Welcome to Plastic Surgery Talk with Dr. Stephen Mulholland brought to you by SpaMedica.
Hello, Dr. Mulholland here in Toronto, Canada. Welcome back to our plastic surgery [talk 00:00:11] network and our podcast series. Today is a podcast topic of great interest: non-surgical body sculpting, non-surgical lipo. One of the most interesting technologies to come out in a long time in non-surgical lipo is our Vanquish. Today’s episode, our podcast, is on the vanquish. How to kill fat non-surgically. If you find this interesting, entertaining, educational please share on your social media networks, subscribe, and comment.
So what is the Vanquish? The Vanquish is a device. It’s a device with a very large treatment area. In fact, the largest non-surgical body contouring treatment area in the industry. It covers the entire lower abdomen and both flanks simultaneously. It’s unique and that it’s also non-touch. It doesn’t need to touch your skin. It’s a no-contact technique. What energy does it use? We’ve got suction coupled cooling. That’s cool sculpting. We’ve got contact direct laser heating. That’s the sculpture. We’ve got contact ultrasound. That’s ultra shape. We’ve got contact suction coupled [electoporation 00:01:21]. That’s body effects. We’ve got contact bulk heating RF. That’s [x-less 00:01:26] and venus freeze on legacy.
So we’ve got lots of contact technology. The only technology I’ve ever owned that didn’t touch the skin at all and still worked to permanently and consistently kill fat is the Vanquish. So it’s a no-touch large applicator permanent fat-reduction technology that emits a very high frequency electromagnetic spectrum bordering on microwave. So basically, it’s like a safe microwave into which you can insert the patient’s entire tummy and love handles. Or both inner and outer thigh on either side or back flanks at the same time.
So how does the Vanquish work? Well, it emits this very high frequency radio frequency energy. Basically bordering on a microwave. Like a microwave, it oscillates all of the molecules inside that microwave chamber. In this case, inside the large applicator technology array of the flank-flank tummy-tummy. It oscillates the adipocytes, the fat cells. It oscillates the molecules within the soft tissue, the fibrous connection, the blood vessels, and they all oscillate and that oscillation creates heat. The heat is the final common pathway that destroys the fat cells. So we use a gentle microwave-type electromagnetic field emanated with a no-touch technique from the Vanquish. Over about ten minutes, we raise the temperature to just the right temperature in the fat using elegant feedback impedance techniques and technology. It keeps the muscle and the skin cooler than the fat. It oscillates around 45 degrees consistently for 45 minutes. 10 minutes to get it to the end point and about 30 minutes to 34 minutes of heating.
What do we end up with? Fat that’s been heated to the point where a certain number of fat cells aren’t gonna like that elevated temperature. It’s like with the sculpture. You get enough cells to 45 degrees for long enough, some of them just turn off the light, the nucleus and the fat cell dies a non-inflammatory death called accelerated apoptosis. So 45 minutes in the microwave once a week for four weeks, we can often make 1-2cm consistent reductions around that. We also, in the Vanquish Plus program, will combine some other technologies on top of that. The first week, we might do cool sculpting followed by once a week for six weeks, four weeks of the Vanquish and then cool sculpting at the end. Or sculpture at the beginning, sculpture at the end. Or sculpture at the beginning, Vanquish, and cool sculpting at the end. Sometimes we even include bulk heating skin tightening technology like the x-less or the Venus Freeze or the Body Effects.
So we can integrate and combine our technology, but the Vanquish. Those four Vanquish treatments between week two and week five is the foundation for our Vanquish Plus program around which we layer other successful technology. At SpaMedica, we believe in combination non-surgical body contouring because rarely does one technology give you the best possible result. Sort of like injectable therapy now. We don’t just do only Botox or only fillers, the best results often come from integration of Botox, soft tissue fillers, injectable kybella for fat destruction, injectable PRP for rejuvenation. Four different injectable products get the best anti-aging result. We can sometimes use now up to four different body contouring technologies over six weeks to get liposuction-like results.
