Laser Liposuction

Laser Liposuction

For individuals that are interested in obtaining liposuction as a way to remove excess fat deposits from their bodies, you may be interested in undergoing a treatment known as laser liposuction. Laser technology has gripped the imaginations of generations of Americans and seem to symbol a far off future. However, lasers have been incorporated in medical procedures for decades and have drastically improved the safety and efficiency of many surgical techniques, whether it is dental or reconstructive or even cosmetic.

Laser liposuction or laser-assisted liposuction refers to the use of lasers in traditional liposuction procedures. The benefit of incorporating laser technology in standard liposuction surgical techniques is that it increases the safety standards of the procedure and decreases the amount of recovery time that the patient needs following the liposuction surgery. Similar to the use of ultrasound technology in ultrasonic liposuction, laser liposuction represents the future for liposuction surgery.

Nature of lasers

Laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation and is a medical instrument that is increasingly being incorporated in standard surgical procedures. Medically, lasers produce a powerful beam of light that is tuned to a specific frequency that can range from intense heat to cool vaporization. Used at close range during surgical procedures, lasers assist the surgical process when it is used to quickly and efficient remove tissue.

When used in liposuction, lasers reduce the invasiveness of the entire procedure. Traditional liposuction utilizes a cannula (suction probe) to break up the fat deposits that are to be extracted from the patient's body. However, laser liposuction utilizes laser technology to liquefy the fat deposits that are to be extracted from the patient's body. This is because lasers have the ability to be adjusted to the exact frequency needed to deliver its energy through the initial layers of the patient's skin to reach the fat deposits that are being targeted by the plastic surgeon.

An additional benefit that laser-assisted liposuction has over other liposuction techniques is that lasers can be used to tighten the patient's skin following the liposuction procedure. This will appeal to liposuction patients that have loose and inelastic skin. Often these patients find that their skin condition reacts poorly to the changes produced by traditional liposuction procedures.

Less invasive

When compared to the use of micro-cannulas and even ultrasonic waves that are used in other liposuction methods to break up the fat deposits that are to be removed from the patient's body, laser-assisted liposuction is easily the least invasive liposuction procedure. As it is less invasive, laser liposuction also produces the least risk of tissue damage.

For example, many patients with loose and inelastic skin find that their skin do not adjust to the reduction of fat deposits from their body and this results in unsightly droops following the liposuction procedure. To rectify this, these patients often find that they require skin lifts, which often result in scars that make the liposuction treatment that they initially received counterproductive.

However, through the use of a carbon dioxide laser, patients with loose and inelastic skin will find that this laser technology can reconstruct the layers immediately beneath the patient's skin by pulling the surrounding skin inwards. This eliminates the possibility of skin drooping following a laser liposuction surgery.

Although laser liposuction has numerous advantages, it should be emphasized that it is a relatively new procedure within the field of liposuction. As a result, laser-assisted liposuction remains in its experimental stage. Although plastic surgeons have found that lasers do not present the possibility of skin burning that ultrasonic waves does, it has still not been determined what the long-term effects of laser exposure in liposuction treatments are.

For more information about laser liposuction, it is recommended that you consult a board certified plastic surgeon that has extensive experience performing laser-assisted liposuction.