Thinking About Liposuction? Questions You May Have

Everyone carries fat differently and sometimes there are stubborn areas where it's more difficult to lose these pockets of fat. Liposuction can be a great way to eliminate these problem areas for good. Liposuction can be used for all sorts of areas of fat, such as the upper arms, thighs, buttocks, abdomen, calves, chin, knees, back, and so on. Here are some questions you may have about the procedure.

How Does Liposuction Differ from Other Similar Procedures?

There are many cutting-edge cosmetic procedures, so it can be hard to know what to pursue. However, liposuction is different from Cool Sculpting (cryolipolysis), tummy tucks, and cellulaze. During traditional liposuction procedures, your doctor will use a cannula, a suction device, to pull fat cells from beneath the skin. Some doctors use a laser to heat and soften the fat cells, so this removal is easier and so the patient experiences less bruising.

Not keen on bruising or invasive surgery? That's where cryolipolysis comes in. During that procedure, your doctor will actually cool superficial fat deposits underneath your skin. These fat cells will eventually die from the freezing process and your body will eliminate them, leaving you with a more sculpted look.

If you don't need to have much fat removed, just extra skin from weight loss, then a tummy tuck is the way to go. Lastly, while liposuction can be used on lots of different fat deposits, it is not ideal for cellulite. If you want to mainly eliminate cellulite, you'll want to look into a cellulaze procedure, where a small laser is inserted to smooth the lumpy pockets of fat.

Is Liposuction for Everyone?

You only should be considering liposuction if you exercise regularly and have a good relationship with food. Liposuction isn't for obese patients—those patients should consider losing the excess weight first or talking with a bariatric doctor if they want to go the gastric bypass route.

It's very important for you to only want to contour specific areas; liposuction isn't a solution for a major weight loss. Why is that the case? Well, although liposuction does remove fat cells, it does not remove all of them. So if you have bad eating habits, you can easily gain fat back.

Plus, liposuction can induce visceral fat gain in patients that have poor diets. Visceral fat is intra-abdominal fat tissue that actually wraps around major organs; it's different from subcutaneous belly fat, which is closer to the surface of your skin. Patients who have weight problems put themselves at risk if they get liposuction and then gain the weight back, since they may accumulate visceral fat that places pressure on organs.

What Are the Benefits of Liposuction?

Although liposuction is invasive, this procedure has good outcomes since it has been practiced for much longer than other cosmetic procedures. The good news is you may only need one treatment to fix the area that's bothering you. If the area is small enough, you may only need local anesthesia, not general anesthesia. Some people are even able to have this procedure done in a local doctor's office instead of the hospital.

If you maintain a good diet and exercise regimen, you can have long-lasting results. And the good news is that even if you gain some fat back, liposuction can change the way your body distributes your fat. Instead of distributing in one problem area, the liposuction can help your body distribute the fat more evenly over your entire body, so you have a proportional look.

For more information on liposuction, contact a cosmetic specialist in your area.

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