Liposuction Long Island, NY

Patients can return to work and other regular activities as soon as they feel comfortable, which is usually after a few days. Exercise and other strenuous activities should be avoided for a few weeks.

Although liposuction is not an overly invasive procedure compared to what it used to be, patients still need to follow the pre-procedure protocols for surgery. This means not smoking for two weeks prior to your procedure and for at least two weeks after. You’ll need to stop taking aspirin or other medications or supplements that can reduce the ability of your blood to clot. This will limit your bruising. Depending on the area or areas Dr. Rhee is treating, you may want to prepare for a few days of laying low. You’ll be able to walk and get about, but you probably won’t feel like going to the store or doing other chores for a few days.

Liposuction permanently removes fat cells. They are gone for good. If you don’t gain a ton of weight, you will not build new fat cells and you will maintain your results for the remainder of your life. It’s important to mind your eating and lifestyle choices if you want to truly benefit from your new slimmer contour for the long haul. If you gain weight, the weight doesn’t usually initially build in the areas treated, as many of the fat cells have been removed. But other fat cells can expand and if you gain enough weight new fat cells can be created.

Once most patients see their new slimmer contour, they want to make the necessary lifestyle changes to maintain them. Eating a healthy diet, making exercise a part of your life, and simply staying active are all you’ll need to do to maintain your slimmer contours for the rest of your life.

Modern liposuction has come a long way from when it was first introduced in the U.S. in the 1980s. At that time, liposuction was a pretty violent procedure that caused extensive bruising, tissue trauma, and blood loss. Patients needed to be under general anesthesia because the doctor had to move the cannula back and forth quite aggressively to break loose the fat.

Today, liposuction with Dr Rhee is much easier. The procedure is typically performed under sedation or “twilight” anesthesia as an outpatient procedure. She uses the tumescent technique, where a saline solution containing lidocaine is first injected into the target areas to minimize the pain and firm the fat, making it easier to remove. The solution also contains epinephrine to constrict the blood vessels, limiting blood loss and bruising. A cannula is then inserted to suction out the fat and liquid. The cannulas used in modern liposuction are much smaller, so the corresponding incisions needed to access the fat pockets are very small, usually not even requiring stitches.

Thanks to these changes, liposuction procedures with Dr. Rhee are quite easy to take. Recovery is fast, bruising is much less than it formerly was, and patients generally only need over the counter pain medication to handle the soreness of the procedure. This is not acute pain, and it is easy to manage.

Because Dr. Rhee can use very small cannulas, she doesn’t need to make lengthy incisions to gain access to the targeted areas. In most cases, the incisions made are only 4 to 5 mm long, less than a quarter of an inch. These tiny incisions fade over time and become virtually invisible.

Liposuction performed by inexperienced doctors can result in areas of loose, sagging skin. That’s because the practitioner didn’t gauge the elasticity of the patient’s skin prior to moving ahead with the liposuction.

As a board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Rhee has extensive experience with both liposuction and plastic surgery to remove loose, sagging skin. During your consultation for liposuction, Dr. Rhee will examine the skin and support tissue in the areas you’re seeking to address. If she feels your skin has adequate elasticity, she will recommend liposuction. Your skin’s elasticity will allow it to tighten down to the slimmer contour once the underlying fat is removed.

However, if Dr. Rhee feels you have loose, sagging skin in the area, liposuction is not the right treatment approach. Removing fat under this loose skin will only make it looser. For these patients, surgery to remove the loose skin (possibly in combination with some limited liposuction as well) would be a better solution. For instance, a patient seeking to have liposuction on their abdomen could be better served with abdominoplasty (tummy tuck surgery) than with liposuction on its own.