Getting Nervous

Vellashape or Amerismooth Don’t do it!! Ladies’ this is a total rip-off. My plastic surgeon laughed and then gave me his condolences for purchasing Vellashape. I'm a slim, athletic, size 4, 40 year old, with some dimpling on my butt and thighs. In 2007 while getting my laser hair removal procedure at American Laser Center, I inquired about these treatments and purchased the package. I originally paid $1800 for 12 treatments of Amerismooth. After my 4th treatment with no visible results, I was told that they removed the Amerismooth machine and had converted to the Vellashape machine. Supposedly the Vellashape is much better and would have superb results. We all saw this on T.V. (Rachael Ray, Good Morning America, Kim Kardashian, etc.) Lucky me I was grandfathered in and would have my remaining treatments with Vellashape for no extra charge! That meant I would have a total of 8 Vellashape treatments which is 2 more than the original package recommended. I was skeptical but open minded as I saw no changes after 4 treatments of Amerismooth. Well here I am now down to my last treatment and see ABSOLUTELY NO RESULTS. My before and after pictures have not changed one bit!! I’m so glad that I didn’t get rooked into paying the much higher price for this new and improved treatment (Vellashape). I recently had breast surgery and shared my experience with my plastic surgeon, who laughed and then gave me his condolences for buying into this garbage. To date there is still no cellulite treatment that is effective. My surgeon is top-notch and would offer treatment if something really works. Don’t waste your $$

In response to the original posting, you should expect that each approx. 8.5" x 11" paper sized area would take about 25 min or longer. A buttock/thigh area could possibly be bigger than this, and therefore take longer. They should have used the large treatment head at settings Infrared: 2 or 3, RF: 3, and suction: 2 or 3 for the cellulite. These are significantly higher settings than the original training given for the VelaShape when it first came out, but result in much better reliable results. Unfortunately there are people who received the VelaShape treatment right when practices transitioned to the new device, and they did not receive the benefit of the revised protocols. Make sure you do your due diligence and question the practice to see what type of experience they have with the device, and if they are utilizing the new, more aggressive protocols. If they are not, the practice should contact the laser company to get names of doctors that are using the new protocols and can help them get up to speed on it.

Hello, I hope I can answer your VelaShape questions without being too lengthy or too academic... I'm sorry you found the treatment uncomfortable, as most people find it very comfortable and fall asleep during the treatments. But there are definitely a good handful of people that are just more sensitive to the treatment, feeling either pain or even ticklish to the treatment. In regards to bruising, the majority of patients do not have much bruising at all, but we do see it so far in about 10% of our patients. It is seen in just a few areas where we've treated over bony areas. We've also seen bruising in people who have severe cellulite and obesity. Normally, most of the bruising goes away by the next treatment, and overall their bruising problem subsides by their 4th treatment. Commonly we also do see small reddish "petechia" spots arise (not bruising), and this is due to the suction effect. Kind of like getting "hickeys" on the body. These also subside in a few days. Regarding the settings, it would be useful to know what settings they used on you. There are three variables to adjust: 1) Infrared light 2) Radiofrequency (RF) 3) Suction Each of these can be set to intensities of 0, 1, 2, or 3. For cellulite on thighs, we would typically use settings of Light-1 or 2, RF-3, Suction-2 or 3. If you are getting excess bruising, we would lower the suction level to 1. As far as getting hot, the area should be heating up and feeling hot as this the main mechanism for the fat reduction and for the skin tightening. However the nurse should be moving the treatment head constantly so the heat doesn't stack up too much in one spot. Just because the area feels hot doesn't mean they should stop and move away from the area. Feeling just within comfortably hot is the correct temperature to maintain during the treatment. Our goal is to get the fat tissue up to a certain therapeutic temperature, and maintain that for several minutes. In your case, given the sensitive skin and bruising, I would probably perform the next treatment at settings Light-1, RF-3, Suction-1, using the large treatment head. If you are an extreme case of being too sensitive, then we could switch to using the small head at the same settings, but plan to perform the treatment longer. Results do depend on each person, and are better with stronger, more aggressive settings. However, we only treat within what is safe and appropriate for each patient. Your bruising should be resolved by the next treatment. In fact the treatment itself improves circulation and lymphatic flow, so your bruises should improve with the treatment. The treatment area that I stated was approx 8.5" x 11" determines how long we need to treat each area. Using "hands" to measure the area, 8.5" x 11" would be approx the size of 2 outstretched hands. We would treat half of this area for 5-7 min, then the other half, then return to the first half area again for 5 min, and repeat the other half again too. Total time being approx 25 min per area. Treating a larger area within the same time frame of the 25 min just dilutes the treatment and may cause a decreased result. Most of our patients have 3 to 5 areas treated each time. Your 50 min. treatment suggests that they have measured you to have 2 areas to treat. $400 is an appropriate price for those 2 areas. However, for your inner thighs it could be an additional 1 area (1/2 area per inner thigh) or 2 areas (1 area per inner thigh), depending on the size of your thighs. If its 2 additional areas, that may be the reason they are charging an additional $400. In our office, the cost is actually less when you add additional areas, so you might look into whether they are offering a discount to upsell you to the inner thighs. Otherwise, I would stick with the current treatment areas, make sure you are tolerating the treatments, and seeing results. Then after you are confident that the practice can give you results, you can proceed with the inner thighs. I hope this helps! Take care, John Shieh, MD

I feel the pain too and the bruises OMG!!!!!!!!! My mistake I paid in advance 16 treatments $4280.00 in Puerto Rico.

Hello, I purchased a series of Velashape treatments from Dr. Shieh at RejuvaYou in South Pasadena. I am fairly slim, but I had (still have!) a lot of dimpling on my thighs. I seriously regret trying Velashape. I noticed absolutely no change in the appearance of my cellulite and I found the treatments themselves to be unpleasant. I have very fair, sensitive skin and the heat was pretty unbearable at times. Anyhow, please save your money and don't bother with Velashape.