Patients frequently ask if it is better to lose weightbefore having liposuction. The answer to this question is directly linked towhether or not a patient is an appropriate candidate for liposuction. In thepast, patients who did not fall within 10-15% of their ideal body weight wereturned away from the procedure and instructed to lose the weight first.  This is no longer the case when curvesare back in style  and being a fewpounds away from your ideal body weight is in. Liposculpture, the newest trendin liposuction, allows for the coupling of liposuction with lipotransfer. 

You are a candidate for liposculpture if you have pockets ofexcess fat in particular areas, even if you do not fall within 10-15% of yourideal weight.  Keep in mind thatliposuction is not a substitute for weight reduction; it is a method ofremoving localized fat. Liposuction is a technique to remove unwanted fat deposits from specificareas of the body including the chin, neck and cheeks, the upper arms and abovethe breasts, the abdomen, buttocks, hips and thighs and the knees, calves andankles.  It essentially eliminatesthe bulges and brings the areas that are “liposuctioned” into a balance withthe untreated surrounding areas. Lipotransfer on the other hand is a techniquethat allows your surgeon to enhance areas that need enhancement by injectingthe liposuctioned fat into fat deficient areas.  With lipo-sculpture, you may want to lose the weight at somepoint yet it does not matter whether you do it before or after thesurgery.  You should be physicallyhealthy and psychologically stable and have firm elastic skin which will resultin a better final contour. Since lipotransfer in simple terms means taking thefat from areas you don’t need it to be in and delivering it to where you do(your face or your buttocks), you don’t need to be your ideal weight to be acandidate for lipo-scultupre. Lipo-transfer is a way to enhance areas that needenhancement, combining it with liposuction is true lipo-sculpture. Lipo-sculptureis completing liposuction which is essentially a sculpture procedure at apatient’s ideal body weight.

In the hands of a plastic surgeon with artistic skills and adequatelytrained in body contouring, your trouble areas will not only disappear, theycan be useful in adding to your appeal with an improvement in contour that willpersist for some time even if you lose or gain a few pounds later . Actually patients who gain a few pounds(emphasis on few) will have apersistent improvement in the contouring effect of the procedure because thenew pounds will end up getting evenly distributed in your body instead of goingback to the old bulges.  

A board certified plastic surgeon performing liposculpturecan turn patients who are more than10-15% of their ideal body weight intoappropriate candidates for liposculpture. Although liposculpturecan enhance your appearance and your self-confidence regardless of your weight,it will not necessarily change your looks to match your ideal, or cause otherpeople to treat you differently. Before you decide to have surgery, thinkcarefully about your expectations and discuss them with your surgeon.

Look at today's celebrity bodies, and you'll notice thatParis Hilton’s model thin body can no longer compete with Kim Kardashian’scurves.  With liposculpture, yourphysician can shift those pounds to where they can enhance instead of detractfrom your shape. Theconcept is simple, skinny is out and curves are in. Coupling liposuction withlipotransfer is liposculpture. A new way you can look good this summer nomatter how much you weigh.

http://www.glittarazzi.com/blog/2009/12/10/modern-luxxery/#more-4059

Plastic surgeon Dr. Ayman Hakki recently celebrated the launch of his cosmetic medical boutique, Luxxery, with friends and VIPs at a benefit for Zonta International.

Jazz musician Marcus Johnson was on-hand performing hits from his new album, Poetically Justified; celebrity hairstylist David Palmer coiffed the hair of guests as they enjoyed wine from Tarara Winery; and photographer Nakeva Corothers took lots of great pics (check them out, after the jump).

Also, at the event, Dr. Hakki announced the opening of Luxxery’s second location in downtown Washington, D.C., in 2010. (We can’t wait!)

AS SEEN IN YOURHEALTH MAGAZINE:

What happened to your pouty lips? Is that a sign of an aging face?

Yes, say the experts. 

Here are the telltale signs of an aging mouth, and they happen simultaneously:

• Your upper lip lengthens and flattens

• Your lower lip loses volume and develops a horizontal groove

• The corners of your mouth droop

• Your lip line, the white roll at the border of your lips thins and rolls in

• Your “nasolabial folds” , between your checks and your upper lip deepen and create parenthetic like furrows

• Your “marionette folds”, at the lower corners of your mouth turn down and create a bitter like look

A facelift can correct the laxity of your neck and cheeks. 

A browlift can correct the laxity of your midbrow. 

Eyelid surgery can reverse the process. Fat transfer into your face can compensate for the slowly disappearing fat all over your face and around your mouth. 

But if your mouth looks old, you would still look old in spite of all your efforts.

