The Annual Masters of Aesthetics Symposium witnessed Mathew M. Avram, MD, JD commenting that non-invasive fat eliminating techniques like laser therapy and cryolipolysis continue to garner interest and show an increasing implementation trend.

“It does not compare to liposuction, but many patients prefer these devices because there’s less downtime,” he said. “They don’t want pain. They don’t want time away from work.”

Dr. Avram, director of laser, cosmetics, and dermatologic surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston believes that the emergence of non-invasive body shaping procedures since the last ten years has outpaced conventional liposuction by a large distance. He said, “It’s not even close. Among American Society for Dermatologic Surgery [ASDS] members, for every 1 liposuction, there are over 10 non-invasive body sculpting treatments.”

“Each treatment has improved in efficacy with time,” Dr. Avram remarked.

Data from the ASDS revealed that 208,000 cryolipolysis, 89,000 radiofrequency, 46,000 deoxycholic acid , 25,000 laser lipolysis, 15,000 tumescent liposuction  and 25,000 other procedures which were non-invasive were carried out, out of  408,000 fat eliminating  procedures that were executed in 2017.  

Presently, the Food and Drug Administration approves devices for low-level laser therapy, ultrasound, lasers, radiofrequency and cryolipolysis among procedures that involve non-invasive removal of excessive adipose tissue from the body. Among the above, low-level laser therapy is the most popular procedure opted by patients.