A question I’ve answered a few times in the office!

A question I’ve answered a few times in the office, and I’m bringing my thoughts here! Not much of a script or editing — just a chat with you 💕😘
#lipoescultura #lipolad #lipohd #lipoaspiracao #fibroses #cicatrizacao

Video transcript

Alright, everyone. Today I came to talk about a subject I’ve answered, at times, to one person or another who asks me, and I thought it would be nice to bring a video here to talk to you about: a clarification about HD lipo. It’s a question people have. So it’s not a matter of liking or not liking HD lipo — that goes without saying, like whether you like a red cushion or not. It’s really a matter of personal taste. But I see that there are many influencers and bloggers who sometimes promote HD lipo, or high-definition lipo, or LipoLAD — not LipoLED; LED is that little light. And they don’t clarify what this technique consists of. So when we do any kind of definition on the abdomen, what is the goal, what does that definition mean? A patient once came and asked whether in HD lipo it was because so much fat was removed that the muscle would show through. And that’s not true. Actually, our musculature has some contours that show in people who are very thin and whose skin is very thin. So in people who don’t have such a low body fat percentage, or in whom those muscle contours don’t show, what does HD lipo do? It removes more fat from some areas and less fat from others to make it look like that muscle is showing. So it’s not that the muscle became more defined — it was drawn into your fat layer. So when you look at a photo, you’ll see that contour that sometimes looks like worked, delineated musculature, really beautiful for photos and so on. However, in real life it will behave like fat. So that little bump will be a fat bump: you press it and it will have the consistency of fat. If the person jumps and has laxity, that little bump will bounce too. If the person sits, that muscle definition will fold, like fat. So there has already been someone who was surprised, who didn’t know it was like this, who thought it really was because a lot of fat was removed — and that’s not true. To create the definition, in some areas you have to remove less fat. And that’s a clarification worth people having. Because, to a certain degree of definition, we always end up doing it, because some regions naturally have a thinner layer of fat. So we end up defining some regions better, even when it’s not a lipo called HD. Another myth many people believe about HD lipo is that it’s a lipo done with more care, or more technique, or more skill, or more attention so that it gives better definition. Like an HD TV that has better quality. That’s also not true, because a lipo can be well done in classic lipo or in HD lipo, and it can be very poorly done in classic lipo and very poorly done, especially in HD lipo. Because, first of all, one thing I’ve seen — of course I won’t point fingers here, that’s beside the point — but I see many influencers, and I saw one who had a marking of the musculature on the side of the abdomen, which we call the semilunar lines, but in some videos you could see that, besides that marking, sometimes her original marking would appear, that is, instead of two lines she ended up with four. So that’s one issue. However, one of the biggest tasks we have in a liposuction is trying to leave the surface we’re working on even. We infiltrate a certain amount of solution, we aspirate, we keep pinching the skin, stretching the skin, trying to see whether that fat layer is uniform — which we can’t always be absolutely sure about, because that tissue is infiltrated, and afterwards the swelling will go down, there will be a healing process and fibrosis in the area, so lipo is a surgery very different from another surgery where we cut and simply resect along the markings we made, or mark an amount of skin to remove. It’s a surgery in which we make an estimated removal of fat, and that healing process will be responsible for adhering the skin to its bed, in whatever shape it is. So whether a person wants a classic lipo or a high-definition lipo, it’s important that they know what high-definition lipo is. Your muscle will stay the same, it won’t gain any hypertrophy — what will happen is that it will be drawn into your fat. It’s like when we do makeup: we make that contour to slim the cheek; the cheek doesn’t get slimmer, it just looks slimmer through the play of light and shadow — only in makeup you do it with a brush, and in HD lipo you do it with real shadows, with greater fat removal, right? And then the question of liking it or not is very individual. Devices for you to get greater skin retraction — many people use laser, or Renuvion, or BodyTite, some technology like that; you don’t need an HD lipo to use that technology, it’s not exclusive to it. So these are questions it’s very important to ask your doctor when you’re going to have a lipo or when you’re thinking about having one, as well as another issue, which is whether you can reverse it. So let’s say I made a very marked definition — I left, I had a layer of fat to get a very defined marking — I would have to reduce that amount of fat in that layer. If I have very strong scarring between the skin and the muscle, if I’m left with a very thin layer of fat in some spot, later on it’s harder to reverse that. So if I want to move past the trend, I don’t want the little bumps anymore, the definition, anything, I want a smooth abdomen, I want to have a procedure to get a smooth abdomen without the little bumps. Is it possible? It’s possible to soften the marking, but to remove it entirely and, from there, have a completely flat abdomen — that’s a question that isn’t always possible. That’s why it’s very important that you know the technique you’re going to use and so on, and that you also inform yourself about the surgery. Any well-prepared specialist surgeon, in the consultation, will have no objection whatsoever to explaining to you and laying out the pros and cons of each technique. So that’s it: muscle definition — many of them I don’t like, because it’s that fake thing, the person doesn’t have that muscle; but some I like, because they also appear in people who don’t necessarily have an athletic lifestyle. So, especially those on the lateral region of the abdomen, the midline — that line that goes from the belly button upward — sometimes a little on the lateral region of the obliques, on the back right above the buttocks: those are some regions that are worth it. Now, for example, arm, thigh are regions I don’t like as much. And all these muscle contours are in the anatomy books, so we know surface anatomy very well, to know the regions that cast more shadow in a very thin person. And it also comes down a lot to taste, so I’ve seen many — many cases we see, for example, as we keep observing, with HD, for example, the person takes a photo lying on their side. Then that little belly folds over like this — the muscle doesn’t do that, you know? The muscle doesn’t fold over like that. So, well, as it’s becoming more and more common, it’s become more established. The person’s belly isn’t a natural belly they have — like that, the person already sees it as common, an HD-lipo belly. I think a lot of people who are in the serious side of this can already recognize this type of intervention, right? Liposuction is a really interesting, very challenging surgery, because it’s a process that we start in the pre-op and that concludes afterwards. And the post-operative period is a major determinant of the result of the surgery. So people sometimes tend to minimize its impact because of the idea that, ah, they’re just tiny little holes — which sometimes leads to unqualified professionals, who sometimes aren’t even surgeons, wanting to perform this procedure, which is totally inappropriate — and it’s not that thing, the feeling of being barely invasive. So it’s an invasive, surgical procedure, like any other, and it has to be done by a qualified professional, according to its scope, in an appropriate setting as well, in terms of infrastructure. Okay, everyone? A kiss to all, any questions. I don’t know if I introduced myself. Anyway, for those who don’t know me, I’m Carolina Cross, I’m a plastic surgeon, trained in plastic surgery at UNIFESPE. And I’m also here to clarify your questions. Okay? Kiss and see you next time.

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Originally published on Instagram on 29/06/2021: https://www.instagram.com/p/CQsIbwwlJ63/