Tighten and Tone

By: Dr Rupert Gabriel
Created on 28th May 2011

Dr Rupert Gabriel, of Snowberry Lane Clinic in Melksham, talks us through BodyTite – the latest fat reduction treatment that tightens sagging skin at the same time as removing fat, leaving you slimmer and more sculpted than ever before

Until quite recently, the only real option for body contouring was liposuction. Then, in the summer of 2006, I performed the first laser assisted lipolysis procedure, in the form of SmartLipo, in my clinic in Melksham. That really sparked the beginning of what has become a revolution in nonsurgical fat reduction treatments.

The majority of these treatments use light energy to melt down fat – SmartLipo is a laser procedure, and another machine which has had a lot of press recently is VASER, which uses ultrasound waves to breakdown the fat.

The very latest step in the process is a procedure called BodyTite, which is a radiofrequency procedure that not only removes fat, but offers a really dramatically skin tightening effect at the same time – probably three to four times more than with any similar procedures on the market.

What this means is that if you have a very saggy stomach, or loose folds anywhere, when previously you would have had to go to a surgeon and have large swathes of skin cut away after the fat had been removed, now we can achieve the same effect but without undergoing major surgery or general anaesthesia.

The procedure is performed under a local anaesthetic and we make just a three millimetre incision in the skin. Then all the energy is generated through a cannula, which is inserted through that incision, and there is a plate on the outside of the skin, which is measuring the temperature constantly. There’s a huge safety factor there, because although you are deliberately getting the temperature as high as possible, if it gets too high it will cut off, so there is no uncontrolled heating effect.

When I first heard about BodyTite, I was of course very excited, as I’m always looking for new and improved treatment options to offer my patients. So I went to Israel, where the machine originated, and was trained by a doctor over there, and am now training the doctors who are taking it on in the UK.

I think it is very rare in life to have something where one size fits all, and of course BodyTite won’t necessarily be suitable for everyone, so I continue to offer SmartLipo and VASER in my clinic. If you just want a small amount of fat removed and want minimal incisions, minimal downtime, then SmartLipo can still be the answer; if you have a large volume reduction required but you’re relatively young and skin tone is good, then VASER will be great. But what’s exciting about BodyTite is that you can target a large area and tighten the skin, all under local anaesthetic and with minimal downtime – it is essentially a walk-in, walk-out procedure.

It’s also very versatile – we’ve got one fantastic application that we’re using currently, called NeckTite, which is a procedure to tighten the neck and jowls. In aesthetic terms, that’s really powerful stuff, because even with facelift surgery it can be difficult to get good tightening on the neck. Sometimes, if it’s sufficiently saggy, you have to do a zigzag incision all the way down the front of the neck to get any kind of tightening effect at all and that can be quite unsightly.

I think it is this versatility which is so exciting about BodyTite – not only is it the latest step in the body contouring revolution, but I am sure that as time goes on there will be adjustments to it that will allow its use in smaller, more delicate areas. I think it will become the gold standard in its field.

CS&AG