May 16, 2011
Not your mama’s liposuction: Sono Bello’s Dr. Rollins shows me his micro cannula, part one
By April MacIntyre
“Traditional liposuction always made a person look like they were hit by a bus, but now with the tickle lipo procedure and lack of using general anesthesia, plus the laser that helps the skin to tighten up and remodel smoothly, people are back to work in a few days with minimal discomfort,” Dr. Rollins added.
There are no easy fixes for obesity; it’s a whole body effort of diet and exercise. But many physically fit people have troublesome areas or builds that are exercise resistant, even after undertaking a sensible diet and working out regularly. These people are ideal for liposuction.
But the idea of general anesthesia and the post-op down time have turned many people off. Horror stories of overzealous, poorly trained doctors taking too much fat at once, or flooding the body with too much local anesthetic causing a less than healthy patient to have serious medical issues, and even death, put the brakes on liposuction procedures for a lot of people.
There is a far less invasive and expensive technique now perfected for liposuction, demonstrated to me personally by Dr. Aaron Rollins of Sono Bello’s Beverly Hills offices. Sono Bello only performs laser-assisted body contouring procedures, with the latest techniques carefully designed by the world’s top plastic surgeons. The latest laser assisted body contouring equipment permanently removes fat cells directly from neck, back, abdomen, hips, thighs, chest and knees and any targeted “problem area” in a relatively simple outpatient procedure.
Dr. Rollins spent an afternoon answering my questions. He is tall, imposing at 6′ 8″, and built lean, engaging me in conversation in both English and French; he also speaks Portuguese and Russian fluently.
Dr. Rollins shared with me his philosophy on food (that I was eating too much, after a ‘come to Jesus’ fat baring office exam). Dr. Rollins shared that he ate only what he killed, natural meat and game that he hunted and cooked at home. “I use everything when I hunt an animal, nothing is wasted, I will not buy or eat industrial meat.” He also expressed his appreciation for artists over medics, “I love talking to artists, meeting creative people, doctors are boring for the most part!” he laughed. “I gravitated towards doing liposuction because I was good at it, and lipo is so hard to do well. Every surgery I learn something; my technique is aided by my size and strength, it’s a very physical procedure.”
“Traditional liposuction always made a person look like they were hit by a bus, but now with the tickle lipo procedure and lack of using general anesthesia, plus the laser that helps the skin to tighten up and remodel smoothly, people are back to work in a few days with minimal discomfort,” Dr. Rollins added.
Dr. Rollins allowed me in the operating room of a live liposuction where a mother of two children, age 46, had been in two weeks prior having her abdomen done. She was a Mexican-American hairdresser all the way in from Banning, California, and was extremely satisfied with the work done so far and the entire process, telling me there was absolutely no pain, just achiness similar to a thorough workout. She was back to work on her feet all day Monday, having her flabby gut sucked out the previous Friday. She told me she never had a waist before, even at her thinnest, and was now thrilled to be wearing dresses that nipped and belted at the waistline.
Her build was common for a lot of women of Mexican descent, explained Dr. Rollins, heavy through the middle, and a lot of fat on the back and upper arms. “This is the most fibrous and tough fat to remove, the back fat,” he explained. Today I was going to watch this woman’s back fat be vacuumed out. There would be no anesthesia, no incisions, no stitches and no pain for the patient, as her family sat in Sono Bello’s waiting room.
Dr. Rollins always performs his lipo procedures while the patient is wide awake. His female patient, given a Xanax and some antibiotics prior to the procedure, was talking to me, answering my questions as I watched a very thin needle inserted through a tiny hole made by a mini air compressor which allowed him to inject a lidocaine and saline mixture into the areas where the fat was to be removed. It looked bizarre to me, but she swore it just felt like he was massaging her, a tickle like feeling, absolutely no pain. Just a teeny trickle of watery blood at the freckle sized hole where he had inserted the numbing liquid by a long thin needle.
Human fat looks just like chicken fat. Hers was filling up a jar as the suction continued in a carefully orchestrated back and forth, her entire upper back and inner armpit area being sculpted, vacuumed of all the sub-dermal fat. It was mesmerizing. I was there a total of two hours, and after the procedure, she was wrapped in a special compression garment and sent home with her family, and was not in any sort of visible pain.
Dr. Rollins is a Canadian by birth, a son of a doctor (father) and a medical illustrator (mother), who studied at McGill University in Montreal, graduating at age 24. Dr. Rollins was mentored by renown plastic surgeon Dr. Ivo Pitqanguay (Brazil) and he was drawn westward to work with the Sono Bello company. His sole practice in plastic surgery is liposuction, having done over 3500 procedures.
Dr. Rollins explained to me that if he “can pinch it,” he can “take it.” I was given the instrument to look over, a delicate thin cannula used for the micro laser-assisted liposuction, enabling Dr. Rollins to delicately sculpt and smooth areas of adipose tissue that has been marked for removal. He explained to me that the laser liquefies the fat cells which are then removed with gentle suction. This is why the bleeding and bruising are minimal at best. “This laser technique also stimulates the sub-dermal collagen formation which tightens up the skin after the fat has been permanently removed,” says Dr. Rollins.
Part two of this report will be from the trenches, as I will be experiencing the Sono Bello treatment first-hand and reporting from Dr. Rollins’ Beverly Hills offices; stay tuned.
– http://www.monstersandcritics.com/lifestyle/consumerhealth/features/article_1639340.php
