Liposuction is pretty straightforward, but becomes confusing in large part because of marketing efforts. To start with there are only two variables that are of significant importance, and I suggest focusing your efforts on those two variables only. The variables that matter our first and foremost, your candidacy for the procedure, and the second is provider selection. Equipment is of minimal importance in regards to the experience of having this procedure, including recovery. People will spin theoretical differences and make them sound like they have a major impact on the overall experience for the patient. This is simply marketing spin, and you should ignore it. All providers will try to put their best foot forward and some people do that by bragging about whatever equipment they just purchased. Anybody claiming you should go to them because of some technology or special type of equipment is the wrong provider. Delivering consistent quality, liposuction results is more difficult than most people realize. The number of plastic surgeons who are masters, or can deliver quality results. Predictively without causing secondary problems are in a small minority. Plastic surgeons often think they’re far better at Liposuction than they actually are, and the number of true experts is small. Poorly done Liposuction can leave people disfigured permanently. Correct thing poorly done. Liposuction is very difficult and often not possible. Some people are excellent candidates for Liposuction. Some people are not good candidates for Liposuction, and the majority of people are somewhere in the middle. Someone who is an excellent candidate, for Liposuction has the potential for having excellent outcomes if they find an excellent surgeon. That same person can also be left disfigured if your provider lacks sufficient, skill and experience. A person who is not a good candidate, for Liposuction is never going to have excellent outcomes, regardless of who does the procedure. To understand your own candidacy for the procedure, and to begin the vetting process of finding the best provider, I suggest you have multiple in person consultations. During each consultation, ask each provider to open up their portfolio and show you their entire collection of before, and after pictures of previous patients who have similar body characteristics to your own. An experienced plastic surgeon should have no difficulty showing you the before, and after pictures of at least 15 previous patients. Being shown a handful of preselected images, representing the best results of a providers career is insufficient to get a clear understanding of what average results look like in the hands of each provider, or what results would look like on someone with your candidacy. Take careful notes during each consultation, especially regarding the quantity and quality of before and after pictures and how close each of the examples represented what your body looks like. It’s not a bad idea to bring pictures of your own body to use as a reference to confirm your being showing it before and after pictures that a representative of with your body Looks like. Considering how much variation there is a liposuction skill, I recommend having as many consultations as possible. The more consultations, you have the more likely you are to find the best provider and in the process you’ll get well educated, and begin to understand your own candidacy for the procedure. Where are you? Buzz that need to be taken into consideration and determine your candidacy for the procedure. Includes understanding the thickness of your subcutaneous, fat layers, assessing, if you have any degree of skin, laxity, potentially excess visceral or intra-abdominal fat, the amount of glandular breast tissue in your chest, etc. etc. Understanding how much variables, other than access, subcutaneous fat are contributing to shape and contour can help you understand what the procedure can, and cannot accomplish based on your own candidacy for the procedure. There’s no correct number of consultations needed to find the right provider. Considering how much skill/experience is needed to get consistent outcomes and the impact of the procedure if not done well I suggest patients consider having at least five consultations before scheduling surgery. When in doubt, slow down and schedule more consultations. The time to be critical of plastic surgeons is during the vetting process while you’re interviewing providers. I cannot emphasize enough how much variation there is a Liposuction skill, how little equipment actually as to the outcome and how important Provider selection is. Personally, I don’t think you can do this from the convenience of your home using your computer or cell phone. Liposuction recovery isn’t all that difficult. Patients feel sore like they severely over exercised when being out of shape. When sitting still it’s not particularly painful but your feel stiffness and tenderness with movement especially the first 3 to 5 days. Ibuprofen is usually enough to manage this discomfort. After the third day, the pain decreases on a daily basis, and most people can get back to lower impact daily activities within five days or less.For athletics or high impact activity, it may take a couple of weeks. The equipment used is a drop in the bucket, in comparison to who is doing the surgery. If one specific piece of equipment was clearly superior. Then all of us would be using the same equipment. Best, Mats Hagstrom, MD