All the Details You’ve Been Wanting to Know About Body Sculpting

For generations, men and women alike have taken steps to change their appearances to align with the beauty standards of the day. From tight fitting corsets to highly invasive early versions of cosmetic surgery, the desire to improve one’s appearance is not a new phenomenon. Thankfully, what has changed over the years is the technology we have at our disposal to provide our clients with the appearance they desire.
While we still offer tummy tucks, breast augmentation, and liposuction for those patients who are looking for a surgical solution, we also have a suite of nonsurgical options. Those nonsurgical procedures fall under a category known as body sculpting.

What is Body Sculpting?
Body sculpting refers to non-surgical cosmetic treatments that eliminate fat using cold, heat, or injectables. CoolSculpting, Kybella, Vanquish, and SculpSure are the most common body sculpting treatments and are excellent tools for people who want to get rid of stubborn fat. While body sculpting is effective at eliminating fat, it’s not the most ideal treatment for patients who have significant fat to lose. A consultation with your cosmetic surgeon will help you to determine whether or not you’re an eligible candidate.

Most body sculpting treatments require multiple sessions. The number of sessions will vary depending upon the area that’s being treated and the amount of fat you would like to have eliminated. However, it’s important to be prepared to be treated more than once.

The Four Main Types of Body Sculpting
CoolSculpting, also known as cryolipolysis, is a body sculpting procedure that uses cold temperatures (around 40 degrees Fahrenheit) to literally freeze fat cells inside your body. Once the cold temperatures have killed the unwanted fat cells your body will naturally get rid of those cells within several months. The procedure itself takes approximately an hour and unlike more invasive surgical solutions there is no downtime and no damage to the skin.

On the other end of the spectrum, Sculpsure uses laser technology to heat fat cells beneath the skin. This body sculpting technology enables cosmetic surgeons to target specific fatty tissues without harming the skin. The laser raises the temperature of the unwanted cells and destroys them. As with other body sculpting techniques, the body’s natural systems process those dead cells and eliminate them from the body. Once these fat cells are removed using body sculpting techniques they will not regenerate.

Unlike the other treatments we’ve mentioned, Kybella is an injectable and has a single specific usage. Kybella is composed of deoxycholic acid which is a substance that your body creates naturally. In nature, it helps your body break down the fat that you eat, and this man made version has the same effect on your body fat. Kybella is used to target the fat underneath a patient’s chin, and people who undergo this treatment are generally concerned about the way this fatty deposit makes them look older and heavier than they are. As in other body sculpting techniques, your body naturally illuminates the fat that is destroyed using this procedure.

Like SculpSure, Vanquish uses heat to destroy fat cells. The device itself never comes into contact with the skin but it heats the skin tissue to 101deg and the underlying fat to 220deg in order to destroy it. This technique uses radio frequency to deliver energy into the fat cells. It is most frequently used to target the areas of the midsection that are often hard to treat using traditional diet and exercise. This includes the stomach, love handles, and thighs.

Each of these body sculpting techniques is meant for patients who have exhausted their other resources in order to achieve a healthy look. Before you will be eligible for body sculpting it’s important that you are able to maintain a healthy diet and exercise routine. As powerful and effective as each of the above treatments are, new fat tissue will develop if you are not addressing the underlying issues that are causing you to gain fat.

We are frequently asked which of the body sculpting treatments is most effective, and there isn’t a simple answer to that question. Each of our treatments is effective at meeting the needs of certain patients. For instance, some treatments focus on specific areas of the body, and in some cases, patients are unable to sustain high levels of heat or cold. Just like any of our treatments the best way to determine what will work best for you is to schedule a consultation.

In our office, it’s our goal to provide our patients with the appearance they want in order to allow them to live the lives they want. If you were ready to eliminate the pesky fat that seems to hang around no matter what you do, we have a treatment for you. Contact us today and we will gladly talk through your body sculpting options with you.



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