Most people in the US have a problem spot or two on their bodies. Despite healthy eating and exercise, the battle of the bulge can be difficult to win. People like never before began turning to laser liposuction to deal with their problem areas. Hearing ads about laser liposuction and seeing advertisements on the internet is now commonplace in most parts of the United States. Doctors across many different specialties and practices have started offering the procedure to their patients. Despite this trend there is little information published advising patients of the realities of this procedure.

Sono Bello which operates 8 body contouring centers in 7 states, with over 22 board certified surgeons who practice laser assisted liposuction exclusively, is set to release its new internal study. There has been a lack of studies and data to support patients looking to have this amazing procedure. Given Sono Bello’s extensive experience we wanted to provide our patient base and the medical community with quantifiable data about what people can expect from laser liposuction.

Sono Bello polled 1,240 of its patients 7 days after their procedure and found that the promise of pain free liposuction is only partly true. Patients measured their comfort levels on a scale from 1-10 with a score of 10 being completely comfortable. Here are the results of this single section of the study, average values are shown:

This section of the study clearly demonstrates that most patients both during their procedures and post procedure have a high level of comfort, but it’s not always pain free. The study also revealed a direct correlation of increased discomfort both during the procedure and afterward for those patients with a higher BMI (Body Mass Index). “As the fatty deposits in our body grow and the body mass increases, the fatty tissues become more fibrous and difficult to remove which can disrupt more nerve endings in the body”, according to Ed Zingaro, MD, a Sono Bello plastic surgeon.

Alternately, Sono Bello’s data shows that patients with the ideal height and body weight had less discomfort on average, but not always. Every now and again patients who should have had little discomfort per our findings still did. It just goes to show that everyone’s experience is as unique as their own body. The study found as well that the greater the amount of fat removed from the area also increased the discomfort scores of patients.

Laser liposuction and the comfort levels of patients during the procedure and afterward are affected by many different factors: body weight, amount of fat removed, area treated, number of areas treated, individual patient sensitivity and tissue fibrosity.

Sono Bello is making the results of this survey on patient comfort and other research available to readers right here on our blog. We’ll continue to update the blog with new studies and insights as often as possible. Meanwhile, for convenience, click here to subscribe to receive our blog post updates right in your inbox.

Over the next several weeks additional data and findings will be shared.

Dr. Thomas Garrison, MD
Sono Bello Chief Medical Officer

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Sono Bello’s blog and all of its articles, posts and videos are the sole opinion of our physicians and in no way, shape or form is Sono Bello or its physicians offering medical advice to our readers. This content is not intended to supersede the medical advice of your primary care physician. If you have any questions or concerns about your health, please refer to your primary care physician or doctor.

We are getting ready to release an internal patient study that has been in the works for nearly a year. Encompassing over 1,000 laser-assisted liposuction procedures, the study will provide insight into average recovery and average back to work times, along with satisfaction ratings and other data. This information will allow potential liposuction patients to utilize Sono Bello’s experience in order for them to make the best possible decision regarding liposuction. The new studies will be made available right here on Sono Bello’s blog, and will be released and shared freely. Please use the subscribe button at the top of this page or click here to sign up to be notified as soon as they are released.

With eight locations in six states and more in the planning stages, we employ over 22 board certified surgeons who specialize in the latest, most advanced liposuction procedures. With over 5,000 surgical cases to date, Sono Bello is a medical practice that exclusively performs laser-assisted liposuction procedures and VelaShape™ treatments.

We are excited for the opportunity to share this research with the public and we are looking forward to your questions and comments.

Sincerely,

Dr. Thomas Garrison, MD
Sono Bello Chief Medical Officer

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Sono Bello’s blog and all of its articles, posts and videos are the sole opinion of our physicians and in no way, shape or form is Sono Bello or its physicians offering medical advice to our readers. This content is not intended to supersede the medical advice of your primary care physician. If you have any questions or concerns about your health, please refer to your primary care physician or doctor.

At Sono Bello we believe that it is worth the time, energy and investment to provide patients with the best liposuction care possible. Laser Assisted Body Contouring at Sono Bello has two parts: Removal of the fat and improvement of the skin quality from the effects of the laser. We work to provide our patients with the best value and we believe the use of the laser is an important part of this.

Here’s how the laser works:
Our lasers provide thermal energy to the undersurface of the skin. It is well known in plastic cosmetic surgery that if the undersurface of the skin is heated to the proper temperature, there is increased collagen formation. The use of the laser causes two important things: It causes the skin to actually shrink and tighten, and it works to liquefy the fat. Multiple studies have shown that there is a 15% to 20% tightening of the skin which also increases skin elasticity—as with any surgery though, individual results will vary based on body type, skin quality and the amount of fat being removed.
Along with liquefying fat, the laser seals blood vessels so there is less bleeding and swelling. This process also triggers the body’s lymphatic system to remove the affected fat cells. With less bruising and swelling there is less pain. With less pain there is quicker recovery time. With quicker recovery time the patient can return to normal activities much sooner than with traditional liposuction.

