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Beauty Tech Review: Body Contouring
Fat reduction is big business and many companies and products claim to have the ultimate solution to your spotty fat deposits with lasers and ultrasonic devices designed to melt and disrupt fat cells making them easier to remove than with traditional liposuction technologies. These procedures are still surgical however, and those who seek to avoid surgery are looking for alternative methods. Injection lipolysis is a popular non-surgical choice, but recent FDA scrutiny has brought this practice under fire.
"Injection lipolysis is where we use ingredients that actually melt fat and we inject them directly into the targeted fat area," says physician Dr. Elizabeth VanderVeer, an aesthetic physician in Portland, OR. "So if you have an area of concern, say your abdomen, bra fat, thighs etc, we're able to sculpt that fat away in a non-invasive way - quickly and painlessly - and give you a better result than liposuction which can leave you lumpy, bumpy and with uneven tissue. So, injection lipolysis is a fantastic and safe way to get rid of unwanted fat."
Dr. VanderVeer says that she has closely examined the ingredients used for injection lipolysis and has settled on the two she feels provide the best results while maintaining safety. "Injection lipolysis is an interesting procedure because it really doesn't tell you anything about who is qualified to perform the procedure or what's in the syringe. How we melt the fat is by injecting ingredients into that fatty layer, but I've trained on hundreds of ingredients that could potentially go in that syringe and I only use two ingredients and those are the ones that I have determined over the last 6 years are the safest and most effective to get my patients the results with little side effects if any." She goes on to say, "The two ingredients that I've limited my practice to have been very well studied and actually the American Academy of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery is coming out with the results of their study this summer about injection lipolysis and the two ingredients in particular have been studied and found to be both safe and effective."
Actual Lipodissolve Results, Chin: After 3 Treatments
She cautions that it is important to seek out a properly trained physician. "You really need to go to a medical doctor's facility. You need to go to someone that you have seen their pictures, you know the results are real and that they are their results and that they stand behind their work."
Injection lipo can be used nearly anywhere on the body. "One of the places that I'm a specialist and have the most phenomenal success is with the fat underneath the chin," says VanderVeer. "We can get with just 2 or 3 injections results that either rival or actually improve upon those you can get from liposuction. This is a wonderful area, it makes people look pounds thinner, years younger and all with a couple of treatments that are very minor. You can use it on saddlebags, buttocks, inner thigh, and inner knees. That is an area where a lot of people are very interested in having fat treated and anywhere from the elbow all the way to the knees. We don't go below the knees or the elbow."
It is important to remember that as with other fat reduction procedures, injection lipo is not a weight loss solution. "Injection lipolysis does not address weight. As we all know, fat floats, so it's very light anyway. In order to lose several inches, which is entirely possible with the injections, you're not going to lose any appreciable amount of weight at all. It's really just a sculpting and slimming body contouring procedure that I think is very safe and completely effective."
Actual Lipodissolve Results, Abdomen: After 6 Treatments
Dr. Vanderveer says that the fat cells are destroyed in the injection lipo process. "You inject the ingredients with the syringe into that fatty layer, the fat cell bursts and literally the fat, triglycerides, free fatty acids get liberated into the circulatory system just as if you were exercising and losing weight and it gets carried away through the liver and bound up with bio salts there, and all of the fatty waste goes out through the toilet. Very rarely you'll have any kind of side effect where you'll see fatty stools or something but otherwise it just gets processed as normal waste. When you think about the amount were injecting and how much fat were liberating it's pretty much equivalent to going to McDonald's and having a Big Mac, fries and a milkshake. The amount of fat that's being liberated from the fatty tissue that we're injecting is less than what you would get at a McDonald's meal."
Side effects with injection lipo are generally minimal. Dr. Vanderveer says, "I've trained all over the country with the best in [injection lipo]. It's very important to me that I provide safe and effective procedures. So I've trained in virtually every corner of this country with the worlds' experts in this procedure. The side effects from properly administered [injection lipo] are minor - swelling, a little itching, maybe some painful lumps that very rapidly go away."
Actual Lipodissolve Results, Arms: After 3 Treatments
Dr. VanderVeer says it takes a few days to recover from the injections. "Within a few days, there's no sign of the injection site whatsoever. The fat is being processed and melted and then we will see you back in two weeks for your second injection, or in the case of the face neck and jaw, we do that every month, and the side effects are so mild that most people actually get fewer side effects and better results with each successive treatment."
There are certain medical conditions that can rule out certain patients as candidates for this surgery. "I do screen my patients for medical conditions that would make them non-optimal candidates for injection lipo. So if you have chronic medical conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes, uncontrolled heart disease or hypertension - those are things that I want to make sure that you're healthy. Another condition that really does interfere with the results of injection lipolysis is thyroid problems because thyroid is really the master of the land and so we at our office do a battery of blood tests to make sure that your thyroid, your cholesterol, your kidney, liver and bone marrow are all working well and we do this test before we begin the program of lipodissolve because we have a vested interest in you getting a great result. So if you're not healthy going into the procedure, it's not going to make you healthy. What we like to do is pick the appropriate candidate for the procedure, do the procedure, have the patient get fantastic results and it's not unusual for a patient to lose upwards of 6 plus inches from an area with 6 treatments all in the course of 12 weeks. So this is an amazing procedure that when performed correctly and in the proper hands is a fantastic safe procedure that rivals if not better than traditional liposuction."
The cost of injection lipo runs between $1500 and $1800 per area, and often requires as many as six treatments over the course of 12 weeks. "Your savings is a significant amount of money : thousands of dollars less than liposuction."
Injection lipolysis has been a hotly debated issue and the FDA has recently issued warnings about Lipodissolve.
See Dr. VanderVeer discuss Injection Lipolysis below:
Dr. Elizabeth
VanderVeer
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.
