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What Happens During Traditional Liposuction?
Traditional liposuction is a surgical procedure that removes areas of unwanted, extra fat from your body. It can be performed on its own or after surgeries such as a tummy tuck or facelift to enhance results.
During the procedure, your surgeon might give you local anesthesia, general anesthesia, or sedation.
The surgeon will typically make a small incision in the area where you want fat removed. The surgeon might inject a solution — which usually contains a pain reliever, saline, and epinephrine to reduce blood loss — into the area to help the surgery go more smoothly.
After injecting the area, the surgeon will slide a small tube, or cannula, into the incision. The cannula moves back and forth to break up the fatty deposits so that the fat is easier to remove.
After that, the surgeon removes the fat using a syringe or vacuum. During laser or ultrasound-assisted liposuction, energy from a laser or ultrasound is used to liquefy the fat before it is removed from the body.
What Happens During Laser Body Contouring?
Laser body contouring treatments, such as Vanquish and Exilis Elite, offer a few advantages over traditional liposuction. For instance, they’re non-invasive. The doctor doesn’t have to make any incisions into your body, nor does he inject a solution or vacuum out fat.
The Vanquish machine is a large, three-panel device that hovers over the body during treatment. The energy from the laser heats the fat below the skin to 120 degrees while keeping the skin itself at 101 degrees.
The controlled temperature means that you don’t feel pain or burning during treatment. Typically, you receive four treatments, each spaced a week apart. The treatments take about 30 minutes. Many patients typically see visible results from the first treatment.
Exilis Elite is similar to Vanquish in that it uses heat energy to break down and destroy fat cells. The device is considerably smaller than Vanquish, which means the operator can target certain areas.
It can also be used on the face to tighten the skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. The device features controls that monitor the skin’s temperature to avoid burns or overheating. It stops every 30 seconds to adjust the temperature and protect the skin.
Freezing Fat
Vanquish and Exilis Elite aren’t the only non-invasive fat removal options available. A procedure called CoolSculpting helps remove fat from the body by freezing it. The treatment takes about an hour and targets the fat in a specific area.
If you want to remove fat from more than one area of the body, such as from the thighs and the love handles, you have to undergo more than one treatment.
During treatment fats cells are frozen. The freezing process causes the cells to crystalize, then die. Your body naturally flushes out the dead fat cells over time, so there’s no need for the surgeon to suction them out.
While the results from Vanquish are typically visible right away, it can take a few months for you to see noticeable results from CoolSculpting.
Expectations and Recovery Times
The recovery times are considerably different for traditional liposuction and non-invasive options. You might experience some redness or swelling after Vanquish, but you’ll be able to get back to your regular activities immediately. The same is true of fat-freezing procedures such as CoolSculpting.
After traditional liposuction, you’ll most likely need a few days to recover before you can head back to work. You might need longer before you can start exercising or participating in more rigorous activities. There might be swelling, bruising, and some discomfort after the surgery. In some cases, you’ll be asked to wear a support or compression garment or dressing for a while after the procedure.
