POSTED UNDER truSculpt REVIEWS
The Only Thing Less Fat is my Wallet.
ORIGINAL POST
The Only Thing Less Fat is my Wallet.
VegasTPAugust 9, 2020
$1,800
On the day of my treatment I weighed 195 lbs. and my waist measured 38.75". Six weeks post treatment for my first follow up appointment I had lost six pounds and my waist measured 38". There was no fat loss in the targeted area that couldn't be explained by diet and exercise, certainly nothing approaching the touted 24%. Conversely since I put a few Covid pounds back on I would expect the target area to have remain relatively unchanged had permanent fat loss been achieved.
During my six week follow up visit I asked to speak with the manager Angela due to my extreme dissatisfaction. Her assistant Marilyn had taken measurements before and after just as I did. Angela played with the photos in her office for a few minutes and tried to convince me there was a change. After giving her a rather questioning glance she had the audacity to ask me if "I was maybe expecting too much" from the procedure. I told her something approaching 24% isn't too much.
At this juncture she said the procedure was still working and I should come back in 5-6 weeks. She also wrote documentation that they would consider knocking something off the price if I allowed my photos to be used for promotion or redoing the procedure.
On the morning of my 12 week follow up I weighed 187 lbs. and my waist was unchanged from the last visit. I called to confirm my appointment and the call wasn't returned. I showed up for my appointment to find a closed and locked office, the call I made then wasn't returned either.
After a few attempts to get my money returned I wrote a demand letter to Dolue David Ezeanolue, MD the owner of Apex Medical Spa and that letter went unanswered, until I had him served for small claims court. Then he hired an attorney to try and quash the case. To be continued.
Learn from my mistakes.
I would like to know who doesn't make a good candidate for the procedure and how that is determined. Assuming most people getting the procedure are looking to tone up areas resistant to diet and exercise, why doesn't it work and what method if any is the provider using to turn people away.
Get in writing what will happen if it doesn't work. Chances are you will be out money, but I would like to think reputable providers would seek to make it right or not take your money at all if you medically aren't a fit.
Make certain the provider gives you all paperwork, including written confirmation of how fat loss outcomes will be determined. 24% should be obvious visually, but any doctor should be able to come up with something more scientific than that.
Ask to speak to actual patients of the practice, at a minimum before and after photos with clinical results. Don't rely on the success photos floating all over the web or unconfirmed tales from in office workers that had it done like I did. Marilyn my technician pre-treatment said she had TruSculpt ID done on her double chin which looked pretty good. Post-treatment when I indicated my dissatisfaction she was suddenly pointing at her stomach. Her claims may be true, but I'm now more skeptical.
I spoke with three providers before doing Trusculpt ID. The highest price was a doctor that would perform the procedure herself. If I was to do it all over again I would try that. The second provider indicated he had a technician that was not doing a similar procedure correctly, so he had to redo some patients. The one I chose I never met the doctor, silly me.
I speculate there is a level of skill needed to perform this procedure correctly as much as it seems they can just hook you up to the machine, so the who probably matters.
Probably not foolproof tips, but I can't be the only one in this boat.
During my six week follow up visit I asked to speak with the manager Angela due to my extreme dissatisfaction. Her assistant Marilyn had taken measurements before and after just as I did. Angela played with the photos in her office for a few minutes and tried to convince me there was a change. After giving her a rather questioning glance she had the audacity to ask me if "I was maybe expecting too much" from the procedure. I told her something approaching 24% isn't too much.
At this juncture she said the procedure was still working and I should come back in 5-6 weeks. She also wrote documentation that they would consider knocking something off the price if I allowed my photos to be used for promotion or redoing the procedure.
On the morning of my 12 week follow up I weighed 187 lbs. and my waist was unchanged from the last visit. I called to confirm my appointment and the call wasn't returned. I showed up for my appointment to find a closed and locked office, the call I made then wasn't returned either.
After a few attempts to get my money returned I wrote a demand letter to Dolue David Ezeanolue, MD the owner of Apex Medical Spa and that letter went unanswered, until I had him served for small claims court. Then he hired an attorney to try and quash the case. To be continued.
Learn from my mistakes.
I would like to know who doesn't make a good candidate for the procedure and how that is determined. Assuming most people getting the procedure are looking to tone up areas resistant to diet and exercise, why doesn't it work and what method if any is the provider using to turn people away.
Get in writing what will happen if it doesn't work. Chances are you will be out money, but I would like to think reputable providers would seek to make it right or not take your money at all if you medically aren't a fit.
Make certain the provider gives you all paperwork, including written confirmation of how fat loss outcomes will be determined. 24% should be obvious visually, but any doctor should be able to come up with something more scientific than that.
