If you have cellulite and have tried to get eradicate it from your body using conventional methods (diet and active lifestyle, creams and lotion, etc.) but it’s just not working for you, you may be looking into more significant measures to do so. As the obsession with how our bodies look has increased throughout the years, so have the measure that we take to reach the happiness we long for. This search for the cellulite “cure” has caused many new forms of treatment to come to light in recent years including liposuction and laser treatments. If you do a quick search of the internet, you will find that many of these procedures claim to be a quick fix for your cellulite issues, but is this really the case? As with most things that sound too good to be true, it may be just that.
It is important to note before continuing that because these techniques are still relatively new, there is limited understanding of the long-term effects that they may have on your body. Furthermore, if they do even work the way that you wish, they may not be the permanent fix that you are looking for. As we delve into a couple of these treatments, it is imperative to take into account the positives and negatives of each of the procedures to see if it is something you may be interested in.
The first method we will take a look at is one that has been around for a while, liposuction. This procedure melts away fat deep beneath skin which is then removed via a vacuum. Liposuction is a process that was invented, possibly much earlier than you may have thought, in the 1960’s. However the early forms of this resulted in largely erratic results with high levels of bleeding and scarring. A newer form was introduced in the 1980’s that significantly improved the process and liposuction has been improving ever since. In fact, liposuction is now the most commonly performed plastic surgery procedure. Since this procedure does have positive results in removing fat, it should be helpful for alleviating cellulite, right? That may not be the case.
Though liposuction has been around for many years now, the use of liposuction for the purpose of removing cellulite is something that has recently come to light. While there is zero evidence that liposuction may help to remove cellulite, a much more sobering development has been made. Liposuction may cellulite to appear much worse than it initially did. Liposuction is designed to remove deep fat tissue, however that is not where the factors that cause cellulite reside. Cellulite is found in the subdermis, which is more superficial than where liposuction attacks. In fact, to remove the subdermis, you must also remove the visible skin associated with it.
The removal of cellulite, in that capacity, therefore cannot occur. Instead what can be employed is a process called SmartLipo, which is the inclusion of a specialized laser to help tighten and smooth the skin while liposuction is being performed. This is the extent to which liposuction may be a help to “remove” cellulite. Unfortunately, even this isn’t a guaranteed process as removing fat from liposuction may cause more cavernous indentations in the skin, causing a worse appearance of currently existing cellulite. Even if you do not have cellulite, liposuction can cause indentations similar to that of cellulite.
Dr. Richard P. Rand has this to say about cellulite and liposuction, “Although much effort has been spent on developing techniques to get rid of cellulite, none have been effective to any significant or consistent degree. What we generally try to do is to not create cellulite when it isn’t already there and not make it worse when it is there.” The most important thing to do if you are considering liposuction is to seek out advice from a plastic surgeon who has a good reputation. Often, surgeries are performed by those lacking the proper credentials and the results can be devastating.
Another method that has been garnering attention in recent years is laser removal of cellulite. This is an alternative that many people gravitate towards as it is non-invasive and painless. Laser treatment has been used with much success to remove acne, hair, tattoos and wrinkles, but its use for the removal of cellulite is still a new revelation. There is one thing you should know about the laser removal of cellulite though; it doesn’t work.
There is absolutely no empirical evidence that exists of the use of lasers that works to remove cellulite. In theory, it is impossible (unless you want to suffer lasting effects). There are two types of lasers used for the treatment of human skin, non-ablative (low level) lasers and ablative (high level) lasers.
Low level lasers are used to treat acne and and tattoos as they work on the most superficial layers of skin. Cellulite, however, resides in the sub-dermis of the skin; the deepest layer of skin. These low level lasers simply do not contain the strength to reach these layers and therefore do not have any effect on cellulite whatsoever.
High level lasers on the other hand are very, very strong. In fact, they are TOO strong. While the lasers are strong enough to reach the subdermis where cellulite is found, it cannot do so without damaging the layers of skin on top of the subdermis. Technically, use of these lasers could, if you could withstand the immense pain that this entailed, help “melt” the fat lumps causing cellulite, but the melted fat has nowhere to go, only to be reabsorbed by the surrounding cells, causing no effect to the outward appearance of your issue. Because of that fact, and the damage to skin tissue this would cause, specialists will not even think of employing high level lasers for this use.
Laser therapy also has wildly expensive costs, reaching as high $1800 for the 10-15 treatments that you would be required to partake in to see your “results.” There is no one step fix for cellulite and these processes are no exception. In fact, these procedures are not fixes at all. Although these methods do have their applications for other afflictions, cellulite is not one of them. If you do still wish to learn more about these methods, take the time to seek the help from a professional with a reputable background as they are not decisions to be taken lightly.