Many patients are interested in improving the shape and contour of their body, primarily through fat reduction or reducing excess skin and sagging tissues. This may be around the abdomen, hips, flanks, buttocks and thighs. The upper arms are also of great interest to patients. However, most patients don’t know whether they are a candidate for a non-surgical or surgical body contouring procedure.
In both cases, these procedures should not be a substitute for weight loss. We prefer the patients to lose weight prior to both non-surgical and surgical procedures to improve patient safety and enhance the result of the procedure. Our goal is to stimulate patients to consider healthy lifestyles and have a nutritional plan because of their importance in any treatment or patient care plan.
Surgical Body Contouring Candidates
The typical candidate for surgical body contouring will be someone who needs lifting of lax tissues or a larger amount of fat reduction. It’s extremely important that anybody interested in body contouring see an “experienced” board-certified plastic surgeon for professional qualified advice.
Surgical body contouring may involve the common term of tummy tuck or abdominoplasty. During this procedure, excess fat is removed with liposuction techniques and sometimes the surgeon repairs the lax abdominal wall muscles for a slimmer appearance. At evolv, Dr. Frank Barone prefers ultrasonic liposuction because it is much more efficient, less traumatic and results in tightening of the skin more effectively than other techniques.
Patients Interested in Buttock Augmentation
With the significant increase in popularity, patients are very interested in the surgical procedure of buttock shaping or buttock augmentation. At evolv, board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Barone prefers to use the patient’s own fat, removed from an area where it may be excessive such as the abdomen or hips. This fat is then processed and used to augment or add volume to the buttocks. New advancements in technology have allowed the use of the patient’s fat to actually regenerate tissue and restore the lost volume in the buttocks in order to correct sagging tissues and restore youthful contour.
Non-Surgical Body Contouring Candidates
A candidate for non-surgical body contouring would be someone who doesn’t have significant laxity, loose skin or a large amount of fatty excess. We have revolutionary technologies available to us that have dramatically improved results of non-surgical contouring. Our preference is using radio frequency energy, which safely passes through the skin to destroy underlying fat cells. This is achieved in the office without anesthesia, and there is no downtime with the treatment.
Our most popular non-surgical body contouring procedure is called the Vanquish ME, or maximum energy, which allows us to treat the abdomen around the sides of the body simultaneously without any direct contact to the skin. The energy passes through the skin, effectively destroying unwanted fat.
Another technology is called Exilis Ultra, which combines radiofrequency with therapeutic ultrasound to break up fat cells and tighten skin. This can be done virtually anywhere on the body where there’s a minor to moderate amount of skin or tissue laxity and fatty excess.
New technology with Exilis Ultra and Vanquish ME, also includes Cellutone, which is an advanced sound wave pulsed energy that helps the lymphatic system remove the fragmented fat cells and improves circulation and the results with the Vanquish treatment.
As always, the critical factor to these procedures is having a consultation with an experienced board-certified plastic surgeon who has been trained to do these procedures. It’s also very important to be sure these procedures, if surgical, are done in an appropriate certified outpatient facility, which has to pass certain criteria to maintain their accreditation.
Be sure to do your research when looking for a physician and surgeon in Toledo, Ohio and that you ask these questions prior to considering any body contouring procedure. The results can be extremely satisfying and life-changing for the best candidates. New technology has allowed appropriately trained physicians to achieve excellent results for patients utilizing non-surgical treatments.