Liposuction

Liposuction New Jersey

Liposuction (or lipoplasty) is the most common cosmetic procedure in the United States. Because it removes unwanted fat from specific areas, liposuction can improve the contours of your body, including your neck, upper arms, abdomen, buttocks, hips, thighs, knees, and calves.

Liposuction is not a substitute for weight loss or exercise. It will not improve or correct dimpled skin (or cellulite). The best candidates for liposuction are men and women who are at a healthy, normal weight but have pockets of excess fat that do not respond to weight loss and exercise and make the body look unbalanced (disproportioned) in places.

Firm, elastic skin will help support the new contours that liposuction offers; however, if the procedure leaves loose, hanging skin that does not shrink to fit your new contours, you might need additional surgery to tighten the excess skin.

Your Consultation

A consultation for liposuction includes a thorough discussion of your desires, expectations, and concerns as well as limits and risks of the surgery. Your surgeon will review your medical history and recommend options that can best help you achieve your goals. He or she also will examine the areas to be treated and take pictures. To create a more polished look overall, you might want to combine liposuction with other plastic surgery procedures such as a tummy tuck, lower body and buttock lift, thigh lift, or arm lift.

The Procedure

Liposuction is a very safe outpatient procedure. In most cases, it can be performed in our ambulatory surgery center using local anesthesia and intravenous sedation. If your procedure will be extensive, you may need a general anesthetic and overnight hospital stay.

In traditional liposuction, the surgeon uses a small tube (cannula) to mechanically break down fat as it is suctioned from the body. All liposuction procedures at Summit Medical Group are performed using a special (tumescent) technique that significantly reduces bruising, swelling, and pain after your procedure.

The tumescent technique involves injecting the excess fat with a large amount of anesthetic liquid before the suction procedure. The liquid causes the compartments of fat to become swollen and firm. The expanded fat compartments then allow the liposuction tube to travel smoothly beneath the skin as the fat is removed.

Small incisions (less than 1/4″) are made in your body’s natural creases where they can stay hidden. We primarily use dissolvable stitches and scarring is rare.

Recovery and Results

Your surgeon will give you thorough written instructions to prepare for and recover from your procedure. The instructions include ways to prevent infection and when to follow up with your surgeon.

The length of your procedure will vary depending on the number of areas you are having treated. Afterward, you must wear a compression garment to help with healing and limit swelling. Because healing is a gradual process and varies with each patient, you might need compression garments for days or weeks.

Treated areas may be bruised for a few weeks after surgery. While most of the swelling will be gone within a month or 2, some minor swelling can remain for 6 or more months. Any pain you experience can be managed with oral over-the-counter or prescription medications.

Although your surgeon will encourage you to walk as soon as possible, you should avoid strenuous activity for 2 to 4 weeks. Most patients return to work 2 to 3 days after liposuction, but some patients need as much as 2 weeks off.

Although liposuction can enhance your appearance and improve your self-confidence, it is important to remember that the effects of your procedure might not match your ideal. For this reason, it is important to have realistic expectations about your results.

In some cases, a touch-up procedure is needed to fine tune the outcome. The results of your liposuction procedure are permanent; however, if you gain weight, you can expect to gain it more uniformly throughout your body rather than in the areas where fat gathered before you had liposuction. If you eat sensibly and exercise regularly, you should be able to easily maintain your new body contours.

Call Summit Medical Group today at 908-277-8759 to make an appointment or for more information about how liposuction can give you a smoother, slimmer, better proportioned appearance.