Overall benefits of laser-assisted liposuction:
• Smaller incisions can often be used
• Large, unsightly scars are not common
• Quicker recovery times
• Less pain during recovery
• Possibility of helping with cellulite reduction
• Increased skin retraction and elasticity

The greatest overall benefit of using the laser is not skin tightening, because the amount of tightening varies patient to patient. Rather, it is the pass-through with the laser that seals off the blood vessels to reduce bruising and speed the recovery process which provides a much greater overall experience for our patients.

The laser is most beneficial in areas of the body where the skin is loose. This typically is the neck, abdomen, upper arms and knees. In these areas where we previously had to do a facelift, or a tummy tuck, or dissect skin, we can now often obtain skin contour and tightening so that these invasive procedures that leave unsightly scars are unnecessary.

People often ask me: How long does it take to see the benefits of the laser? In my experience it can take 3-6 months to see maximum skin tightening. It takes the body time to develop this new collagen and elastic tissue. Everyone’s body is different and some people will notice immediate results, for others it takes several months. Whatever you do, maintain patience and treat your body well because a major part of your final results with any surgery are dependent on your body’s natural healing processes that often move slower than we’d like.

I invite you to contact any of our locations to experience our professional services and see the Sono Bello difference for yourself.

Dr. Dennis Watkins, MD
Sono Bello Physician

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Sono Bello’s blog and all of its articles, posts and videos are the sole opinion of our physicians and in no way, shape or form is Sono Bello or its physicians offering medical advice to our readers. This content is not intended to supersede the medical advice of your primary care physician. If you have any questions or concerns about your health, please refer to your primary care physician or doctor.

The Senate is working on passing a new healthcare financing bill that would place a 5% tax increase on all elective cosmetic procedures. The obvious rationale for this type of tax is that cosmetic procedures like liposuction, Botox injections, tummy-tucks and breast implants are in high demand and not medically indicated. It is an industry that up until this current economic downturn had been growing by double digit numbers each year. That’s a lot of revenue that could go toward supporting the Senate’s healthcare overhaul, but at what cost?

The cosmetic surgery industry is a clear target due to the large volume of business that it conducts each year, but there are many issues that we as experts fear the senators are not taking into account with their proposition.

In its recent press release, the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS) stated that it is against the tax. Several other organizations like the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, along with the AACS, have provided interesting insights about the full impact such a tax would have on individuals and the economy.

Here is a highlight of some of the collateral damage that we believe this type of bill can have:
• There is a large blurry area between procedures that are considered medically-necessary and those that are elective. The infrastructure that would need to exist to administer such a tax program that can make this distinction could quite easily cost more in running than the revenue it generates.
• The current condition of the industry is such that physicians already face many challenges in operating their practices on a day-to-day basis. Economic growth has subsided and introducing this tax puts the industry at risk of losing highly skilled physicians and placing an even greater strain on day to day operations.
• The median income for those electing to have cosmetic surgery is dropping. One study shows that 1/3 of people who had a cosmetic procedure done in 2005 earned less than $30,000 a year. This is not just a tax on the wealthy.
• Our largest group of patients is working women, who would be unfairly targeted by such taxes.
• Recent studies have shown that attractive people get paid 10% to 20% more, on average, than their less attractive counterparts. If the services we provide can help people feel better, look better, and get higher paying jobs, why impede that?

Not only are the professional organizations and the physicians that work with them against this type of tax, but so are the tens of millions of people a year who decide to have some elective cosmetic procedure done.

This tax begs the question of what will they tax next: Viagra, weight-loss surgery, circumcisions, removal of skin tags, treatment for hair loss..?

Here at Sono Bello we believe we are providing services that help people change their lives for the better. We start people on a road to a healthier and more productive existence that only contributes to the wellbeing of the greater communities we operate in.

We believe that our patients’ decisions to have our laser body contouring procedures done to help them look and feel better is a private and personal decision that should not be impeded by high taxation. There are many options for funding our healthcare overhaul in this country, and taxing elective cosmetic procedures is not one that is sustainable.

Dr. Thomas Garrison, MD
Sono Bello Chief Medical Officer

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Sono Bello’s blog and all of its articles, posts and videos are the sole opinion of our physicians and in no way, shape or form is Sono Bello or its physicians offering medical advice to our readers. This content is not intended to supersede the medical advice of your primary care physician. If you have any questions or concerns about your health, please refer to your primary care physician or doctor.

I talk about nutrition with every one of my patients. My patients often want to talk about why they have fat in a particular area of their body. They want to know how they can develop achievable health goals to complement their decision to have laser-assisted liposuction done. All of my patients have a genuine interest in being healthy and fit.

