Liposuction in Dallas Texas | Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon George Toledo MD

Carrie McClure:
It's the most popular cosmetic surgery in the United States. And let's admit it, most of us have entertained thoughts about having it done. But what do we really know about liposuction and who's a good candidate? Renowned plastic surgeon, Dr. George Toledo of Highland Park Plastic Surgery Center here with us this morning with some answers for us. Dr. Toledo, great to see you.

Dr. Toledo:
Thanks, Carrie. It's great to be back.

Carrie McClure:
As always. So liposuction, very, very popular. But here's the thing. If it's done on the wrong candidate, we can have sometimes devastating results. Our first picture kind of illustrates that. It's Tara Reid.

Dr. Toledo:
Right, and you can Tara had liposuction to her abdomen. You can see where the skin is adherent to the muscles. So what little bit of fat she had was removed. She probably shouldn't have ever had liposuction. They did try to correct it later on. You can still see it's not smooth, but it's better. This is a very difficult problem to correct.

Carrie McClure:
So she was a bad candidate, because really, as you mentioned, she didn't have a lot of fat to begin with. And this rippling we're seeing is skin directly on that muscle.

Dr. Toledo:
Right, if you only have a quarter inch of fat, there's no room for error. You better be perfect or don't go to bat.

Carrie McClure:
Okay.

Dr. Toledo:
I don't remember what she looked like before. I haven't even seen her before, but I wouldn't have operated on her. But she is better. But you got to be very careful, because we see this all the time.

Carrie McClure:
Okay, that's good to know.

Dr. Toledo:
The next slide is, this is a patient that had lipo to her tummy. You can see she's got loose skin all over the abdomen, and they suctioned irregularly. She's got a hole here and-

Carrie McClure:
Yeah, I see some dimpling there.

Dr. Toledo:
A lot of dimpling. She really needed a tummy tuck,-

Carrie McClure:
Okay.

Dr. Toledo:
... but that wasn't offered to her. She goes to a clinic where all they do is lipo, and so they do it, and they have loose skin with dimpling. Sometimes the tummy tuck works great, and it's smooth, tight, the fat's removed evenly. You do have a scar down here, but it's usually worth it. In a bikini, she'll look great.

Carrie McClure:
Okay, another popular area a lot of people like to have liposuction done is on the legs.

Dr. Toledo:
On the thighs, I know. You got to be very, very selective on the thighs, the doctor does. So if you pick a good doctor that's busy, he's going to select good candidates. This is not a good candidate.

Carrie McClure:
And why isn't this a good candidate here?

Dr. Toledo:
Well, she has loose skin. She has a lot of dimpling. She's been suctioned. You can see the deeper holes are from her liposuction.

Carrie McClure:
Okay.

Dr. Toledo:
But here where she wasn't suctioned, you can see there's just a whole lot of dimpling and cellulite. So this skin is not going to shrink after liposuction. So you know you're going to have an unhappy patient, you shouldn't even go there.

Carrie McClure:
So what are we looking for in a good candidate if they want liposuction on their thighs?

Dr. Toledo:
Yeah, the next candidate is a good candidate. The next slide, please. This is somebody young. She's got a little saddlebag. She's got just a little bit of fat in here. And you can see, you can take that off, widen that a little bit. And the skin is nice and firm. It's firm before, it's firm after. Doesn't have to be somebody young. It could be somebody in their 40s and 50s, but the skin needs to be tight.

Carrie McClure:
How tight does it need to be to be that perfect candidate?

Dr. Toledo:
Well, you don't want to have cellulite, you don't want to have stretch marks, and you don't want to have a lot of dimpling.

Carrie McClure:
Okay, because then it kind of goes beyond liposuction.

Dr. Toledo:
Well, after liposuction, you're still going to be dimpled, and you're still going to have stretch marks. Even though you may look better in tight jeans, deep down inside you want to look better in a bathing suit. The satisfaction is not as great.

Carrie McClure:
Right.

Dr. Toledo:
Patients are maybe 50% better or 70% better, but they're not happy unless they're 95% better. Just after 30 years of doing this, I've just come to realize that unless somebody's 95% better, they're just not going to be happy.

Carrie McClure:
Well, you're the perfect example of having the right doctor, and it really matters if you're the right candidate. So thanks for breaking it down for us. We appreciate it.

Dr. Toledo:
Oh, you're welcome.

Carrie McClure:
All right, for all the information, you can call Dr. George Toledo at Highland Park Plastic Surgery Center. That number is (214)363-4444, and you can also log onto his website. It's toledoplasticsurgery.com.