Fat…it’s something that almost everyone battles on a daily basis. Whether you diet, exercise or just frown when you look in the mirror, you are not alone. As many at 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and body image is closely linked to self esteem. You may have tried diet and exercise with some success, but our fast paced lifestyles make sticking to a rigorous plan difficult. We often find that we can lose weight, but we have stubborn areas that just don’t respond well, especially the muffin tops or love handles, lower abdomen and outer thighs.
Concerns about body image are not a recent development. Cultures have always had an “ideal image” that they measure its citizens against. It’s no surprise that physicians, devoted to helping their patients, have long been searching for the holy grail of body sculpting. Liposuction itself dates back to the 1920s, when Dr. Dujarrier, a French surgeon, attempted to improve the appearance of a ballet dancer’s large calves and knees using an uterine scraping tool to remove fat. It wasn’t until the 1970s that Drs. Arpad and Fisher published the first studies on liposuction. These pioneers of liposuction developed the idea of using blunt cannulas to aspirate subcutaneous fat. The first American course on liposuction was taught in 1982.
Since these early days of liposuction, many advances have been made. One of the most dramatic was the introduction of tumescent anesthesia by Dr. Jeffrey Klein, allowing liposuction to be performed on awake patients as an outpatient procedure. Smaller cannulas (microcannulas) have been developed, reducing the trauma of the procedure and producing smoother results. Laser assisted lipolysis was first introduced in 1999 as a way to further improve liposuction.
In 2006, Cynosure (a medical laser company) developed the SmartLipo laser to assist with liposuction. The idea behind SmartLipo is to use the laser to rupture the fat cells, making a liquid to remove rather than trying to remove solid fat. This makes the liposuction less traumatic to your tissues and gives you a smoother result with less of the ridges associated with traditional liposuction. The original SmartLipo laser had a single wavelength. The second version of the SmartLipo laser, the MPX, was introduced in 2008, adding the 1320 wavelength and leading to improved skin tightening.
At Imagen we use the third and newest version of the SmartLipo laser, the SmartLipo Triplex, which was released in 2009. The addition of a third wavelength allows the SmartLipo Triplex to better target fat (over 20 times better than the 1320 MPX alone!) and further increase skin tightening. Studies by Dr. DiBernardo in 2010 showed that the use of the SmartLipo laser increased skin shrinkage by 54% over traditional liposuction. A number of safety features were also added to help prevent burns, including the Thermaguide, which continuously monitors the temperature in the tissues and the Accelerometer, which provides stable energy discharge based on the motion of the laser fiber. The SmartLipo Triplex also gives the physician the ability to change the power of the laser, letting you use it on more delicate areas such as the neck and knees.
If you would like more information on what SmartLipo Triplex can do for you, please call Imagen Body Sculpting at 402-509-8473 or contact us to schedule an appointment for a complimentary consultation.
References:
1. DiBernardo BE. Randomized, blinded split abdomen study evaluating skin shrinkage and skin tightening in laser-assisted liposuction versus liposuction control. Aesthet Surg 30:593-602, 2010.
2. Shiffman, M & Di Guiseppe, A (2006). Liposuction: Principles and Practice. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
