Yes and no.
Yes, you can liposuction other areas of the body at the time of tummy tuck.
No, you cannot liposuction the abdomen.
Why? When you do a tummy tuck (this is a full tummy tuck, not a wedge or miniabdominoplasty), you create what is called a skin flap. This interferes with the blood supply to the
I saw two patients today who came in after they had smart lipo done by other doctors. TWO PATIENTS. They both were upset with their bellies. They had the same story:
“I had fat on my belly. I saw Dr. X and he promised me he could remove the fat and that my skin would tighten
I feel like a broken record.
I got an email today from a patient looking for breast augmentation using fat. I DO think this will be a good, viable way to augment the breast in the future. (Except for you super skinny athletic Bay Area women- You don’t have any fat to harvest. Start eating ice
I am doing many preops today. The most common question I get asked is “what is normal healing after surgery?” (Corollary to this: When can I drive/exercise/go back to work/lift my baby/ have sex.)
My answer: I don’t know.
Egads. Shouldn’t I know? Am I not the doctor? If I don’t know, then who will? How can
Kerplooey!
What is spitting a stitch?
I know. There are things which seem so normal to us surgeons, which the normal patient looks at and thinks, “What?!”
We surgeons sew. We stitch a lot. When we put the breast together after a lift or do a tummy tuck, we sew you back together with sometimes hundresds of sutures
Plastic surgery is always a personal, private decision.
Most of my patients who do liposuction have tried to lose weight with diet and exercise.Their weight is stable. They do liposuction not to “lose weight” but to sculpt–reduce the love handle bulges over the jeans or thighs which rub together (ug. especially on those warm summer days…).
Should you
1. What is your training? By what board? Many people call themselves plastic surgeons and learn to do liposuction in a weekend course. Some of the laser liposuction companies are targeting non surgeons to buy their machines.
2. Do you do tummy tucks? This links to question one, but if a doctor cannot do a tummy tuck
Liposuction removes fat.
The fat removed is permenantly gone.
But that doesn’t mean you can go hog wild eating Ben and Jerry’s. Fat is stored energy. It is a simple intake vs. output kind of thing. If you eat calories, and you don’t exercise and burn off those calories, your body will store the energy as fat.
The April Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery had a good study with juicy numbers. The paper’s real title, “Who is Providing Aesthetic Surgery? A detailed Examination of the Geographic Distribution and Training backgrounds of Cosmetic Practitioners in Southern California,” could likely be shortened to my blog title.
They studied the San Diego and LA area.
It is nice to see a regulatory agency regulating.
I frequently blog about the people who use gimmicks and marketing, make false claims, and do dangerous things… When did medicine become something done in a mall? Where anyone can claim anything without proving it does what it says?
So I was happy to see this today in
Lauren Greenberg M.D.
750 Welch Road, Suite 117