Few procedures in the world of contemporary cosmetic surgery have enjoyed such popularity as lip augmentation. Defining and accentuating the lips in an aging mouth or simply creating voluptuous lips in a youthful mouth is and has been all the rage since the 1990’s. 

Fuller lips are associated with youth, and today’s fuller lips are created with injections directly into the lips. The techniques to doing so vary, but what remains constant is your search for a physician with an understanding of your lip anatomy and the ability to maintain the natural proportions of your lips. The top choices for lip augmentation and rejuvenation of the aging mouth by way of direct injections into the lips are either autologous fat transfer (fat harvested from your own body) or the more popular injectable fillers such as hyaluronic acids.

Involving little or practically no downtime hyaluronic acids such as Restylane, Juvederm and Prevelle Silk (contains lidocaine to reduce pain) are the top choices for lip filling. A commonly used approach is combining some of the mentioned fillers for best results. Although hyaluronic acids tend to have a less permanent result, the so called permanent fillers (silicone oil, implants) are not a good option. A permanent filler in a constantly changing face and a mobile mouth will look good today and disastrous tomorrow.

What else should you consider for your “lip service”? If your mouth is aging, and you are not ready for surgery, there is almost no way out of fillers. Keep in mind that when you are looking at an aging mouth, you are also looking at an aging neck and chin and you may need a facelift. If on the other hand you are younger and simply want an Angelina Jolie like pout, don’t get filler-happy and over do it because lip injections is not a one-size-fits-all procedure and sausage like overfilled lips become a joke.

So what’s a girl to do?

Do your research, be a well informed patient, set realistic expectations and most importantly, choose your experts wisely and then..Be on your way to pouty lips.

Luxxery Cosmetic Medical Boutique:

Liposuction 101 

Saddle bags, muffin tops, love handles, banana rolls, meet liposuc-tion.  But, what technique should you choose?  Liposuction, Tumescent Liposuction, Vaser Lipo System, Li-podissolve™, Smartlipo™, etc... Read along and earn a few credit hours as you embark on the road to eliminating bulging fat.

Liposuction

Traditional liposuction is a surgi-cal procedure invented in 1974 that involves anesthesia, an incision, a few hours to perform and several days for recovery. Most importantly, liposuc-tion is best performed by a board certified plastic surgeon and not your dermatologist or your gynecologist. Liposuction is the actual physical removal of fat allowing for dramatic reduction in both circumference and body contouring. Your surgeon in-serts a metal tube, called a cannula, through an incision in the skin and into the fatty area. As your surgeon suctions, the unwanted fat is led to a container attached to a suction pump. Liposuction remains until today the gold standard to shrink specific areas of the body that do not respond to overall reduction in body weight. Re-sults of traditional liposuction, when performed on the ideal patient, far out way any other technique.

Tumescent Liposuction

Liposuction was revolutionized in 1985 with the tumescent technique. Tumescent liposuction involves in-jecting a fluid, mostly a mixture of lidocaine, saline and epinephrine, to expand the fat compartment before cannula insertion. This technique makes suction easier and more effec-tive, but mainly contributing to less bleeding and bruising and eliminating the need for general anesthesia.

Ultrasound & Laser 

Assisted Liposuction

Vaser Lipo System, Lipodissolve™, Smartlipo™, Ultra-Sculpt, Pro-Lipo, Lipolite, etc… are all new systems that include cannulas that emit either ultrasound waves or laser wavelengths. The purpose is to further liquefy fat prior to removal. Keeping in mind that best results are achieved when the liquefied fat is suctioned out, the purported benefits to the patient are that fat is easier to remove with less swelling and bruising. While early ultrasound and laser assisted systems led to some side effects such as skin burns and nerve damage, I found that the third generation devices addressed these side effects. These systems re-quire multiple treatments performed within weeks or sometimes once a week, they can be thought of as popu-lar adjuncts to traditional liposuction of post traditional liposuction. Both ultrasound and laser assisted liposuc-tion can be combined.

The gap between the dramatic results of liposuction and the subtle results of the noninvasive, “skin smoothing” ultrasound or laser as-sisted liposuction gets even wider when the added cost of these new systems is considered. From a cost perspective to the patient, the multiple sessions required with the noninvasive approach can add up to the cost of one traditional liposuction.

If you are overweight, you need a lifestyle change and not liposuction regardless of the tech-nique used to perform the liposuc-tion. You may benefit from combo techniques such as liposuction and abdominoplasty (tummy-tuck) if you have excessively loose skin. If you are not overweight but have those unattractive lumps around your hips, thighs or buttocks then liposuction is just what the doctor ordered.

So what’s a patient to do? Do your research, be a well-informed patient, set realistic expectations and most importantly choose your experts wisely and then, be on your way to perfect curves.