The beginning of a new year oftentimes brings about the desire for change. Many of our Austin cosmetic surgery patients are focused on taking time to reflect on their achievements from the previous year and set a new vision or goal for the year ahead. That’s what I do, and I like to think that many of you do also.
Much of the time, I find myself reflecting on my fitness level and understanding where I would like to be as I approach my birthday each year in July. I then brainstorm how I will get there. For me, I create a 6-month plan. For many of my patients, their timeline is much shorter. Knowing your timeline is important for me to help you create a treatment plan so that I can meet, or even better, exceed your expectations.
For this discussion, I want to focus on the topic of body contouring and specifically the question of liposuction versus CoolSculpting®.
CoolSculpting
Here is the skinny: CoolSculpting is, in my opinion, the very best procedure to target small, unwanted, diet-resistant areas of pinchable fat. It is the ideal procedure if, like me, you have a very busy schedule, can’t take off time to have surgery, and don’t want downtime from your fitness activities.
Some of the most popular areas to treat with CoolSculpting are the bra line, arms and inner thighs for my female patients and the flanks and lower abdomen for my male clients who want to enhance their physiques.
Recovery & Results
This procedure is done in the office with just a few days downtime and results expected in 6 weeks to 3 months. You can see one of our CoolSculpting patient’s results in this Instagram post:
View this post on Instagram
Take a look at our photo gallery to see more of our patients’ CoolSculpting before and after pictures.
Liposuction
Liposuction is a great procedure for the entire abdomen, global waistline, and total thighs, especially when we want to use this fat to enhance the male body form with BodyBanking® to refine and augment the pecs, biceps and deltoid muscles. In women, fat transfer works beautifully to restore lost volume in the face, buttocks, and breasts (you can read more about fat transfer for breast augmentation in our related blog post).
Recovery & Results
This procedure does require day surgery and has a longer recovery time, with results expected in 3 to 6 months. Our patient pictured below (before and after liposuction) is an avid runner who just couldn’t get rid of some stubborn fat. You can see how liposuction trimmed her waistline:
View this post on Instagram
You can see some of our patients’ liposuction before and after pictures in our photo gallery to get an idea of the type of results that are possible.
If you are interested in liposuction or CoolSculpting at our plastic surgery practice in Austin, please contact us to request a consultation, or call us at (512) 288-8200.
