Beauty Tech Review: Body Contouring
Patients have many choices in liposuction now, more than ever before. There are lasers and ultrasound lipo devices, and traditional liposuction as well. One of the most recent advances in liposuction though doesn't use a laser or ultrasound. It's Tickle Lipo, and for many, it's their choice for body contouring.
"There's a lot of body contouring or liposuction technologies out there and there are two schools of thought," says Dr. Jeffrey Hall, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon in Austin, TX. "One is a school of thought that the more we heat up the skin the more skin shrinkage we get, the better shape we get. The other school of thought is the more we preserve the anatomy underneath the skin, the more the skin can redirect itself and contract.... Both are going to want to get out as much fat as we can and to reduce contour irregularities."
Dr. Victoria Falcone, Member of American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery and American Society of Laser Medicine and Surgery, who performs lipo in Philadelphia says, "It differs because it's a vibrating, rotating, reciprocating cannula which means that the cannula actually moves so it gives us the ability to turbo infiltrate an area. All of my patients are awake when I do liposuction so the only discomfort they ever feel is when we put in the numbing solution. Of course the numbing solution goes in and it numbs them on contact so it's not a long period of discomfort, but with the vibration of the cannula it overrides the nerve fibers and makes it much more comfortable. Most of the patients say it tickles."
CAL Results of Dr. Stephan Houyoux
One of the key advantages of Tickle Lipo is that patients don't need general anesthesia so that often, the physician can perform the procedure in their office rather than going to a surgery center. According to Dr. Hall, he uses a light sedation. "There is some distinctive anesthesia that can be done in an office setting or office OR your don?t have to have the patient completely asleep." He does caution though that much like the other liposuction modalities, this is not a weight loss procedure. Dr. Hall says that, while the machine can perform large volume removal, those patients should not have surgery done in an office setting. "The standard is 5 liters ? that?s where you cut that off and say anything over 5 liters needs to be done overnight in a hospital type setting for monitoring purposes."
CAL Results of Dr. Stephan Houyoux
Tickle Lipo can be performed on many different areas of the body. Dr. Falcone says, "I can use this to infiltrate any area. The only place I haven't really used it on is the neck because the cannula is a little bit larger than I like to use on the face. But you can use it in any area of the body, the breast, legs, ab and back. Since there are different sizes to the cannula, it gives me a lot of flexibility. The other thing I like about it is that it not only infiltrates the area in a painless manner, it's very efficient at taking the fat out so if a person is having multiple areas done in one day and they're awake, it makes it very efficient to get through those areas."
One of the great advantages of Tickle Lipo is the speed of recovery. "The recovery is so much better for the patient. They have less bruising and less swelling, for instance we did a patient on Tuesday - and again we were only doing a small area like the ab - and they were back to work on Friday. With the standard lipo, that is not the case, maybe 2 weeks." Dr. Falcone agrees saying, "[O]ne of the first patients I did was one of our surgical techs. We did her abdomen and she had to be at work the next day and she was totally fine. She was on her feet for 8 hours of surgery in her compression garment and she did very well."
CAL Results of Dr. Stephan Houyoux
After surgery, patients do need to wear compression garments to ensure good circulation and proper healing. According to Dr. Falcone, "With Tickle Lipo, my instructions would be to wear a compression garment for 2 weeks. All of my patients come in the next day to change their dressings and the go over the post treatment instructions one more time. Because there is no heating, their healing is probably a little bit faster. I don't see a lot of bruising, less than 10% which is excellent."
The cost of Tickle Lipo is lower than some other procedures, because of a low cost to the physician. Most patients will be looking at around $2000-$4000 for one area.
See Dr. Falcone speak about Tickle Lipo below:
Dr. Jeffrey Hall
Dr. Jeffrey Hall, owner of Hall Plastic Surgery & Rejuvenation Center is board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He has practiced plastic surgery for more than 12 years and is a member in good standing with the American Society of Plastic Surgery and other medical associations. He has served as the President of The Austin Plastic Surgery Society and is presently Chief of Plastic Surgery for the Seton Medical Network. Dr. Hall is a member of affiliated with the following: American Society of Plastic Surgery, Texas Society of Plastic Surgery, Austin Plastic Surgery Society, Texas Medical Association, Travis County Medical Society and Cleft Clinic of Austin.
Dr. Victoria Falcone
American Health and Beauty, in an effort to provide the most up-to-date information to our readers, presents the Beauty Tech Review. The next installment in this ongoing series discusses Body Contouring technology. Join American Health and Beauty editor, Keith Veseleny, as he speaks with leading physicians who share their knowledge on each body contouring platform.
The Beauty Tech Review: Body Contouring - will include: Dr. Mark Schusterman on Traditional Liposuction Dr. Thomas Barnes on Laser Lipolysis, Dr. Jeffrey Hall and Dr. Victoria Falcone on Tickle Lipo, Dr. David Broadway on Ultrasonic Assisted Liposuction Dr. Todd Malan on {!Water Assisted Liposuction | Body-Jet} Drs. Rox Anderson, Henry Chan and Lori Brightman on Zeltiq, Dr. Elizabeth VanderVeer on Injection Lipolysis and Dr. Thomas Barnes and Dr. Richard D'Amico on Radio Frequency Liposuction.
Previous Beauty Tech Reviews have included the following topics: Laser Lipoloysis and Fractional Resurfacing.