Ask to speak to actual patients of the practice, at a minimum before and after photos with clinical results. Don't rely on the success photos floating all over the web or unconfirmed tales from in office workers that had it done like I did. Marilyn my technician pre-treatment said she had TruSculpt ID done on her double chin which looked pretty good. Post-treatment when I indicated my dissatisfaction she was suddenly pointing at her stomach. Her claims may be true, but I'm now more skeptical.
I spoke with three providers before doing Trusculpt ID. The highest price was a doctor that would perform the procedure herself. If I was to do it all over again I would try that. The second provider indicated he had a technician that was not doing a similar procedure correctly, so he had to redo some patients. The one I chose I never met the doctor, silly me.
I speculate there is a level of skill needed to perform this procedure correctly as much as it seems they can just hook you up to the machine, so the who probably matters.
Probably not foolproof tips, but I can't be the only one in this boat.
UPDATED FROM VegasTP
10 months post
Before and After Photos from Apex Medical Spa
VegasTPOctober 26, 2020
Apex Medical Spa with their before and after photos of Trusculpt ID and Micro Needle RF claim "Real Patients Real Results" with the quote "below are examples of services provided for our patients and their results". Yet all photos as of yesterday can be found on other provider sites being credited to other doctors. Many were copied directly from the Cutera website. In two other instances on Facebook it looks to me like the credited doctors name that performed Trusculpt ID was blacked out and Dr. Ezeanolue’s name was inserted. I found similar for other procedures on Instagram. This gives me the illusion that he did the procedures.
I have screen shots of the photos mentioned above including who I believe was the credited doctor in case admin wants to review. This remains one of the few sites where prospective customers can review a procedure like this and I don't think prospective patients should have to do image searches to avoid ending up with a loss like I did.
Replies (12)
I'm not sure how much I can link here so leave it to the moderators discretion. One thing I found in my research after my experience is the average 24% fat reduction claimed by Cutera and others selling Trusculpt appears to be based on a twelve patient study. Ultrasound technology was used to prove fat cell reduction, not a tape measure or scale.
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf18/K180709.pdf
Readers will have to draw their own conclusions if that is a big enough sample size to extrapolate to almost two hundred providers offering Trusculpt estimated on this site. It also looks to me like the ID technology is very similar to the 3D except for the number of paddles. If memory serves the test was done with 3D and took place in 2017.
Personally I think a more satisfactory approach to measuring and advertising average fat cell destruction would be for every provider to use the same methodology used in the original test and report that back to Cutera.
You might also re-read the part of my review where Apex Medical Spa allowed me to show up for an appointment to find a locked office and wouldn't return my phone calls. In doing so refused Apex refused to honor their own physician order.
As for Cutera's studies, I found one study of 12 patients done by a single MD in 2017 with the 3D machine. I'll add the current patient satisfaction rate for 3D which to my understanding is effectively the same technology as ID is 45%. I find this highly unlikely if people were getting an average of 24% targeted fat reduction as advertised.
Ultrasonic technology was used to prove fat loss, not an I Phone and tape measure. According to the FTC it is deceptive to make scientific claims unless an advertiser has a reasonable basis to make them. Apex Medical Spa in my opinion has no basis since they have no way to prove fat cells were destroyed. Further I've seen review from other patients that indicate to me other MDs have no basis to make this claim either. Stepping on a scale or running a tape measure prove nothing.
Second Apex Medical Spa is using other MD's photos and representing them in my opinion as if they are their own patients. Again, I believe this is not only illegal, it is unethical.
Further Apex Medical Spa has refused to release my medical records which again I believe to be a violation of State and Federal Law.
Yes, I am asking for treble in my suit as Nevada law affords me the right to do in cases of deceptive business practices which I very much believe took place.
This MD's allegations have merit in my opinion. Sadly the FTC and FDA seem wholly unwilling to enforce laws the put on the books .
For the TruSculpt, plaintiff alleges Cutera represented
the TruSculpt's fat reduction results could be achieved in as little as three treatments. In fact, these statements were not true...Cutera made the bogus representations about the TruSculpt's efficacy on fat reduction in printed marketing materials, online through websites and emails, in-person during the `educational seminars' Cutera hosted around the country . . . Cutera knew its claims regarding the TruSculpt's fat melting and fat controlling abilities were false and misleading and recklessly continued to aggressively market the TruSculpt to med-spas like Medical Aesthetics.
https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20201030e39
Potential purchasers of the technology might ask themselves about this.
The worst offender is the company Cutera, which has not made a single clinical trial result public. By now, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could have collected over $65 million in fines from Cutera alone for its legal violations.
The results of 16 clinical trials run by the company are currently missing from ClinicalTrials.gov.
https://www.transparimed.org/single-post/2020/09/28/novartis-cutera-clinical-trials-fdaaa