Laser Lipo
Many people desire to lose weight or shift fat. It is fair to
say that even conventional liposuction
is not a great way to lose weight. Diet and exercise are still the mainstay
of treatment
for effective results. Having said that there are a significant number
of people who
are of a more reasonable weight but who are very unhappy with the distribution
of fat on
their body. These people are more concerned with shape than weight. In
the past this has
required surgical liposuction involving a general anaesthetic a short
stay in hospital, considerable
bruising and swelling and the wearing of very uncomfortable restrictive
clothing
for 4 to 6 weeks following the procedure. There is a lot of pain to endure
and the final results
can take 6 to 12 months to develop fully. This has lead to many people
looking into a
way of reducing the severity of the treatment, reducing the risks and
the ‘down time’.
One new and exciting development in this
area has been Laser Lipo. Laser Lipo involves the
use of a fine one millimeter cannula with an ultra-fine fibreoptic laser.
This laser does not
attempt to melt the fat as this would require very large amounts of energy.
Instead it seeks
only to disrupt the fat cells and break them down. This turns intra-cellular
fat into extracellular
fat. The body then gets rid of the extra-cellular fat over a period of
6 to 8 weeks. It
is important to note that no attempt is made to remove this fat it is
simply left in situ and
the body naturally degrades it over a period of time.
This makes Laser Lipo inherently less traumatic and safer. It also means that Laser Lipo does not require a general anaesthetic or an operating theatre. All of this signifi- cantly reduces the cost of the procedure and improves the ‘down time’ The bruising and swelling is much less and resolves within a week to ten days. The compression garments are only needed for one week, and the final result is visible in as little as twelve to sixteen weeks.
Laser Lipo is not a replacement for liposuction. There is a limit as
to how much can be
done at any one time and if you need to remove reasonably large amounts
of fat in one go
then liposuction is still the preferred option. Laser Lipo can be used in the
right patients to provide
very pleasing results with significantly less ‘down time’ and
discomfort.
For more information regarding Laser Lipo please contact us.