BTL’s Vanquish arrives as another fat removal technique performed without surgery! Dr. Mark S. Elliott of Meridian Plastic Surgery in Mississippi explains how Vanquish utilizes radio frequency to remove fat in problem areas.
By: Mark S. Elliott, MD
and Chris Knisley
ThePlasticSurgeryChannel.com
BTL, a medical and aesthetic company, has recently introduced Vanquish, a fat removal device that doesn’t require surgery. Vanquish shoots radio waves into areas of treatment, and fat cells die! “Vanquish is a completely painless technology that uses radio frequency to melt away unwanted fat cells,” says Dr. Elliott. “There is a cover that puts radio frequency down under the skin and excites those fat cells causing them to die, and then are reabsorbed over time.”
Vanquish is considered a non-invasive procedure because there’s no cutting and no tissue removal of any kind. The downside is results can take a little longer to notice. Unlike excision or liposuction, “fat is not removed, it’s damaged by those radio frequencies. It takes time for those cells to reabsorb or be taken away,” says Elliott. “The procedure requires four, 30-minute sessions over a span of 4-6 weeks, and several weeks after that, targeted areas will see a reduction of 20-25% in fat cells.” The technology, like other non-invasive fat removal devices, is not aimed at patients looking to lose weight; they are designed for patients with small problem areas to reduce fat here and there.
Patients may not walk out of Dr. Elliott’s office looking instantly different, but they won’t have any scarring or recovery time. Patients return to their everyday lives immediately while the dead fat cells simply disappear through natural processes.
Every year, medical scientists and doctors are discovering, creating and testing fat removal technologies that do not require surgical techniques. As the knowledge and results grow, so shrinks the need for invasive procedures to remove small fat pockets. “The future is not having surgery to have your fat removed,” says Elliott. “You’re going to freeze it or melt it and in twenty years there’s going to be very few people having liposuction.”