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Going To A Board Certified Plastic Surgeon For Liposuction Is Paramount

Cosmetic surgeons have found that plastic surgery patients are getting confused about lipoplasty due to the proliferation of advertising by companies and untrained doctors that are not adequately trained to perform liposuction. These gimmicks misguide body contouring patients, and their goal is to guide the average patient towards finding the best cosmetic surgeon for them.

The first and foremost thing you can do to ensure you get the best treatment is to make sure that your cosmetic surgeon is board certified in plastic surgery. If you are interested in laser liposuction, then find a board certified plastic surgeon who performs laser liposuction. If the surgeon about to perform surgery on you is not listed by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, then you should be asking yourself if you have found the right provider for you.

Why is going to a board certified plastic surgeon is paramount? Consider this patient, who went to a person calling themselves a “cosmetic surgeon” and was given liposuction instead of a tummy tuck Even though the “latest” technology machine was used, what the patient should have been told is that she needed a tummy tuck procedure, not liposuction. There is a limit to how much skin will tighten after the procedure, but if your surgeon is not board certified in plastic surgery, he may not be well trained in the intricacies of cosmetic surgery, even if he or she calls themselves a cosmetic surgeon. Fortunately, the patient had corrective surgery with a board certified plastic surgeon and did well, but she could have avoided the cost and risk of the first surgery had she checked on her “surgeon”‘s background.

One must differentiate between the many different techniques and technologies available: technique used, technology used, and anesthesia used.

All liposuction procedures start with the infusion of Tumescent Fluid. Tumescent fluid is composed of lactated ringers, epinephrine for bleeding control, lidocaine for pain control, and bicarbonate to make the infusion less painful. The exact dosages used depend on the area being treated. Sometimes you may see some one refer to the wet technique, or super-wet technique. This means they are infusing more or less tumescent than the fat being removed. There are reasons to do so, but ultimately beyond knowing that all techniques (laser, smartlipo, vaser, traditional, tumescent…) will start with this fluid solution being infiltrated in the area to be treated.

After the infusion of the solution above, the surgeon may decide to use a fat breaking and/or skin tightening technology. The skin tightening and fat breaking technologies fall into Lasers (smartlipo, coollipo, slimlipo, lypotherme…) or ultrasound (vaser, mentor). There is also a power-assisted liposuction called microaire, and there is a water jet assisted machine, and those machines help break up the fat. Typically, a surgeon will either use conventional (no machine, hand assisted) or one of the technologies that he has chosen to purchase. In the right hands, most plastic surgeons do not believe that one machine is clearly superior to the other.

Rather, the experienced plastic surgeon can achieve excellent results using any of these technologies. A good analogy is a golf club. A professional golfer will beat an average person’s golf game even if you give him a kid’s set while they use the latest and most expensive set. Similarly, surgeons believe that a well trained board certified cosmetic surgeon will always get superior result to a doctor who is pursuing lipoplasty without the years of training and the aesthetic eye.

The basic decision with anesthesia is awake or asleep. Many cosmetic surgery patients want to stay awake during the procedure to avoid general anesthesia. During awake procedures, the patient is kept comfortable by the numbing medication. Often, plastic surgeon will also prescribe some pills to diminish anxiety and discomfort. For patients who are getting many areas treated and want to do them all at once, then a surgeon may recommend general anesthesia to ensure their comfort.

Dave Stringham, the President of LookingYourBest.com writes about plastic surgery in Washington DC and plastic surgery procedures such as breast augmentation, brachioplasty, washington dc liposuction, and tummy tuck.

Liposuction as Part of Plastic Surgery

 

Depending on whether you believe the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) or the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS), liposuction is either the most popular or the second most popular form of plastic surgery, after breast augmentation. What makes liposuction so popular? Liposuction is popular because it targets the fundamental elements of the aesthetic form of the body, making it both effective and universally applicable.

The Rare Human Body

The human body has a number of unusual features. Not only does it feature the commonly- praised large brain and the opposable thumb that are ostensibly responsible for our evolutionary rise from animals to civilized beings, but it has another less commonly praised anomalous structure: a layer of subcutaneous fat which is currently shared by only one other class of terrestrial mammals: pigs. This layer of fat, partly responsible for the wick effect that is behind so-called “Spontaneous Human Combustion,” is shared by many aquatic mammals (although in them it is called “blubber”), leading some evolutionary theorists to postulate for an aquatic phase in human evolution that would also account for the relative hairlessness of the human body.

However, despite the oft-touted affinity of the human baby for water, it is more likely that the subcutaneous layer of fat has another purpose in common with hairlessness: it is aesthetic in purpose. The subcutaneous layer of fat gives shape and softness to the human body, a cushion for the visible and tactile surface that makes humans attractive to one another. Because this subcutaneous layer of fat is specifically there to make us look good, liposuction, which targets this layer of fat, becomes a key element in what is known as body contouring, the shaping of the body. In liposuction, a narrow tube, or cannula, is inserted into the fat layer, then suction is used to remove fat through the tube.

Universal Applicability

Nearly every cosmetic surgical procedure that is performed today can be enhanced or accented with the use of liposuction. In the face, a facelift or necklift can either be enhanced or even replaced with a liposuction, which can provide proper definition for a neck area in which fat has accumulated, leading to a poor definition of the jawline and chin. The aesthetic effect of a breast augmentation can be enhanced by the reduction of fat deposits in the abdominal area, and any tummy tuck procedure would most likely provide incomplete results without some measure of liposuction. Liposuction can be used on the arms, the legs, the upper and lower back, the flanks, virtually everywhere. The majority of cosmetic surgeons will not use it on a woman’s breasts, although they do use it for the reduction of swollen breasts (Gynecomastia) in men.

Diverse Techniques

Liposuction is also not a single, unified field of practice. There are many different forms of liposuction available, including:

· Traditional liposuction, which is performed as above

· Tumescent liposuction, in which the area to be treated is injected with a high amount of fluid intended to make the procedure more effective with less ancillary tissue damage

· Power-assisted liposuction, in which a moving gouge on the end of the cannula breaks up the fatty tissue, making the procedure faster

· Ultrasonic liposuction, in which ultrasound is used to cause the fat cells to burst, ideally removing fat preferentially without doing too much damage to surrounding tissues

· Laser-assisted liposuction, in which a laser is used to burst fat cells during suction

All these liposuction techniques are designed to perform some parts of the liposuction process better, whether the removal of fat, or the minimizing of damage to surrounding tissues, or the speed of the procedure. While all liposuction will lead to you experiencing some pain and needing downtime for recovery, the type of procedure and your doctor’s technique can make a big difference in the area. Before working with any plastic surgeon, talk to former patients about their experience in terms of not only the effectiveness of the procedure (which can be seen in before and after pictures), but also about the patients’ experiences with the doctor and with recovery.

To learn more about liposuction in Dallas, Texas, and how it can complement all plastic surgery procedures, contact Dr. Vasdev Rai at the Cosmetic Surgical Center today for a consultation.