Your Questions
Your Questions
Q: Dr. Eppley, I have had a ‘cottage-cheese’ butt my whole life. I hate and want to get rid of it. Would liposuction help smooth out the dents on my butt by removing some of the fat? Besides making it smoother would it make it smaller as well?
A: The search for an effective cellulite treatment has been ongoing for years and to say that it is elusive is an understatement. The buttocks is a prime location for the cottage cheese look of the skin. Over the years such treatments as Endermologie and VelaShape have been promoted but their effects are short-term and any improvement requires regular maintenance treatments. Liposuction surgery, however, is exactly what you don’t want to do. Liposuction removes the superficial layer of fat and removes the support from the overlying skin…this has the high likelihood to make the appearance of cellulite even worse. The newest cellulite treatment, Cellulaze, may offer improvement of buttock cellulite on a more sustained basis but long-term results (years) remain to be reported.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Q: Dr. Eppley, I have previously had liposuction and a breast augmentation from which I am very happy. I am now looking to inquire on a cellulite treatment. I am seeing that the most recommended is Mesotherapy. If you could please forward information, such as costs & before & after pics I would appreciate it. Thanks!
A: The best thing that I can tell you about cellulite treatment is that there is no really effective method that produces consistent improvement, no matter what you hear and have read. Many methods from external suction and massage, innumerable topical creams, mesotherapy injections to energy-based devices have been done. Almost all of the success from these efforts are anectodal in reports with few prospective clinical trials done that show satisfactory improvement in more than a handful of patients. This is not to say that some of them don’t offer mild improvement, just usually not enough to satisfy most of the patients whom I know when the cost of them is factored in to an overall satisfaction survey. The only promising current method that states it can provides long-term improvement with a single treatment is that of the Cellulaze laser method. This is more of an invasive method that is a spin-off of the Smartlipo or laser liposuction method. The amount of improvement with Cellulaze is very visible and two year results show sustained results.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana