1. Research the various procedures, their risks, benefits, results. A site I particularly like, and contribute to, is RealSelf.com. It has descriptions of the procedures, reviews by patients, satisfaction ratings, and answers to questions by physicians who are Board Certified in the core aesthetic specialties of Plastic Surgery and Dermatology.
2. Decide what kind of results you want, what kind of risks you are willing to take, which side effects you are willing to have and how much you are willing to pay for it.
3. Be very careful with physicians who are not Board Certified in the core aesthetic specialties, who have had sanctions by the Medical Board for standard of care issues, who charge significantly below the prevailing rate, or who perform non-FDA approved treatments like Mesotherapy.
4. If you decide to have Liposuction, go to a physician trained and Board Certified by the American Board of Medical Specialties (not any other board) in one of the core aesthetic specialties, who has a lot of experience in Liposuction, and performs it frequently.
5. For Liposuction don’t have procedures except in accredited facilities. Run from a physician who exceeds the official guidelines for the volume of fat removed in a single procedure. These situations are the riskiest and where the deaths from Liposuction that make the news often occur.
6. Do I need to say this?—Don’t have non-FDA approved treatments. Don’t have medical or surgical procedures performed by non-physicians, unless those providers are licensed medical providers like RN’s and are directly supervised by a physician who is Board Certified in one of the core aesthetic specialties. No, not a beautician practicing out of a hotel room, not a nurse who is practicing solo without supervision, not a non-medical layperson given 1 hour of training in a chain medi-spa.
7. Don’t expect more from a procedure than the procedure can deliver. Don’t expect Liposuction results from non-invasive procedures. Don’t expect any fat reduction or fat removal procedure to remove visceral fat (fat inside the abdominal cavity). If you can’t squeeze it, we can’t remove it. Only diet and exercise can reduce visceral fat. Expect what the procedure can realistically deliver and be happy with that.
8. Don’t lie to your physician about smoking, medications or your health history, just because you really, really want the procedure. This ends badly.
9. Don’t expect any of these procedures to significantly tighten skin and muscle like a tummy tuck, or improve cellulite. Tummy tuck results require cutting skin and sewing skin and muscle. Nothing gives permanent improvement in cellulite. Sometimes Liposuction makes cellulite worse.
10. Final tip: Here are the patient satisfaction ratings for the various procedures, found on RealSelf.com. Real patients who have had the procedure thought that the procedures were “worth it” in these percentages:

FDA approved procedures

• Zeltiq Coolsculpting (84% worth it)
• Liposuction(65% worth it)
• Zerona (32% worth it)

Non-FDA approved procedures (Quiz: What did I just say about non-FDA approved procedures?)

• Ultrashape (32% worth it)
• Mesotherapy (Lipodissolve) (32% worth it)

So that is it for aesthetic body sculpting procedures to reduce or remove fat.

Next: I haven’t decided. Stay tuned.