Category: LipoSculptuing

Liposculpturing, a technique that we like to think of as advanced liposuction, should not be taken lightly. While the process is not a panacea and will not fix all your woes, when properly performed by the right Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon the results can be life enhancing.  Through liposuction your surgeon will use his knowledge of anatomy, art, and science to SCULPT (LIPO-SCULPTURE) all of your aesthetic lines like an artist molds the medium of their choosing.  Always wanted a less bulky abdomen? Improved definition of your arms or legs? Enhance your buttock size or definition? Better define the abdominal musculature for which you spend hours in the gym working? Liposculpture may be a good procedure for you to achieve your goals. In general, satisfaction rates are extremely high, higher than non-invasive technology (coolsculpting, etc.) because your surgeon can safely remove the precise amount of excess fat to give each patient a balanced and natural-appearing outcome.

Now that we understand what Liposculpture is, let’s understand what it is NOT. While Dr. Koltz and Dr. Barone are very accomplished surgeons, they are not real magicians. Their high patient satisfaction rates come from helping patients understand realistic goals and outcomes, developing a plan, then delivering on these plans. Liposuction and liposculpture have limitations.

• Liposuction and liposculpture should NOT be thought of as weight loss tools. They are aimed to remove fat from problem areas that are resistant to weight loss. Everyone has these areas. This is a tool we use to augment your improved and healthy lifestyle in order to help deliver you the body you deserve. If you gain weight, get pregnant, or lose a significant amount more weight, your results may also be less than ideal.
• NO skin is removed in these procedures. Therefore, we depend on good skin quality in order to tighten up after removing the fat beneath the skin in order to give you your final result. This is in contrast to body contouring surgery or skin removal surgery which may give you a better contour, but this is in exchange for a larger scar that is concealed to the best of our ability.
• Liposuction is not the best tool to get rid of cellulite when used alone. There are a variety of tools that can help with this, but liposuction alone is not enough.
• Liposculpture does NOT need to be performed in isolation. Very frequently liposculpture is combined with other tools to get your very best result. These other tools may include a skin excision (if patients want to trade skin excision for a scar), Renuvion, Vaser, fat transfer, PRP and stem cell augmentation, as well as a variety of recovery and pain control modalities in order to hasten your recovery and make the whole experience more enjoyable.
• Liposuction does NOT leave significant scars. Each small area where the cannula (about the size of a straw) is introduced beneath the skin leave a scar about ½ inch in size. These sites are strategically chosen to be hidden so you never see them but still allow the surgeon to get to the areas that need to be addressed. These scars are significantly smaller than skin excision procedures.
• Liposuction is NOT necessarily permanent. While it is true, we permanently remove your fat in the areas we address, we do not remove every fat cell. This means that if you gain weight, the ones left behind just get bigger than they would have before when they had more cells to store the same amount of fat.
• Liposuction does NOT remove the “beer belly.” Koltz and Barone can only address the subcutaneous (beneath the skin) fat. Visceral (around your organs) fat makes up the “beer belly” and cannot safely be addressed with liposuction.  Only effective weight loss can reduce this abdominal fat.

Finally, there are many new invasive and noninvasive technologies developed every day that you will read about on the internet that promise everything from more attractive feet, to a tighter vagina, to a robust head of hair. Some promises may be realistic, some just snake oil. How can you sort it out? The easiest way is to find a Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon that you trust and offers many different technologies.

• If you see someone who is not a surgeon, they will not offer surgery as a good option. “Providers” want to take care of you. If they do not have a technology or a skill set that they can offer you, they usually will not talk to you about it in a positive light. Surgeons can offer any procedure, invasive or noninvasive, so you are starting off in the right spot. A common misconception is that if you see a Plastic Surgeon, you will only be offered surgery. With Dr. Barone and Dr. Koltz, this could not be further from the truth. Their goal is to offer you the least invasive option possible to help you achieve your goal, whether that is surgical or non-surgical.
• If you see someone who is not a Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon, but is offering an invasive (surgical) procedure, you are choosing to “roll the dice” with your health and safety in order to perhaps save money. It may even be the same cost!  Remember doctors can be board certified in non-related medical specialties and still offer the title “Board Certified.”  The only board certification that is relevant in cosmetic surgery related to these procedures is “The American Board of Plastic Surgery.”  Simply ask, “Are you board certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery?” If the answer is no, move on. It’s that easy. Would you want someone with no surgical (radiologist, family medicine, emergency medicine, OB/GYN) or plastic surgical (general surgery, cosmetic surgery only, ear nose and throat/ENT, etc.) training performing surgery on you? Exceptional results, delivered safely, are all that matter!

Best wishes for a happy and healthy April,

Dr. Koltz and Dr. Barone