Fat Reduction Techniques

By Samir Rao, MD

With beach season right around the corner, many people look in the mirror every day and focus on bulges and problem areas on their bodies. Perhaps these areas got worse over the winter months, or maybe, despite diet and exercise, these areas just tend to persist, but they don't have to remain a source of shame or self-consciousness. We now have different modalities to tackle thoseunwanted bulges.

Diet and exercise should be your first line defense against your problem areas. Unfortunately, diet and exercise cannot always target particular areas of concern. I see personal trainers in my office who spend all day in the gym and have healthy diets, but still have a love handle or a saddlebag they can't get rid of. With advances in technology and plastic surgery, we can now address these problems safely and effectively, and multiple options are available.

Coolsculpting is a non-invasive means to address diet and exercise resistant bulges. If you have a bulge you can squeeze, that bulge gets delivered into the machine, which becomes cold and then numb. A treatment takes an hour, during which time you are situated comfortably and you can read, watch a movie on an iPad, or just relax.

When the treatment is complete, the area will be numb and you may have some mild bruising and swelling, but you can go right back to your day. In fact, we have patients who go the gym right after their treatments. Then, somewhere between three weeks and three months, you should notice a 20-25% decrease in the amount of fat in that bulge. If you are happy with the result but would like a further reduction in fat, you can do the treatment again.

Liposuction is the workhorse of fat reduction procedures. Through small incisions about inch in length, we first inject a numbing solution and then use special instruments connected to suction to remove fat. This can be performed with incredible precision to give you nicely sculpted results.

Liposuction is often combined with other technologies to assist with breaking up the fat, such as ultrasound or laser. Depending upon the areas being treated and the amount of fat that needs to be removed, this can sometimes be done in an office setting with the patient awake, however in cases where large volumes of fat are targeted for removal and multiple areas are being treated, it may be better for a patient to be asleep.

There is nothing more important than patient safety, and when improperly qualified doctors perform liposuction procedures the results can be irreparable, or even deadly. It is critical to have any fat removal procedure performed by a board-certified plastic surgeon with training and experience in all fat removal techniques.

So next time you look in the mirror and grab that belly bulge or love handle, please know what there is something you can do about. When being treated by a board-certified plastic surgeon, you should feel confident that the most appropriate fat reduction technique will be recommended, it will be done in a safe manner, and you can expect wonderful results.