Dr. Asaad H. Samra, a native of New Jersey, obtained his medical degree in 2001 from the prominent UMDNJ – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Upon graduating, he went on to train in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine’s world-renowned integrated residency program located in the largest medical center in the world, The Texas Medical Center.
Bikini season is quickly approaching and so is the need to get summer ready ASAP. Dr. Asaad H. Samra Haute Beauty Breast Expert representing the New Jersey Market, dishes on all your options to slim down, tighten, and lift just in time for summer.
Coolsculpting
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Coolsculpt is one of the common forms of body contouring that uses a cooling device to treat targeted areas all over the body like the chin, arms, core, thighs, and face.
“CoolSculpting quotes about a 20 to 25% reduction after a treatment... The endpoint is that the patient is happy with what they've achieved,” says Dr. Samra.
Dr. Samra works with his patients to develop a CoolSculpting treatment plan that’s tailored to their body and goals.
According to Dr. Samra, Coolsculpting is more of a targeted spot treatment, “you can zone in on those spots with the CoolSculpting. If you were talking about someone’s lower abdomen, you would probably be talking about, four to five spots.”
“With CoolSculpting, there was some feedback that the treatment is uncomfortable or once the applicator comes off a massage is uncomfortable,” he adds. Recovery is minimal with temporary numbness, redness, swelling, bruising, firmness, tingling, stinging, and pain. While patients can expect to see results in 1-3 months.
Vanquish
“Vanquish is a noninvasive, non-contact fat-melting tool and it essentially uses radiofrequency as its energy source to generate heat in the fatty layer, otherwise known as the subcutaneous layer. The heat raises to a particular temperature threshold to preferentially damage the fat cells,” says Dr. Samra. Vanquish is used predominantly on the abdomen, flanks, and back.
“The biggest difference when comparing something like Vanquish to CoolSculpting is the fact that Vanquish can treat a larger area in a given spot,” he adds.
Vanquish can treat hip to hip with one applicator. According to Dr. Samra, most patients did not feel any pain.
Vanquish system requires a series of 45-minute treatments administered weekly.
“The usual rule of thumb is that it takes about a week after a treatment to see anything. Now the important caveat with that is you are getting treatments back-to-back... So I would say to you that it usually takes about three to four weeks to see what Vanquish can do from any given treatment. Some patients may see results as early as three weeks after their first treatment, most patients can expect to see results a few weeks after their final treatment.”
Ultherapy
While Ultherapy is not a fat eliminator, it is a lifting and tightening treatment. Ultherapy is typically used for face and neck treatment, but it is also used for body treatments in an effort to tighten or lift areas, whether it be done on the arms or, the upper buttock or even on the abdomen.
“Ultherapy uses ultrasound to heat up the layers below the skin… There is skin, which is the epidermis and dermis, and then there is subcutaneous tissue, which is the fat underneath it. And then there's something called the fascial layer and that is the layer that is targeted by Ultherapy. The ultrasound is heating up that fascia. That heat energy or injury results in a kind of prompt to the body to fix it or heal it and as it heals, there's a tightening effect,” says Dr. Samra.
Dr. Samra says Ultherapy, is usually a one-time treatment and results can be seen in 3-6 months.
Minimally Invasive Body Contouring:
Kybella®
Kybella is an injectable that destroys fat cells under the chin, permanently, using Deoxycholic acid, a naturally occurring molecule in the body. Once destroyed, these cells can no longer store or accumulate fat.
“Kybella is a medication that is comprised of an enzyme that has been synthesized to basically emulate what bile does… Bile breaks down the fat in the food that we eat… So Kybella is like synthetic bile and it can be injected just about anywhere in the body to dissolve fat. Its FDA initial clearance was in the under the chin fat or the submental area, but despite that, it’s used, in the bra fat area and the abdomen, banana roll, so on and so forth,” says Dr. Samra.
The treatment for Kybella is done in the office, and uses multiple injections in the desired treatment area. Since a solution is injected into the area, there is a significant amount of inflammation.
“I always tell my patients that they're going to look worse before they look better,” he adds.
The treatment gets repeated every 4 to 6 weeks for about 3 to 4 times, and it usually takes 6 weeks to see results after a treatment.
Liposuction & Assisted Liposuction
This type of body contouring is a little more invasive Dr. Samra explains how it works.
“So, liposuction means you make a stab incision, put numbing medication in, and then suck the fat out. That’s what liposuction means.”
“Then any form of ‘blank-assisted’ liposuction means that before you start sucking the fat out you're going to do something else to the fat,” Dr. Samra continues. Laser-assisted lipo helps to melt the fat, cauterize the blood vessels, minimize bruising, prevent post-surgery inflammation, and encourage skin contraction.
Liposuction & Fat grafting
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Via liposuction fat can be harvested to transfer to different areas of the body including the breast, buttocks, and even the face. Fat can be harvested from virtually any place in the body. Using Renuva, an injectable combined with your own donated fat, lets a professional like Dr. Samra create the body you are looking for.
“Renuva is a product that’s created from donated fat, that fat is processed and they collect these growth factors. Growth factors are chemicals that tell cells what to do. This concentrated growth factor matrix is now injected... into the fatty layer and stimulates that growth,” says Dr. Samra. According to Dr. Samra Renuva can last in the body, on average from 7 to 10 years.
This is a less invasive way to lose inches on any part of your body and create a figure simultaneously via an injectable.
Another innovative and new injectable used to lift, and can be used with or without Renuva and lipo is Sculptra which stimulants collagen production. “The idea of combining them is to have, number one, a duel action collagen creation and fat creation,” he adds.
Dr. Samra would recommend these options for patients who are not seeking immediate change, because both Renuva and Sculptra have to be injected every 4 to 6 weeks until the desired results are achieved.
Dr. Samra says its important to remember, not every treatment is for everyone, and choosing which method to use is dependant on a few things, like cost, body type, time-frame and patient goals, and will always have to be a conversation with the patient and physician to determine the best course of treatment.
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