Liposuction after CoolSculpting. Are there any risks that I should be aware of?

Thank you for your question. You can absolutely do some liposuction after having a cool sculpting treatment. Cool sculpting typically only gets rid of about 20-25% of the fat, where liposuction can get rid of a lot more. I would suggest speaking with a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon in person to evaluate you and discuss your options. Best of luck to you.

Hello @nb1994, thank you for your question. Cool sculpting is an innovative, non-invasive way to reduce fat with subtle results. Although it may not be the most effective choice for every situation, additional steps such as liposuction can be taken afterwards without any added risk. Best wishes. Alan Gonzalez MD, FACS. American Society of Plastic Surgery Member (ASPS), International Federation for Adipose Therapeutics and Science” Member (IFATS), Colombian Society of Plastic Surgery member (SCCP)

I personally would not be concerned about liposuction after doing coolsculpting but always safe to consult with your doctors.

Thanks for your questions dear. Sorry to hear your coolsculpting procedure did not give you the results you was looking for. Unfortunately, right now is there a lot of procedure not invasive that are just waist of money and time, definitely liposuction after this procedure will give you the results you are looking for, due to the fact conventional liposuction get rid of more fat that other procedure is the market. Good luck!

Dear nb1994,
it is hard to tell for sure without an examination. If you are considering surgery, I would suggest you consult a board-certified plastic surgeon. Only after a thorough examination, you will get more information and recommendations.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Liposuction can safely be done after Coolsculpting. There are no additional risks to treat an area of liposuction that has been treated with Coolsculpting prior to the liposuction.

Hi, thanks for your question, Coolsculpting is a cosmetic treatment to break down fat deposits and eliminate them naturally through the lymphatic system. It will not affect your Liposuction. Consult a board-certified plastic surgeon in your area to see your options after an in-person exam. Good luck!

Liposuction actually removes fat cells where as Cool Sculpting removes nothing. You will have some scarring from the treatment, but liposuction should still work well for you. during your consultation, the benefits and risks will be discussed.

