Many people suffer from unattractive fat build up in certain areas of their bodies. Women tend to accumulate fat around the hips, thighs, abdomen, and buttocks. Men have problems with love handles and their abdomen. Either might have problems with their neck, chin, legs, arms, or breasts. These stubborn deposits remain even after diet and exercise. At best, many people would have to become excessively thin in other areas prior to slimming these problem spots.
But now there is away to help people like this, by decreasing their size to one that fits them more appropriately, but only through a surgery called liposuction. Liposuction is also referred to as suction assisted lipectomy, lipo-sculpture, or lipoplasty; but they basically are the same. Liposuction removes fat deposits which are unresponsive to diet and exercise. Surgeons can vacuum fat from beneath the surface of the skin, using an instrument called a cannula. This surgery is used to decrease fullness in any area of the body.
It is an excellent method of spot reduction and unwanted bulges, but it is not very effective for losing weight. First started in the early 1980s, liposuctions present significant advantages over other techniques of body contouring. Huge scars are avoided by laboring through small incisions, (less than a half inch), that are placed in the most unnoticeable areas, such as natural folds of skin. Liposuction scars are very small and they are strategically placed in obscure places.
Then a slender, smooth, round, hollowed out surgical suction rod, also known as a cannula, is injected and is connected to a vacuum like object with a suction tube. This vacuum sucks the fat right out of the body, leaving muscles, blood vessels, nerves, and skin in place. This process allows the surgeon to recreate the bodys shape, and sculpt a new improved contour. For women, the most common areas treated are the thighs and stomach.
Men tend to have their love handles and flank area treated. Other areas that are treated as well are the hips, buttocks, knees, ankles, double chins, and facial accumulations of fat. Liposuction has become one of the most common cosmetic techniques all over the world during the past fifteen years, due mainly to its safety and effectiveness. Athletic individuals who are of normal body weight and are already using an exercise program make the best candidates for liposuction, because their deposits of fat are usually in one place due to their physical fitness, but others can also benefit from this surgery. Usually people with localized areas of bulging fat receive the most dramatic results, because these localized areas of adipose are easily removed since the fat is all in one place. Patients who are slightly overweight will also benefit, but patients should not be obese.
Age is not a important factor, but good skin elasticity in patients will help the skin shrink to its improved contour. The most important quality for patients, is for them to have realistic expectations of what can be accomplished. Patients should not have heart or lung problems, but should be in generally good health. This procedure is not an alternative to weight loss, and there is a limit to how much fat can safely be removed at one time. The American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons recognize liposuction as a safe and effective technique of removing sectioned areas of excessive fat.
Nonetheless, in rare occasions, this surgery may cause severe trauma, especially when many or very extensive areas are suctioned at one time. Like any other surgery, complications such as bloodclots, infection, skin loss, and in the most extremes cases even death can occur. However, a well trained and qualified surgeons perform the surgery, these instances become quite rare. Although a surgeon maybe very skilled, conflicts can occur; such may include bagginess or rippling of the skin on the area treated. Also pigment alterations (brown spots), can become common and become permanent if disclosed to the sun.
Bagginess of the skin may become permanent if the skin fails to adjust to its skin surface. However, problems like these are uncommon due to the new techniques such as: the use of smaller cannulas and the combination of deep suctioning with superficial suctioning. If you are thinking about liposuction, choose a surgeon carefully to insure that you receive the best cosmetic and surgical results possible. There are a lot of official-sounding organizations and certifications that dont mean anything in ways of qualification. To select a well trained and educated surgeon, use these guidelines:
- Make sure the doctor is board-certified, and that the office or surgery center where the procedure will be performed is accredited.
- Find out if the physician has hospital-admittance and transfer privileges.
- Be positive that the surgeon understands and is experienced in performing the look you are seeking.
Having a well educated surgeon will not only help you look better, but insure that the surgery is done safely. Before patients go in for liposuction, their are some very important instruction they should follow. Avoid all aspirin or aspirin related medicines for two weeks before you surgery. Be sure to cleanse the body thoroughly and carefully. For safety reasons, arrange a way home after the surgery, because you may still feel the aftereffects of the anesthesia.
Also make sure to follow all of your surgeons advice in order to prevent any harmful after effects. Before surgery, try to keep away from sunlight, the skin is very sensitive and reacts badly with sunlight causing brown spots. After surgery, bruising, pain, discoloration, discomfort, swelling, numbness, and soreness is quite normal. But most patients feel good after a week. A patients weight will be heavier after surgery due to extra fluids that were given during and prior to surgery; but this after effect is only temporary. Usually, patients will be asked to wear a special garment that will help reduce swelling, and help the skin readjust to its new shape.
While wearing the garment, many feel well enough to resume their normal activities. Exercise is recommended about two weeks after surgery, but strenuous activity should not be done. A couple weeks after surgery, patients are asked to return for a check-up, and for a removal of their stitches removed. But healing is a gradual process, and everything needs time before one can see and enjoy the results.
After liposuction, imperfections are not uncommon. The skin sometimes looks baggy, asymmetric, or irregular; but this is mainly with older patients. The excess skin that appears in some patients does, in time, shrinks, because skin is a dynamic organ. Patients whose skin is not so elastic, can have excess skin surgically removed. Most surgeries take only an hour or two; it mainly depends on how much fat is being removed.
Liposuction is a surgery that can be repeated, although there is a maximum amount of how much fat can be removed at once (four to eight pounds). Sometimes patients may want to redo a surgery or even have more removed at another time, but surgeons suggest at least a three month waiting period between surgeries. After puberty, fat no longer develops; it only gets bigger or smaller in size. One fat is removed its gone forever. The fat that remains can increase your size, but if you do gain weight, youll probably gain it more uniformly throughout your body, not just in the former bulges, and the body will maintain its better proportions and improvement. The results can be permanent, providing you eat sensibly and exercise regularly.
