By London Plastic Surgery
The reason I introduced and then invested in purchasing a Coolsculpting machine was to give LPS’s patients and clients more opportunities to choose the best fat reduction options available on the market. Firstly, Coolsculpting has established a solid reputation in the aesthetic field and is one of the only technologies that has been scientifically shown to reduce and eliminate fat without surgery. I was first introduced to it by a fellow colleague from Quebec who had it in her practice for a few years and every time I saw her at a meeting she would rave about the machine and the results she was getting for her patients. She finally showed me her personal patients’ results and I was blown away. Inherently, I am skeptical about non-surgical procedures as they rarely are reliable and effective but after seeing her results (from a fellow plastic surgeon that I respected) I knew I had to offer it for my patients. Surgical fat removal mostly means liposuction. Although this can be very effective in removing stubborn fat deposits, there are areas where it doesn’t do so well for patients, leaving fat behind or leaving divots or depressions, leaving loose skin, or just leaving long term swelling that turns into scar tissue and the effect of the fat removal is lost. Areas like the neck and fat under the chin, the upper arm, back, bra-strap back fat, and inner thighs and knees can be challenging to liposuck. In addition, I found Coolsculpting to be very helpful in situations where surgery may be too dangerous for a patient due to anaesthetic risks, for patients who do not want to have surgery and the pain and recovery that it entails, and for patients who may have had liposuction but still have areas of fat that were not addressed or were removed leaving irregularity. Since introducing it, we have been diligent in documenting our patients’ outcomes and we’ve been encouraged and impressed by the results. Of course, some patients still do better than others from a treatment, some seem to respond better than others, and of course the timeline that it takes for the fat to dissolve can range from 6-8weeks so the results can be slow to show up which can be frustrating if you are looking at the treatment area everyday expecting to see a change. Changes are best seen through photographs that are taken before treatment and 6-8 weeks after. Importantly, we have not had, to my knowledge any poor results like worsening of areas that have been treated. Some patients do have fluctuations in their weight after treatment and this too can affect the final results because no treatment takes all the fat away and the fat that is left behind can get bigger if a person gains weight. For all of these reasons, Coolsculpting has been a very useful and helpful offering for our patients and we continue to find new and novel uses for it. There is no down time, patients report minimal pain and swelling, and rarely need to wear compression garments.