Liposuction
Our superbly educated and highly experienced plastic surgeons use leading-edge liposuction techniques and technologies to deliver outstanding results for each of their patients. When treating liposuction patients in our San Diego office, our doctors utilize several of the latest lipoplasty methods, including tumescent and power-assisted liposuction.
What is Liposuction?
The technique of liposuction involves removing fat through a long, thin metal tube called a cannula. The surgeon utilizes a very small cannula in addition to tumescent and power-assisted liposuction techniques. The power-assisted liposuction technique involves a vibrating cannula which allows for a smoother result.
The surgeon will also use the tumescent liposuction technique. The tumescent technique has become the standard of all liposuction techniques. This involves infusing a dilute local anesthetic solution, which compresses the small blood vessels and tissues, thereby diminishing the amount of bruising and maximizing the amount of fat to be removed.
Recently, our team at Ranch & Coast has been utilizing a new liposuction technique called the S.A.F.E. (Separation, Aspiration, and Fat Equalization) technique for liposuction. This technique is an aggressive type of liposuction that allows for more fat removal while producing very smooth results. This is utilized for those patients who want a sculpted waist and is often very helpful in those patients undergoing revisionary or secondary liposuction procedures.
Our Liposuction Team Meet Dr. Cameron Francis
In addition to Dr. Chasan, Ranch & Coast is proud to present Dr. Cameron Francis as a liposuction surgeon.
Dr. Francis began his medical career by earning a Bachelor of Science in molecular biology, followed by his medical degree from UC San Diego School of Medicine. He went on to complete a prestigious two-year fellowship in craniofacial and pediatric plastic surgery, after which he completed a comprehensive, six-year integrated plastic surgery residency. A leader in his field, Dr. Francis has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles, many of which are the result of original research in the field of plastic surgery. Dr. Francis proudly performs liposuction at Ranch & Coast Plastic Surgery in San Diego, routinely producing stunning results that his patients love.
Who is a Good Candidate for Liposuction?
Typically, the best liposuction candidates are those who already work out and eat a healthy diet, and, despite this, still have stubborn but specific areas of fatty accumulations. The better the skin quality and elasticity, the better the results. The board-certified plastic surgeons at our practice have specific expertise in liposuction, body contouring and body sculpting.
Liposuction procedures can be performed under local anesthesia or general anesthesia. Depending on the number of areas to be treated, the liposuction procedure takes approximately one to four hours. Most patients feel well by three to four days and can go back to work at that time.
If you would like to learn which liposuction techniques could help you enhance your body contours, please contact our Del Mar office by calling 858-450-1555 or click here to schedule a consultation.
Before & After
How Much Does
a Liposuction Cost?
Liposuction patients in San Diego can expect their surgery costs to vary, particularly based on what areas are being treated. Due to the variability of cases, some liposuction procedures are priced higher depending upon the level of complexity or invasiveness.
Dr. Chasan Discusses Liposuction on The Wellness Hour
Transcript of the Discussion
Randy: You do a lot of liposuction.
Dr. Chasan: I do.
Randy: You say you’re aggressive when it comes to liposuction. What do you mean by that?
Dr. Chasan: Well, I like to get a great result. And I think that all surgeons want the best-looking contour. And if you look at the consistency of fat, if you take a steak, imagine just for analogy. You cut off like gristle, there’s certain parts that the fat just kind of rolls off the steak, and there’s a part that’s gristly, our bodies are like that. Our bodies have that gristly fat too. And so there’s certain areas of the body where you can suction, and it’s the low hanging fruit, okay? And it’s pretty easy. But when you get into that gristly fat stuff, that’s where I need to be a little more aggressive. Now, I think techniques like ultrasound-assisted liposuction, laser-assisted liposuction, those techniques create a thermal injury. Those create more tissue injury.
Randy: You don’t like those.
Dr. Chasan: I don’t because they cause more scarring. They cause more scarring. So I use a technique called SAFE liposuction. It’s a acronym for separation, aspiration, fat equalization. And you take a special cannula that is kind of like an internal cheese grater. So you’re able to take that cannula and that gristly fat that normally a normal liposuction can…it just penetrates, but you don’t get that much fat. You can actually internally remove that dense fat right under the skin. And it does it very smoothly because you do it off-suction. And if you keep doing that, you can be much more aggressive, remove much more fat more safely, smooth. And then what you do, then you aspirate the fat, and then you go back and this internal cheese grater kind of thing allows little fat grafts to be laid down. So the overall result’s smoother. And when I say more aggressive, you’ve just done maybe 20% or 30% more fat removal and contouring than traditional techniques.
Randy: So when you see or hear about people using, you know, these power-assisted cannulas, and all these different things, or…
Dr. Chasan: Well, power-assisted is different. I do use power-assisted, which makes it easier and…
Randy: But like ultrasound or laser lipo, or things like this, because logically it sounds…
Dr. Chasan: It sounds good.
Randy: …like you get more fat.
Dr. Chasan: Right. Go in there and destroy the fat, and you suck it all out. There’s a lot of things in my world…
Randy: But what’s wrong with that? Help us understand.
Dr. Chasan: Yeah, okay. There’s a lot of things in my world…you know, it’s all about the detail. And so they sound good, but not necessarily are good. So if you go in there with a laser and you zap the fat and you create a thermal injury, you get more scar tissue. And if you have more scar tissue, well, things are going to be a little more irregular, things are going to contract. And then if you go back and you want to do a touch-up liposuction, you’ll know it. It feels like scar. So if you can do that kind of fat removal or even more fat removal without the thermal injury associated with it, I think that’s better.
Randy: Is it a finesse kind of job for you?
Dr. Chasan: Oh there’s a lot of finesse. Yeah, there’s a lot of finesse.
Randy: Tedious work?
Dr. Chasan: Not so tedious, but it’s contouring. It’s, again, using our artistic ability, and knowing where your cannula is all the time, and contouring, and looking, and having that three-dimensional eye on how you’re contouring the tissues.
Randy: Are you doing all areas of the body, nowadays?
Dr. Chasan: Pretty much. I mean, I would say in women, the most common areas are the abdomen, the hips, the flanks, or, you know, the brow line, the inner and outer thighs, the inner knee, and the arms. Those are the most common [inaudible 00:03:24].
Randy: How do the arms treat? Pretty well?
Dr. Chasan: They do really well.
Randy: Bra fat on the back? What about the back?
Dr. Chasan: Wonderful, wonderful. The liposuction in the right candidate is a great operation.