Fat Melting Lasers and Other Devices  

Original liposuction procedures required general anesthesia, long recover times, long term soreness, excess skin post-surgery, and the ultimate risk of  bleeding and infection. With the innovation of “tumescent” liposuction, many of these problems were minimized or eliminated. However, many patients still want a quick more convenient option. 

Even minimally-invasive liposuction involves incisions, and therefore a variety of risks along with downtime. The introduction of non-surgical fat removal means a safer way  that can be done during the work day or after hours! 

Fat removal or liposuction is still the most common cosmetic surgical procedure in the country; As a result of the increasing demand for fat removal, several new technologies both invasive and noninvasive emerged in the difficulty in removing fat. At this point, Tumescent Liposuction (liposuction under local anesthesia) is the standard of care for fat removal. Over the past few years several lasers, ultrasound, and mechanical technologies have come out to help break down the fat prior to removal or to break down the fat from the outside of the skin without surgery. 

SmartLipo was the first internal fat melting device. These are helpful for smaller areas of fat. Other emerging technologies such as Zerona, Ultrashape and Velashape offer non-invasive technologies that target fat from the outside, leaving the body to deal with the waste. They require several treatments and to date offer benefit for only small areas of fat. 

Treatments based on the concept of melting away fat cells with heat based lasers have become commonplace.