My number one recommendation for patients that want to see the best results after their procedure is to practice portion control in their diets. Not only is what you eat an important factor in post operative recovery (as healthy and nutritious foods can aid your body’s lymphatic and metabolic systems that work to heal your treated areas), but the portions you eat can have a large impact on your final results as well.

The number one cause of obesity in America is over-eating unhealthy foods. I tell my patients to start off by eating half of what they would have normally eaten in any given sitting. I don’t believe in traditional diets because they don’t work if the patient cannot tolerate the food. As habitual animals, humans have a difficult time changing their preferences. So to start with I make it simple and suggest portion control.

Being healthy is a simple function of balancing your input with your output. If you take too much food in, and don’t output enough energy in the form of exercise or activity, then you will gain fat.

It is really a lifestyle change I am suggesting. Not a diet or workout regiment (although those would be good too), but a complete shift in how my patients live their lives. And it doesn’t have to be as hard as it sounds. The idea is that you can continue eating the types of foods you would normally eat, but cut down on the quantity. It’s the first step in the right direction for many of my patients.

When someone gets liposuction done they realize, “Wow, I cannot believe I got to this point where I had to have surgery”. They got here for various reasons; usually because they couldn’t obtain the body shape or size they wanted due to stress, travel, diet or injury. Most often, a slight lifestyle change like controlling the portions we eat in each meal can help turn our lives around, especially after the immediate results achieved from our laser body contouring procedure.

This realization shocks my patients into action. They get a turbo boost of motivation. They get results immediately because I am taking out fat, but when they come back for their 4-6 month appointments they also look different, they are eating right, they have a personal trainer, new wardrobe, and they are so happy. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”, I remind my patients. I think that helps them take the first step to changing their habits and leading a healthier lifestyle.
Anecdotally, from my experience, when I remove fat from my patient, if they continue to exercise and eat healthy, and drop their “problem food”, they will typically lose an additional amount similar to what we took out by their 6 month appointment. That is a phenomenal head start to a new body and lifestyle. Another part of the motivation to change is from the fact that the patient invested money for their procedure. They made an investment in changing their body, and they want to take care of their investment.

If you have not yet had a procedure done at Sono Bello, I invite you to contact any of our locations to experience our professional services and see the Sono Bello difference for yourself. If you are an existing patient, I wish you the best of luck on a full and healthy recovery and look forward to receiving any of your questions or comments about this article.

Dr. Aaron Rollins, MD
Sono Bello Physician

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Sono Bello’s blog and all of its articles, posts and videos are the sole opinion of our physicians and in no way, shape or form is Sono Bello or its physicians offering medical advice to our readers. This content is not intended to supersede the medical advice of your primary care physician. If you have any questions or concerns about your health, please refer to your primary care physician or doctor.

Have you ever considered the possibility of doing a little bit of liposuction, all over? Would you like to get rid of some of the flab from the arms, slim down your inner thighs, remove some fat from your love handles and hips, and maybe even contour your neck? Although most patients typically focus on one or two areas, it is becoming more popular and common to do a whole body liposuction package.

If you have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 25 or less, and would like to have whole body liposuction on several different areas, we would schedule you for 1 – 2 sessions, spaced a minimum of 3 days apart.

If you have a BMI of 25 or above, and would like whole body liposuction, we would schedule you for 3 sessions, spaced a minimum of 2 days apart.

(*Note: The chart above will give you a general idea of your BMI. It should be noted that BMI is just one of several measurements we look at when developing a custom program for you. BMI, for instance, does not take into account the percentage of fat to muscle in your body and therefore is limiting as a standalone measurement.)

There are several reasons that we break the liposuction into 2 – 3 sessions. Patient safety is our primary concern. By spreading the procedures out, we are able to limit the amount of Lidocaine (local anesthetic) used, maximize fat removal, improve recovery, and minimize down time. I have found the following schedule to be well tolerated. The sequence is not important, but I like to group abdomen, flanks (love-handles), and hips into day one; bra-rolls, arms, and neck on day two; and inner/outer thighs and knees on day three. Your body can be transformed in less than a week!

I require my patients to wear their post-operative compression garments for a minimum of 10 days after surgery (a minimum of 12 hours per day for the last 7 days). The compression garments really help the body and skin heal nicely, and the patients that can tolerate wearing the compression garments for a full month get the best long-term results.
I invite you to contact any of our locations to experience our professional services and see the Sono Bello difference for yourself.

Dr. Eduardo Avila, MD
Sono Bello Physician

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Sono Bello’s blog and all of its articles, posts and videos are the sole opinion of our physicians and in no way, shape or form is Sono Bello or its physicians offering medical advice to our readers. This content is not intended to supersede the medical advice of your primary care physician. If you have any questions or concerns about your health, please refer to your primary care physician or doctor.