![]() ![]() “If I do submental liposuction on a Friday,” says Teitelbaum, “you hang around the house for the weekend, and go back to work Monday or Tuesday, already looking great.” Being careful not to downplay the significance of surgery, he adds that lipo, unlike Kybella, can involve oral sedation (you’ll need a ride home) a few stitches and a headwrap to be worn during initial recovery. And the downtime? Forty-eight to 72 hours. The surgery parallel also fell flat, as deleting a double chin with the surgical gold-standard - liposuction done under local anesthesia - is a one-time procedure that gives immediate and dramatic results to the tune of “a very predictable 90 percent improvement,” says Frank. “I tried it on myself, and was shocked by the massive swelling I saw.” Each dose of Kybella also requires 20 to 50 jabs to the target area - not quite akin to the modest pricks of a Botox needle. ![]() Hardly the bulge-busting equivalent of a quick-and-painless, no-one-has-to-know neurotoxin, “Kybella can carry an enormous amount of downtime relative to the small percentage of improvement we get from it,” says Frank, referring to the soreness and bullfrog-like swelling that ensue after treatment and linger for weeks. No judgment.)Īs doctors began dabbling in the drug, however, both analogies crumbled. (But first, a quick disclaimer: As with every FDA-approved cosmetic procedure, we totally support your right to take it, leave it, or simply just learn about it. Up next, we zoom in on the controversy and share everything you need to know before putting your neck on the line. And when clinicians tell me they’re not getting the same types of outcomes, and then I review their notes, they’re typically underdosing patients, because they’re afraid of the swelling and downtime.” If someone isn’t prepared to have more than one treatment, she’s not a Kybella candidate. New York City plastic surgeon Sachin Shridharani, who’s administered over 2,000 Kybella treatments but also counts liposuction among his favorite tools, says, “We’ve been getting surgical-like outcomes with Kybella - sometimes even superior, because of the skin retraction that follows - and a big part of that is using the right dose and counseling patients on the number of treatments they need. (Potential lipo complications, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery website, can include contour irregularities, indentations, infection, scarring, sensation changes, and accumulation of blood or fluid under the skin.) ![]() To be clear, he adds, “Kybella is not a no-downtime alternative to liposuction - there will be swelling and tenderness - but it is a nonsurgical alternative, which carries fewer severe risks.” If doctors communicate this distinction and manage patients’ expectations, “satisfaction will be high,” he says. “Kybella works, it’s just not always presented right,” says Robert Anolik, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the NYU School of Medicine, who participated in the clinical trial. Truswell, president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS).Īnd we cannot overlook the strong contingent of doctors who remain loyal to the injectable. "Physicians and patients alike were excited that an injectable could destroy fat cells, and doctors around the country began training to use Kybella,” says William H. On the heels of Kybella’s long-awaited FDA-approval win, following more than 20 clinical studies involving 1,600-plus patients, the New York Times trumpeted the drug’s arrival with the headline: Injection Offers Option to Slim Down Double Chin Without Surgery, irrevocably pitting syringe against scalpel. More specifically, Kybella dissolves the membranes lining our fat cells, causing them to spill their slippery contents, which are then gradually but efficiently expunged by the body’s own immune cells. Just what alchemy is this, the world wondered? The drug’s active ingredient is a synthetic stjaomach acid - “a copy of a salt found in human bile that aids in the permanent destruction and digestion of fat cells,” explains Michael Kassardjian, a dermatologic surgeon in Torrance, CA. While long an annoyance for many, the stubborn fat pad under the chin entered our collective consciousness in 2015, when a first-of-its-kind fix hit the beauty scene: a fat-melting supershot called Kybella, indicated especially for the area. ![]()
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