While liposuction is often discussed as a solution for troublesome hips, buns, and thighs, some doctors believe that it’s another more obscure body part that drives women into their office: their knees.
“Almost every woman who comes in for lipo hates her knees,” Joel Schlessinger, MD, a liposuction expert in Omaha, Neb., told NBCnews.com in “7 Strange Plastic Surgery Procedures.” Why? Dr. Schlessinger suggests that perhaps it’s the simple fact that we see the knees more often than those other trouble areas we frequently keep covered up. Or perhaps it’s because we’ve become so efficient at shaping up the rest of our body that all some of us have left to criticize is precisely that—the obscure.
For some women, fat knees have been a life-long source of embarrassment and frustration, likely due to a genetic cause. However, if those chubby kneecaps are a more recent issue, hormones may be to blame. Whether it’s pregnancy, age, or some other body-altering stage of life, fluctuations in hormones don’t just create internal issues, but they can wreak havoc externally too, particularly when it comes to weight gain. And when fat strikes unusual areas, such as the knees, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to lose through diet and exercise alone.
Case in point, “As women age, the body tends to hold more fat in select areas,” Tiffany McCormack, MD, a Las Vegas plastic surgeon recently explained to New Beauty’s readers. The solution, however, isn’t always as easy as a simple liposuction procedure. While liposuction is a solution for some patients looking to refine the knee area, fat isn’t always the underlying culprit. Sometimes, Dr. Schlessinger told news source NBCnews.com, it’s muscle. Unfortunately, muscle can’t be reshaped with liposuction.
If it’s a matter of sagging skin, with or without excess fat, there are high-tech solutions. Laser liposuction effectively removes fat deposits while offering a skin tightening benefit. Radiofrequency energy with Exilis, infrared light with SkinTyte, and a host of other technologies can help to tighten the skin in this area.
Regardless of treatment, you can expect fine-tuning the knee area to be outpatient. For liposuction, it’s a single procedure under local, with only a 1- or 2-day recovery period. For non-surgical energy / light treatments, you can expect anywhere from 4 to 8 treatments every 1 to 2 weeks with no downtime whatsoever.
No matter the what or the how when it comes to disliking your knees, one thing is certain: fat can and does collect in this area. Furthermore, if too much fat accumulates, it can be as much an aesthetic nuisance as the love handles we don’t love at all. Thankfully, we live during the age of modern miracles and a little liposuction can go a long way in refining this intricate area. However, be advised that it’s in every patient’s best interest to find a doctor with specific experience and expertise specific to the knee area, as removing fat from this area requires skill to achieve a well balanced and proportionate result.