Since Cool sculpting doesn’t really do anything it has a little impact and should not affect your ability to have a liposuction.
Call sculpting is minimally effective and is seen as a big waste of money by the great majority of patients who choose that option.
In those few instances where cool sculpting actually works it tends to leave what looks like cell phone imprints from the suction cup devices.
Delivering consistent quality liposuction results is more difficult than most people believe.
Likewise not everybody is a good candidate for Liposuction.
In the end candidacy and the skill of the provider are the only two variables that are of significant importance and patients should focus their efforts on those two variables in order to minimize having this be an undesirable experience and potentially be left disfigured.
Not everybody seeking Liposuction has the potential for getting results.
Subcutaneous fat is only one tissue variable and for many people seeking liposuction there are other variables that also need to be taken into consideration.
The most commonly treated area as the abdomen or torso.
For the abdomen there are four tissue variables that determine what the abdomen looks like. Each of these variables can contribute and people need to have a clear understanding of which variable is causing their abdomen to not look the way they want in order to choose the correct procedure.
In other words if somebody doesn’t like the way their belly looks it is because of one or more of these four variables.
The variables that determine what someone’s abdomen looks like our skin laxity, excess subcutaneous fat, muscle separation from previous pregnancies and excess visceral or intra-abdominal fat.
Liposuction will only reduce subcutaneous fat. Skin laxity and muscle separation are best treated with a full tummy tuck.
Excess visceral fat can only be reduced with weight loss.
Getting a good assessment is the first step in the process.
Another way of saying this is that to start with you need an accurate diagnosis.
Choosing the correct procedure should be based on first having a clear understanding of what the problem is.
Differentiating variables for body contouring is not always straightforward or easy.
Skin laxity contribute significantly to many people seeking Liposuction.
The perfect candidate for liposuction can be described as “young tight and pudgy”. The majority of people seeking Liposuction do not fit that criteria.
Every once in a while somebody walks in who is a perfect candidate and that person has the potential for getting an exceptional outcome.
When doing consultations for Liposuction there are also people who request consultations who are not good candidates or are average candidates at best.
People who are not perfect candidate need to understand that even in the hands of the best providers the results are limited because they are not excellent candidates.
What lowers someone’s candidacy is variables other than subcutaneous fat contributing to body contour in undesirable ways.
This can be bone structure but often skin laxity is the number one reason patients fail to be good candidates for Liposuction.
Once you have a clear understanding regarding your candidacy for the procedure and the next step is to find the right provider.
I’ve mentioned this earlier but it bears saying twice.
Delivering consistent quality liposuction results is more difficult than most people believe.
This means that simply choosing a board-certified plastic surgeon with years of experience who has an overall excellent reputation is not sufficient to confirm that somebody has mastered Liposuction.
Doing liposuction well on a consistent basis including the ability to make accurate assessments and predict results correctly and accurately is more difficult than people think.
The number of plastic surgeons who do liposuction really well on a consistent basis is relatively few.
In reality most plastic surgeons are not all that great at Liposuction.
There is a lot of mediocre liposuction being done.
Liposuction results has more variability and outcomes based on who does the procedure than any other plastic surgery operation I’ve ever seen.
There is a remarkable difference between those who have truly mastered doing this procedure and those who lack sufficient skills and experience despite having the right credentials.
Liposuction results are permanent and irreversible.
Once the procedure is performed it is generally not possible to restore someone’s contour or improve significantly and bad results.
Equipment has very little to do with quality outcomes.
For those interested in having Liposuction I recommend doing the following.
Start the process by getting a proper set of pictures of your body or the area you’re interested in having treated.
Look at how plastic surgeons take before and after pictures to get an example.
If you’re interested in having a liposuction of your abdomen you should take pictures of your body that include your torso from your neck to your knees. take pictures from about 8 feet away having someone else take the pictures or use the timer on your camera. wear revealing undergarments so that all areas of skin and contour can be seen. do not wear tight undergarments for pictures.
Take pictures showing your front side and back side standing in a neutral position.
Use the pictures of your body whenever reviewing before and after pictures.
Because candidacy has an enormous impact of what Liposuction can or cannot accomplish it is important to only review before and after pictures of the previous patients who had similar body characteristics to your own.
In other words you need to review pictures of patients who had the same or similar candidacy for the procedure.
Review a few hundred before and after pictures and select people who look like you in the before pictures.
Having a printed copy of pictures of yourself to use for reference can be helpful.
Learn to recognize what quality results look like.
Recognize that picture is posted by providers are most likely going to represent preselected images representing the best results of their career. people rarely post pictures of work that’s average or below average though these outcomes represent at least half of their results out there.
Next make a list of local board-certified plastic surgeons in your community who seem to do a lot of Liposuction.
Review each providers website and simply look at the quantity and quality of liposuction results compared to other procedures.
If somebody has 20 tummy tuck results but only two Liposuction results and that is probably not the person who does a lot of quality liposuction work.
Choose five plastic surgeons in your community who seem to have good experience doing liposuction. Preferably this should include lots of positive reviews of people who’ve had that procedure.
During each in person consultation ask each provider to open up their portfolio and show you their entire collection of before and after pictures.
Providers may be apprehensive to do this and will instead prefer to show you preselected images representing some of their best work.Well this may be more impressive it is insufficient to get a clear understanding of what average results look like or how many of these procedures any one provider has actually done.
As providers to only show you pictures of previous patients who have similar body characteristics to your own. Bring pictures of your body with you to use for reference.
It doesn’t matter if somebody got a great result if their candidacy is different than yours.
As providers to show you examples of excellent outcomes, average outcomes and outcomes that did not turn out as well as they had hoped.
As providers with a revision rate and revision policy is.
For a reference and experience provider should have no difficulty show me at least 50 set a before and after pictures of commonly performed procedures like liposuction of the abdomen or other areas. Liposuction is after all the number one performed cosmetic operation.
Take careful notes during the consultation especially when reviewing before and after pictures. You should have a rating system created and no quality results when you see them. You should also be able to recognize previous patients who have similar body characteristics to your own and continue to remind the provider that you only want to see examples of people who had the same candidacy for Liposuction that you do.
Most people do not have a lot of experience having consultations with plastic surgeons.
The process can potentially be intimidating and plastic surgeons on the other hand have years of experience giving consultations.
Recognize that you are in charge. You are the one paying for this operation and you are hiring a plastic surgeon to perform a service for you.Do you have all the rights in the world to ask to see documentation of previously done work to get a thorough understanding of each providers capacity and experience.
If providers are unwilling to show you a sufficient number or quality of before and after pictures then simply cross them off the list and continue to the next consultation.
There’s no correct number of consultations needed to find the right provider but the more consultations you have the higher the chance of finding the best provider.
Personally I do not believe you can properly vet plastic surgeons with anything other than in person consultations.
You’ll get better at the process with practice.
I recommend mass patient start with at least five in person consultations but consider scheduling more if needed.
If you have any doubts and simply slow down and schedule more consultations.
Poorly done Liposuction can leave you disfigured permanently.
You’ll be reminded of the outcome every day for the rest of your life.
Please take this process seriously and spend the required time and effort to do it correctly.
Simply choosing a board-certified plastic surgeon with years of experience and overall good reputation is not sufficient to confirm that any one provider has mastered liposuction.
A significant number of plastic surgeons if you were liposuction as a simplistic procedure with a low learning curve.
In reality, liposuction is a highly complex procedure that is difficult to master and deliver consistent reproducible results.
To master body contouring at using liposuction and fat transfer requires decades and doing thousands of procedures.
Getting consistent quality results is more difficult than people believe.
In the end there are only two variables that really matter.
Patient candidacy and provider selection.
Please choose carefully.
Patients should be more selective than they think they need to be.
Best,
Mats Hagstrom MD