A healthy, active lifestyle is great for building muscle tone and losing weight, but sometimes, patients need a bit of extra help to achieve the sculpted figures they’re working toward. When rolls of fat and unsightly bulges persist despite their best efforts, patients can pursue a contouring procedure such as liposuction to eliminate fat and restore their body confidence.
We understand the importance of wanting to stay looking your best, so we’ve put together the following guide on how to maximize your liposuction results. This guide will help you understand what to expect from your procedure—and how to enjoy your new look for as long as possible.
What Type of Liposuction Produces the Best Results?
We offer two types of liposuction at Wright Plastic Surgery: traditional and VASERlipo®. Each is highly effective, producing satisfying results for our patients. For many people, however, VASERlipo offers some distinct advantages.
What Is Liposuction?
Traditional tumescent liposuction is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that can sculpt the lower abs, trim the upper arms, and smooth the hips, thighs, and back. It can also target smaller areas, such as the knees and beneath the chin.
This form of liposuction is done under general anesthesia and begins with an injection of a tumescent solution. This solution acts as a protective, local anesthetic that helps minimize pain and blood loss, making the fat firmer and easier to remove. A cannula is inserted under the skin through small incisions, breaking the fat into smaller pieces and suctioning them out via an attached vacuum pump.
What Is VASERlipo & How Can It Improve Results?
VASER (Vibration Amplification of Sound Energy at Resonance) liposuction differentiates itself from its predecessor in one important way: It uses ultrasound energy to melt the fat into a liquid that can be easily suctioned out (and often in greater quantities than in traditional liposuction).
- Gentler: This approach is a gentler procedure as the surrounding tissues and blood vessels—which can often be caught in the crosshairs of traditional liposuction—are left undamaged. It can be performed under local or general anesthesia and usually offers a speedier recovery.
- Precise: VASERlipo is especially useful for more precise spot treatments, such as reducing jowls or a double chin and slimming the neck, buttocks, upper arms, and inner and outer thighs. It’s also suitable for traditional liposuction areas (the belly, back, waist, and hips). For men with developed breasts, the procedure is used in gynecomastia surgery to flatten and firm the chest.
- Tightens skin. Adding ultrasound energy to a liposuction treatment has the secondary benefit of increased collagen production in the targeted areas, gradually tightening the skin over time. As a result, patients’ skin will often conform (“retract”) to the new, slimmer body shape more easily and with less sagging and laxity.
When Will You See Results After Liposuction?
Following a liposuction or VASERlipo treatment, compression garments will be applied to the treated areas to promote healing, minimize swelling, and encourage smooth results. Patients who opt for traditional liposuction should expect an initial recovery period of around 2 weeks, while VASERlipo patients can typically halve that.
The results of a liposuction treatment are immediately visible to some degree. However, the final results often take 3 to 6 months to settle as the swelling slowly diminishes. Fortunately, liposuction and VASERlipo do not need any follow-up treatments to achieve their full effect, though patients can choose to have other areas treated later.
How To Maximize Liposuction Results
Liposuction and VASERlipo are generally considered to produce “permanent” improvements, given that the fat is physically removed from the body. You can expect to enjoy your results indefinitely as long as you continue to adhere to a healthy lifestyle and follow your postoperative instructions.
- Be realistic. Part of maximizing (and maximally enjoying!) your liposuction results is having realistic expectations. Liposuction is not intended to be a weight loss treatment nor a substitute for a healthy diet and exercise. Accordingly, we encourage patients to be within 30% of their ideal weight before seeking liposuction and to think of the procedure as a “spot treatment” more than anything else.
- Choose a skilled plastic surgeon. The expertise of a well-qualified, board-certified plastic surgeon cannot be overlooked in delivering exceptional results. Liposuction may not be as invasive as other surgical procedures, but it should still be approached with equal care and an uncompromising commitment to safety and quality.
- Be prepared for the changes to your body. Liposuction and VASERlipo will not massively change the number on the scale, but your clothes will fit better, and the change will be nearly instantaneous. You may even drop a couple of pants or dress sizes.
- Consider the possibility of loose skin. For patients undergoing a significant fat reduction, we recommend combining the procedure with Renuvion® to tighten the skin for optimal aesthetic results. Please see our related blog post to find out more. If the skin is particularly loose and saggy following liposuction—and nonsurgical methods like Renuvion have not produced as great an effect as desired—a body lift may be an option to tighten the skin and redefine the contours of the body.
You can see from our gallery of before and after photos how liposuction can be used on its own or with other procedures to transform patients’ bodies in a powerful, sustainable way. With a healthy lifestyle, your slimmer body can withstand the test of time and be enjoyed for countless years to come. If you are interested in finding out more about liposuction and VASERlipo, please request a consultation or call us at (501) 575-0088.
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