Liposculpting

Mark B Taylor, MD runs the Gateway Dermatology Aesthetic Institute and Laser Center in Salt Lake City, UT. He has been a leader in the field of cosmetic laser surgery, pioneering and teaching many new laser techniques to doctors world-wide. The office offers a wide variety of minimally invasive and non-invasive device-based liposculpting treatments for patients including SmartLipo, Liposonix, CoolSculpting, Body-jet, Vaser Lipo, and more.

WHICH PATIENTS SEEK LIPOSCULPTING?

All patients present to the office with different needs. You have patients coming in and unrealistically thinking liposculpting will work as a weight loss program. And then you have the realistic patients, such as the 45-year-old female who has had a couple children and who has worked out in the gym consistently but cannot lose that little pouch. We can help that patient.

There is a tremendous variation in who wants body sculpting and why. For example, we recently had a patient who presented with a square build and a few fat roles. Her only daughter was getting married and all she wanted to do was look good in a dress—any dress—and so we shaped her up and helped smooth about the rolls. She was thrilled with the outcome.

WHICH PATIENTS ARE NOT CANDIDATES?

If someone has a BMI of 40, they need to workout first and be realistic about what they need to do to get to a ball-park weight and shape where we can do something for them. There are some overweight people who I will do liposuction on. I had a male patient who was a very big guy—we took six inches off his waist. He was still a big guy, but he was happy with the results and looked better.

HOW DOES NON-INVASIVE BODY SCULPTING COMPARE TO LIPOSUCTION?

They are not comparable. For a 45-year-old woman who had had a few children and can't get rid of the pouch, I think procedures like CoolSculpting and Liposonix can help—and will offer results that patients will be satisfied with. Select patients who have just little pouches are reasonable candidates for noninvasive body sculpting. However, I don't think you can realistically remove much fat with these noninvasive devices. You might take an inch or two off their waists and you're going to help with some bulges, such as love handles. With some devices, it will take several sessions to obtain the desired results.

I like Liposonix because it allows me to treat several areas in one session. For this treatment, we use a little bit of dilute local anesthetic at the fascial level right above the muscle to make it numb so patients don't hurt. Sometimes we'll do 50 squares on one patient in one day, but you have to control the pain so we accomplish that with the tumescent anesthesia. It's still an in-and-out procedure with no down time. Patients may experience a little bruising, but it's a nice treatment option.

CoolSculpting doesn't hurt at all, but it requires more sessions and each treatment takes about an hour. One person may need eight treatments, or eight hours of treatment time, unless you have two machines in the office. The cost is comparable to liposuction, but without the same results. The perceived fear of surgery and complications, which are very uncommon, cause some patients to be too afraid to undergo an invasive procedure. They're afraid of the unknown and that it will hurt too much. You can discuss their fears and treatment options and decide what is best. Some patients just want a little improvement and opt for the non-invasive treatment. For example, Coolsculpting claims patients will see up to a 20 percent improvement.

VaserLipo is another good option. I recently treated a 30-year-old man who had a little pouch and love handles—we did the high-definition Vaser liposculpting to create some abs and accent what muscles he had to make him look a little thinner and more sculpted. Typically, high definition Vaserlipo is more of an art than just liposuction to take off some fat and gives a more dramatic result.

ARE THERE ANY PRECAUTIONS PATIENTS NEED TO TAKE AFTER TREATMENT?

From non-invasive body sculpting, there is no downtime or restrictions. With more invasive treatment or liposuction, I tell patients to avoid sit-ups and activities like jogging. I tell them to do exercises that are smooth, like the elliptical machine or walking.

HOW DO YOU MARKET THE PROCEDURES?

We have a very active website, we run ads on billboards in our area that get 20 million impressions per year per ad, we have a monthly newsletter, and we appear on television segments and magazine articles to advertise our office procedures. We discuss the options for treatment when patients come in to the office. We spend almost a half million dollars a year marketing all of our procedures, and it's worth it.