According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, more than 300,000 people in the United States underwent invasive surgery in 2006 to remove fat from within their bodies. Liposuction is a procedure that is performed on a daily basis in the US, and one that often requires additional surgery to remove excess skin remaining when a bulk of fat is simply removed from the body. For many people, liposuction can be a traumatic experience.

Fortunately, technology often holds the key to open doors that lead to improvement, especially in liposuction. SmartLipo is one exemplary case. This relatively new procedure is growing rapidly, servicing a steady flow of patients who wish to see firsthand if SmartLipo works as well as reported. Dubbed by some as a "medical miracle," SmartLipo has made believers out of many clients. SmartLipo does what it claims, and does so very well.

Traditional Liposuction - invasive and risky

Liposuction has been performed on millions of people in the years following its introduction in 1982. Although the surgery is performed often, the technique is quite invasive, and the outcome of the fat removal is in the hands of the surgeon, quite literally.

The cannula, or tube, used in traditional liposuction is between four and six millimeters in diameter and requires an incision that often requires stitches. After the painful procedure is complete, patients can expect to wear compression bandages for at least six weeks. Bruising and tissue damage is a common complication with traditional liposuction.

SmartLipo - advanced technology with minimal invasion

SmartLipo is far more advanced than traditional liposuction. Rather than manually moving the cannula through the area of fat removal, plastic surgeons use a much thinner cannula (one millimeter in diameter), which has a laser affixed to the end.

Also known as laserlipolysis, SmartLipo does not suck the fat cells out of the body. Instead, the laser is used to melt the fat cells in the area of treatment, and the heat from the laser helps seal off blood vessels to minimize bleeding. Connective tissue is not bruised or traumatized as it commonly is in traditional liposuction procedures.

Another added effect of undergoing SmartLipo is that collagen is produced by the body as a response to the heat of the laser. Generally, plastic surgeons inject patients with collagen to add firmness to saggy areas. As a great side effect, SmartLipo actually helps sculpt the body by firming the skin as fat is removed. This process continues from within the body for approximately three months.

Generally speaking, most patients who undergo SmartLipo treatment are back at work within two days. As tissue trauma and bleeding is so minimal, compression bandages are only recommended for up to two weeks, simply as a precaution. The site of the laser's insertion is unnoticeable and requires no stitches. Compared with traditional liposuction, which can require up to six weeks of bandaging, stitches, and even additional surgeries to remove excess skin, SmartLipo is certainly the fastest, most advanced and effective method to permanently eliminate the body of fat in problem areas.