Throughout the past 20 years cosmetic surgery has become much safer and much more effective in giving patients the results they desire. A large factor in these increased levels of safety and results has been the improvement of technology. But what does the future hold for the cosmetic surgery industry as a whole?
Dr. Roger Bassin, founder of The Bassin Center for Plastic Surgery, uses the latest technology available to push the cosmetic surgery industry into the future.
As cosmetic surgery has become increasingly socially acceptable throughout the years, patient’s attitudes have changed as well. Today’s cosmetic surgery patients demand procedures that are minimally invasive and require little to no downtime, whereas in years past patients went into a procedure knowing they would be on bed rest for days or even weeks. “With our instant gratification society, everyone is looking for that procedure that will give them the results they dream of with minimal downtime,” says Dr. Roger Bassin, founder of The Bassin Center for Plastic Surgery. “Our practice, as well as thousands across the country, continue to morph with the times and utilize new technology that parallels that desire helping to make it a reality.”
According to Bassin, the continued growth and success of the industry hinges on doctors offering patients better results in less time and with less pain. How? Through improved technology, of course.
Utilizing technology that was unavailable as short as 18 months ago, Bassin and his staff are helping to shape the future of cosmetic surgery, literally, using water. AqualipoTM is a new liposuction treatment that combines powerful fat-melting laser technology with a gentle, water-based fat removal system. The end result is a trimmer body with little bruising and swelling and relatively no down time. Most patients even stay awake throughout the procedure. “Patients who come in for AqualipoTM are able to drive themselves in, get the procedure done and drive themselves back to work,” he says. Because of this, the procedure has already been nicknamed “lunch time lipo” for its quick results.
“Patients can typically expect long-lasting results that can be seen immediately with the treatment, it’s incredible what it has done for liposuction as a procedure,” says Bassin. Another new technology helping to innovate the industry is NaturalFillTM. Working hand in hand with AqualipoTM, the procedure gently removes and harvests unwanted fat from trouble areas and then immediately uses those natural fatty cells to fill facial lines, wrinkles and folds while increasing skin volume. NaturalFillTM results are similar to what other tissue fillers and collagen treatments, like Botox, achieve with one defining difference: results are now permanent.
There is no need to return for new treatments every several months, something else that patients have been calling for as the industry progresses. “Because the fat injected is a natural substance from the patient’s own body, there’s virtually no risk of infection or other complications that can sometimes occur with other injection treatments,” says Bassin.
Thanks to these and other new advances in cosmetic surgery technology, many patient surgeries are low risk and, depending on the procedure, patients are awake throughout the entire surgery. “When I ask my patients, ‘What’s the most appealing thing regarding the new technology available?’ Without fail 99 out of 100 say they’re interested now because they don’t have to be put to sleep,” says Bassin. “These procedures are also becoming gentler so there is less discomfort and after four days there is usually none whatsoever.”
As for what’ farther down the line for the cosmetic surgery industry as a whole, only time will tell. In the immediate future, Bassin says that fat is going to play one of the biggest roles in new techniques and possibilities. “With procedures like AqualipoTM we’re now able to remove live fat and use it for things we never thought possible even several years ago,” he says. “We are just scratching the surface on what this technology can really do.”
Article by Corey Gehrold