Who’s a good candidate for the Vanquish? A patient with realistic expectations. They’ve got an extra area of fat, they’ve tried diet and exercise, they’re not using the Vanquish as a substitute for weight loss. They can’t be grossly obese. It’s not for individuals with very high BMIs. 35, 38, 40, 42. That’s weight loss, but they can have moderately high BMIs: 28, 30, 32, and still get a successful result with the Vanquish. So it’s for our larger bodied patients or medium body patients. You do integrated multiple technology approaches. So realistic expectations, the presence of pinchable fat, no advanced uncontrolled medical diseases like advanced diabetes, advanced atherosclerotic disease. No auto-immune diseases like lupus or MS. Then they have to also not have any pacemakers, no bladder pacemakers, no cardiac pacemakers. They should not be pregnant. And lastly, no metal fixation in their orthopedic structures like the spine or the joints because that electromagnetic field can heat up those little plates, rods, and screws, and lead to a localized boney trauma so no hardware from neurosurgeons or orthopedic surgeons. Then expectations that are realistic.
So what happens on your Vanquish day? How is the treatment performed, delivered? First of all, we’ve gone through the risks and the benefits. Like all non-surgical body contouring technologies, there’s very very few risks. Sometimes there’s consequences of cooling the fat too much with cool sculpting but usually temporary effects. Sometimes there’s the risk of a small laser burn from sculpture. There’s a risk of a Vanquish thermal injury and a small blister or burn. So we have to have the right technique and technician and staff. We’ve got very experienced staff here so those risks are very small.
The day starts with showing up. You’ve undergone your risk and benefit and assessment. You’ve signed up for the program. You’ve signed your consent. We mark you out in the areas that bug you. The pot, the love handles, your inner/outer thigh, your back flanks. Then we position the applicator, the Vanquish applicator with the large central and two side flank or inner/outer thigh adapters, just far enough away from the skin that there’s no touch, but it’s close enough that the high frequency electrocurrent, the microwaves, are gonna come in through the air, through the skin without heating the skin too much, and stay localized in the fat because of certain impedance and certain propagation variables around fat. It heats up preferentially due to impedance differences between the muscle and the skin. The microwaves stay localized in the fat, heat up the fat preferentially to the skin and the muscle.
Once you’re comfortable under there, you can read a book, read a magazine, you can’t look at your cell phone or your iPad because it emits a low RF field. We can interfere with the RF field from the Vanquish so magazines, traditional magazine, and book reading for about 45 minutes while we’re melting your fat. There’s really no pain. There can be the warmth and feeling of your fat at 45 degrees, but I wouldn’t call it painful. If you feel a hotspot, we have a little call button. You want to notify your SpaMedica technician to come in and adjust that area because you should feel any pain or hotspots. At the end of the program, you get right off the table, put on your clothes, go right back to your normal activities. Yes, we do advocate, we recommend an exercise program, dietary modification, minimize alcohol consumption, drink lots of water. Those are all variables that you may or may not control around the Vanquish program. As long as your don’t put on weight, the Vanquish Plus program will work to kill fat for you with or without exercise. That’s what generally happens on the day of. Get off the table, right back to your life.
Is the Vanquish program painful? Of all the technologies that we use to kill fat, it is one of the least uncomfortable technologies. You feel that warmth, there can be a sense of really warming the fat and it can feel like you might on a very hot summer day when you have that hot sun on your skin. I would not call it painful. It’s very tolerable. Rarely do patients have to stop the treatment. If they do, it’s ’cause they feel a hotspot. Hotspots which are like a superficial burn like you know some damage may be happening to your skin. Like if you have laser hair moving, you get a very hot area when they pulse. That hotspot should not occur with the Vanquish. That’s evidence that your distance between the Vanquish applicator and your body may have shifted. You may have shifted a little bit. Or it’s over a boney prominence like a hip point or … You want to notify your technician. The technician will come back in the room and adjust the technology for you.
Is it painful? No. If the treatment’s going according to plan, you haven’t shifted, and the electromagnetic field is penetrating the fat from the distance in the air that it needs to.
Some of our non-surgical body contour technologies do have recovery. After cool sculpting, you have that suction coupled sort of [panniculus 00:10:01] or popsicle, you need a massage, there’s some sensitivity. Sometimes after some of our technology with suction coupling, there can be a little bit of bruising and swelling and redness. With the Vanquish, there’s a little [erythema 00:10:15] and redness to the skin, but it fades very very quickly. The redness is gone within an hour, there is no bruising, there’s no suction coupled marks, there’s no hypersensitivity. It’s a no-touch technique that uses microwave energy to target your fat selectively so it allows you to get off the table with no recovery, get right back to activities of daily living, go right back to the gym, or go back lie on the couch and watch a Netflix movie. Really no recovery with this technology which makes it a very popular component of our Vanquish Plus program.
