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.