Smartlipo^TM

A Smarter Liposuction and the Case for Plastic Surgery
An Interview with Stuart Kincaid, MD
By Mike Bundrant of Healthy Times Newspaper

In 2006, the FDA approved a new surgical procedure call Smartlipo, a laser assisted liposuction procedure. Recently, I had a chance to speak with Dr. Stuart Kincaid, of Temecula and La Jolla, about the new procedure as well as the case for these kinds of procedures in general.

HT: What do you say to the skeptics? Aren't these surgical procedures just band-aids that don’t really solve the lifestyle problems that cause weight gain and obesity?

Dr. Kincaid: This brings up the whole reason for the existence of plastic surgery. We as human beings want to be the best we can be. That is very natural. How do we achieve it? For different people there may be different ways. I’m the first to admit that plastic surgery is only a piece of the puzzle. It’s a means to an end that contributes to a happy and productive life. It is NOT an end in itself; it’s only a piece. The other pieces include a positive mental attitude and approach to life, frequent exercise (preferably doing something you enjoy) and proactive, healthy nutrition.

In America, two-thirds of people are overweight and one-third are obese. We have in this country 450,000 Liposuctions and 150,000 Gastric Bypass procedures per year. That’s America by the numbers, and these numbers are growing, not declining. Approximately two years ago Medicare stated that the cost of healthcare in America due to the obesity epidemic now overshadows the cost of smoking related health care. So, we have a weight problem in the country.

HT: If these procedures aren't a substitute for a healthy lifestyle, what is their place?

Dr. Kincaid: Well, some people experience changes in their life that contribute to weight gain. They may have an injury that immobilized them and they gained weight; they may have had to return to work after being a stay-at-home mom for years and are overwhelmed with their schedule. In this fast-paced society of ours, people don’t easily find the time to fit the recommended 30-60 minute exercise session into their schedule five times per week. Beyond that, progress is often discouragingly slow.

So, as far the band-aid issue is concerned, I feel great about what I do, because if someone comes to see me and I do Lipo or Body Contouring for them, it serves a much –needed boost in the arm. They see immediate results. Then, there is even more tendency for them to become more proactive in their lives and introduce fitness and nutrition into their routine.

For one, they want to protect their investment. But they’ve also been given hope. This is the point I want to make. Ideally, the surgeon and the patient form a partnership designed to get them on the road to physical and emotional recovery.

I found that people, after I’ve helped them achieve a positive body contour change, tend to make a commitment to a healthier lifestyle. Then I know I’ve helped them improve their overall health picture for the future. Heart attacks, strokes, total hip and knee replacements and so on are much less likely. I’ve seen this phenomenon countless times over the years. People go on after surgery to lose an additional 20-30 pounds because they’ve gotten the jump start that they needed; they are lighter, feel better and are no longer depressed about their weight.

HT: Tell us about Smartlipo^TM.

What I believe is that people desperately want to make positive changes in their body image and of course, they want the simplest, most cost-effective surgical way to do that. They also want to minimize the post-op recovery and down time. So, frequently people will come in and ask about conventional Liposuction because it’s been around for about 25-30 years in this country.

In conventional liposuction you physically remove fat and then rely on the overlying skin to shrink back over the next 4-6 months. Many patients who want that have been led to believe that it is some kind of panacea to all of their body-image problems. However, they often end up dissatisfied with lumpy skin, cellulite or stretch marks. Somehow they believe they can go to a dress size of 8-10 to a dress size of 1-2 and this is also unrealistic.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have plastic surgical procedures, but that entails bigger surgery, perhaps long scars, more expense and more downtime for recovery.

Smart Lipo or Laser Assisted Liposuction allows doctors introduce a laser light beam into the mid to superficial fat layer under the skin. The laser liquefies fat and coagulates bleeding vessels so there is likely to be less bruising and swelling and less downtime.

More intriguing to me, however, is the potential added advantage of tightening the over-lying skin, so that when we do remove the fat, the skin will contract more. This is a great advantage to the average patient. For example, a woman who has had one or more pregnancies probably has some lax skin, some stretch marks and surface irregularity – and perhaps she has some underlying muscle damage. This kind of patient is likely to be disappointed if she undergoes conventional liposuction, only because the overlying skin may not contract as much as she might hope.

Patients like these often don’t want to consider the additional plastic surgery (tummy tuck) necessary to correct this problem, due to the added expense, the scar hidden in their lower torso and the downtime required.

So, that leads us to Smartlipo^TM. It is for people who want to be more aggressive than conventional liposuction, but they don’t want the tummy tuck at this time.

Sometimes people get confused, thinking that because we use a laser in the procedure, that it is a “laser only” procedure. I can do that if they want, but it is more effective to use the laser and then follow it with conventional liposuction. Why do we do this? Because the liposuction at the end scavenges the liquefied fat and also removes more of the intact fat.

So, Smartlipo^TM is a marriage between a laser and traditional liposuction that removes more fat and allows for a faster recovery and greater tightening of the overlying skin.

Mike Bundrant is the Founder of Healthy Times Newspaper, which can be found at www.healthytimesnewspaper.com