With our Vanquish Plus program, four Vanquish treatments once a week sandwiched by techniques on either end, we believe in that technology so much here at SpaMedica. We’ve had so many good results. We basically will guarantee that you will notice a centimeter of fat reduction of pinchable fat. We measure you with a tape measure. We can use B-Mode ultrasound. We can use pinchable fat caliper measurements. If we don’t see a 1cm response, we’re gonna give you a complementary treatment. We believe in our technology enough that essentially, almost all patients will respond to a Vanquish Plus program. ’cause if, let’s say if the cool sculpting doesn’t work, the sculpture might. If the sculpture might not, the cool sculpting might. If both don’t work, the Vanquish probably will. If that doesn’t Body Effects will get you.
By our integrated body contouring program under the Vanquish umbrella, we can pretty much give you that kind of warranty. If you ain’t seein’ the results we talk about, we’re gonna give you a free treatment.
Now having said that, it’s only about 5-10% of the time that we have non-responders to the entire program. The other 90%+ of patients are gonna see a very significant and noticeable reduction in their shape. In fact, a lot of our results with our integrated approach of our non-surgical body contouring, non-surgical lipo program, are almost approaching lipo-like results like liposuction. A modest liposuction. We’ve gotten that good at killing fat non-surgically. So I’d anticipate you should not only get a noticeable improvement, but more contour enhancement and fat reduction that you ever might thought possible with a non-surgical, non-liposuction technique.
Many patients ask or write in or send emails into SpaMedica, “Can I combine different non-surgical body contouring technologies?” Maybe they’ve gone to a clinic where they’re doing cool sculpting, but they don’t have Vanquish. And they go to another clinic with Vanquish and then they hear about sculpture. They go to another clinic with sculpture. And yes, the answer is integrated non-surgical body contouring technologies that work to kill fat different ways will often summate for the best result. Certain fat cells are responsive to cooling and might work with cool sculpting. There’s a limit to the number of cells that will die with the cool sculpting approach. Certain fat cells will die to sculpture that may not have responded to cool sculpting. Certain fat cells respond to the Vanquish and to microwave high frequency electrical current. Certain fat cells respond to electroporation or even ultrasound. By mixing and matching the energy forms, and those energy forms killing fat in different ways, we can synergize and get additive and summative approaches by combining technologies. Not only can you combine your technology, at SpaMedica, we believe in the best result. You’re not gonna get the best result without combining two or more technologies in the modern approach to non-surgical body sculpting.
How much is a non-surgical body contouring, non-surgical lipo program, gonna cost you, Our Vanquish Plus program where two or three different technologies are used over six weeks to give you the best possible result? Well, the cost of a program like that varies on how many zones you’re gonna treat, how much fat in each zone, but in general our Vanquish Plus non-surgical lipo program is gonna be about half the price of liposuction for the same areas. I’ll tell you, the results are better than half the results of liposuction. It’s a cost effective, affordable way to get permanent, remember this fat is permanent it is dead, to get permanent results that are not gonna come back if you maintain you weight. It’s gonna be far less expensive than traditional liposuction.
After the Vanquish, is the fat permanent? Is it gone forever? Is it a temporary result? The Vanquish to clarify those microwaves, very high frequency radiofrequency energy, they are killing fat cells. Those fat cells are not coming back. These fat cells that die, and as the cushion of your fat shrinks, that’s a permanent result.
With the Vanquish Plus program, two or more technologies are giving you the best possible result. What happens if you put on weight? If you put on weight, it’s not gonna go back to the fat cells that are dead ’cause they’re gone and removed. Gently eliminated by your body. It will go back to fat cells that are still there. So you will compromise your localized result. If you’ve had a good shrinkage, and there’s more calories than fat cells left in your pot, your love handles, in your outer thigh, remember the fat, just like liposuction, it’s gonna go somewhere else. If you put on weight after liposuction or after the Vanquish Plus program, that fat’s gonna show up where you don’t want it. A different area, a non-contoured area. If you did your tummy and your hips, inner/outer thighs with the Vanquish Plus program, the fat will go to your arms, your double chin, your calves. Nowhere good. So the take home message, if you’re gonna invest in the Vanquish Plus program, invest, be disciplined, and weight maintenance. Maintain your weight so your contour improvement and the permanent fat reduction is truly forever.
So I hope you enjoyed this podcast informative, entertaining. I hope on the Vanquish Plus program, the Vanquishing being one of our anchor technologies for a multiple device approach to non-surgical body sculpting. If you found this entertaining, interesting, please share it, subscribe, and leave a comment.