Everywhere you turn, it's seems like there's an ad about liposuction. It's no surprise to see such a big marketing push; the surgery (which is also called lipoplasty and suction lipectomy) is a business that regularly brings in hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars yearly. These ads always seem to feature smiling, flawless women (and occasionally men) and some sort of tagline about making all of your dreams come true through cosmetic surgery.
These ads can make a lipoplasty seem like a magical, unbeatable surgery. After all, who wouldn't like to come out of surgery looking like the people on the ads? Unfortunately, the real world is never quite as perfect as the world of commercials. Just as drinking a Budweiser can't guarantee that the Swedish bikini team will show up and be interested in you, so a lipectomy can't guarantee that you will suddenly have the body of your dreams. This article will explain some of what the surgery can and can't do.
The first thing that people need to understand about liposuction is simply what it does. The surgery removes fat. During the procedure, small incisions are made around a specific target area. This target area is one that the patient has chosen beforehand, and it is one where there is excess, unwanted fat. The doctor will insert small needles called cannulas to break up and remove the excess fat.
If there's something about your figure that doesn't involve fat, a lipoplasty cannot solve it. Some people wish that their bone structure was different, and some people don't like the patterns that their musculature makes. For example, some women find that their abdominal muscles become loose and distended after a pregnancy. A lipoplasty cannot change this. All it can do is remove the fat.
Similarly, a lipectomy cannot remove excess skin. Some people have a flabby, unstreamlined appearance that is actually not due to fat, but to large amounts of loose, flabby, excess skin. For people like this, surgically removing additional fat can actually worsen one's appearance by creating more excess skin.
One problem that many people think can be solved by a lipectomy is cellulite. People reason that cellulite is caused by fat, and thus, removing the fat should solve the problem. This is not, in fact, the case. By and large, liposuction actually causes cellulite problems to worsen, because of the nature of the fat which causes cellulite.
Although lipoplasty is a good and worthwhile surgery, it certainly should not be treated as a magical cure all. For information about what a lipectomy could do for you, speak with a surgeon in your area.
