Dr. Minniti is a prominent, highly-rated Beverly Hills plastic surgeon with extensive experience performing liposuction and achieving consistently amazing results.
Liposuction (“lipoplasty”), a popular body-sculpting technique, re-contours specific areas of the body by removing stubborn areas of fat resistant to diet and exercise. For people who have areas of the body with disproportionate contours and areas of excess fat, sometimes due to genetics, liposuction surgery can slim and reshape many areas of the body, enhancing your appearance and boosting your self-confidence.
Ideal Candidates For Liposuction
The best candidates for surgery have realistic expectations about what the procedure can do. Liposuction can enhance your appearance but it will not necessarily give you a body that’s unrealistically perfect.
Ideal candidates should:
- Have tried diet and exercise first;
- Have firm, elastic skin with good muscle tone that has pockets of excess fat in certain areas;
- Be normal weight;
- Be in good health and psychologically stable.
What's Treated
Common body areas treated include:
- Abdomen
- Hips, buttocks, thighs
- Knees
- Upper arms
- Chin
- Cheeks
- Neck
The Procedure
In the last decade, liposuction techniques have been refined. New and high-tech techniques are available that can minimize trauma and bleeding to give patients more precise results.
The doctor will choose specific methods for you depending on your problem area and your aesthetic goals.
Unlike tummy tucks which correct loose or sagging skin in the abdomen and require deep surgical incisions, current liposuction techniques frequently involve injecting medicated fluid into fatty areas to treat fat. The injected fluid improves efficiency of fat reduction, can reduce blood loss, provides anesthesia during and after surgery, and possibly reduces the amount of post-surgical bruising. After fluid is injected, a tiny incision is made and a narrow tube inserted to vacuum or suction the fat layer beneath the skin.
Different variations on the procedure include:
Tumescent Liposuction
Tumescent liposuction, which takes much longer than traditional liposuction (often four or five hours), is often performed on patients who require only a local anesthetic. Large volumes of fluid, as much as three times the amount of fat to be reduced, are injected into the area. The fluid contains anesthetic, possibly reducing the need for additional anesthesia.
Super Wet Technique
Super wet is similar to tumescent but uses less fluid. The fluid injected is equal to the amount of fat to be reduced. Super wet, which typically takes one or two hours, often requires IV sedation or general anesthesia.