Choosing a Surgeon for Liposuction Mountain View

Why choose Dr. Lowen to do your liposuction/liposculpture procedure?

1. Safety and backup:

Dr. Lowen has a thorough understanding of the care of the surgical patient, having had six years of surgical and plastic surgery residency training at Stanford and the University of Colorado and over twenty years of private practice experience in aesthetic surgery. New advances and technology, such as ultrasonic liposuction and liposculpture and laser lipoplasty, such as SmartLipo Triplex™ have done wonderful things for patients when used in skilled hands, but they are still powerful surgical tools that need to be used with judgment. Dr. Lowen can incorporate new technology on a sound foundation of surgical experience. Many current practitioners of lipoplasty lack board certification in plastic surgery or any surgical specialty and may have more difficulty in learning and practicing these surgical techniques.

2. Thoroughness of final result:

Patients today have choices in how to have their body contouring done. For those who prefer local anesthesia and who have smaller localized areas of fat, like the abdomen or love handles, we can offer procedures like SmartLipo MPX™. This is done under local anesthesia with a rapid recovery and return to work. Patients who have larger areas to be treated can choose vaser® ultrasonic liposculpture and have many more areas of fat removed while comfortably asleep under general anesthesia. Unlike office-based physicians who do not have hospital operating privileges, our patients can have the procedure that respects their decision about how much they wish to remove at one time. If a patient really requires more comprehensive treatment we can usually get it done in one or sometimes two sessions in a thorough manner. This avoids scheduling multiple smaller sessions with an overall larger total cost.

3. Quality of results:

While there can be no guarantee of results with liposuction or any surgical procedure, I believe that with proper background, experience and skill, in other words, the right surgeon doing your procedure, the likelihood of your getting a smooth, even, and pleasing result with a rapid recovery and a minimum of complications or need for revisions is much greater.

A patient of mine flew out of town for a procedure on her arms to an internet-advertising physician who was neither a surgeon nor a dermatologist, and ended up with contour deformities that require fat grafting to correct. When such problems as incomplete or excess fat removal occur, further surgery is required, and some of these problems are not entirely correctable. I have also seen severe, disfiguring abdominal skin scars from burns due to improper use of an earlier generation of ultrasonic liposuction and reports of deep tissue fibrosis or thickening from injudicious use of newer laser technology.

4. Avoid poorly placed scars:

A good liposuction practitioner, doing an aesthetic operation, should place the incisions where the scar, even if small, will not be visible. When operating on the abdomen, I always place incisions in the umbilicus and the pubic area where they will remain unnoticeable. On the back, I place them low where they will be hidden by underwear. If they are not placed in this way, they will be permanently visible. I have seen examples of scars placed in the mid or high back or mid or lateral abdomen where they are visible and unnatural indicators that a procedure has been done.

5. Why pay exorbitant fees:

There is something in human psychology that tells some of us that if there is a higher price attached to something, it must be better. This may be so within reason, but I have seen liposuction patients in our area who report being quoted $14-16,000 for straightforward torso liposuction.

To learn more about Vaser® Ultrasonic LipoSelection™ or SmartLipo Triplex liposuction techniques at our practice serving San Jose, Palo Alto, and the entire San Francisco Bay Area, please contact our plastic surgery center today.