.
During each consultation to ask each provider to show you their entire collection a before and after pictures for the areas you’re interested in having treated. Simply being shown a handful of pre-selected pictures which most likely represent the best result of the providers career is insufficient to get a clear understanding of an average results look like in the hands of each provider. an experience provider should have no difficulty showing you a minimum of 50 sets of before and after pictures. Highly experience surgeons will have hundreds or even thousands of before and after pictures for this common procedure.
Look carefully at all the pictures confirming there are no skin irregularities on any of the areas treated. You may want to ask the surgeon to go over the pictures with you. Ask the surgeon to point out treated areas versus untreated areas and look carefully at transition zones between the treated and on treated areas. These should look completely natural. Patients who had liposuction should have no evidence of having had a surgical procedure with the exception of well-placed well-heeled small incisions.
Liposuction results are permanent and more or less irreversible. When done poorly patients are left his figured and one done correctly it can lead to stunning body transformations. choosing a board-certified plastic surgeon with overall good reputation is insufficient to ensure they have sufficient skill and experience to deliver constant quality results.
There are no shortcuts when it comes to finding the right provider. Failure to do so puts patients at significant risk for disappointment, inappropriate assessments and badly performed procedures.
Choose the right plastic surgeon and everything false into place.Best,
Mats Hagstrom MD

Hi and welcome to our forum!
Both laser assisted liposuction and RF assisted liposuction demonstrate a degree of skin tightening. It is felt that RF assisted liposuction may offer a somewhat greater degree of tightening, but both procedures are quite effective.
Visit a board certified plastic surgeon with significant liposuction experience and trust his / her judgement, as the skill of the surgeon is more important than the type of instrument employed..
Best wishes...