Because Loose Skin Is the Devil: The Truth About Renuvion Skin Tightening

Dr. G (00:02):
You are listening to another episode of All the B's with me, Dr. G and my scrub tech Bri. Hey everybody. I'm Dr. Kat Gallus and you're listening to All the B's, our Unfiltered Plastic Surgery podcast with myself, Dr. G and Bri. Hello Bri.

Bri (00:24):
Good morning.

Dr. G (00:26):
Today we're going to talk about Renuvion, which is a skin tightening device, which I mean, let's face it, loose skin is the devil.

Bri (00:35):
Nobody wants loose skin.

Dr. G (00:37):
Nobody wants loose skin. We are all hoping to tighten skin. There's absolutely nowhere on your body where someone comes in and says, I would like loose skin here. If you can name it, please, please call in and let us know. First we have to cover some important celebrity gossip.

Bri (00:59):
I love to start my day with Meghan Markle.

Dr. G (01:01):
It's Meghan Sussex now.

Bri (01:04):
Okay, bitch.

Dr. G (01:04):
She's a Sussex.

Bri (01:09):
I forgot. Sorry. She doesn't do any royal duty stuff and they actually said she's not even a Sussex. Don't quote me on that, but they're like, does she even know her own family name? Meghan has done dirty with this show.

Dr. G (01:30):
Yeah, it's epically bad and she has a new podcast out as well, which we can, or announced a new podcast, so to follow up her With Love Meghan Show, which I feel like we can all agree was just terrible on so many levels, so unauthentic and people are like, well, what do you mean by not authentic and let's start with it's not filmed in her house.

Bri (02:03):
And then she makes popcorn from a corn stalk, but you see the bag of popcorn in the scene on the table, and then there was so many things. She has all these friends. They said that there was one episode where they made dog biscuits, but then the girl didn't bring her dog, and it's like, what kind of producers don't have a whole segment on dogs? And then, oh, forgot to bring my dog. I don't know. I could say so many things.

Dr. G (02:31):
Or you're offering peanut butter pretzels up to your dear, dear friend as a treat for his arrival. But then you also label it in case he might have an allergy to peanut butter.

Bri (02:43):
Yeah.

Dr. G (02:44):
Because most people who love peanut butter pretzels have an allergy to peanut butter.

Bri (02:50):
And then her friends come on the show and she's like, oh my God, you're so tall. Do you not know your best friends?

Dr. G (02:57):
There were lots of holes in the, yes. I mean, I'm really just here for the imitations on TikTok, honestly. There has been some really good, great mockups of people pretending to do what she does, which is take a bag of peanut butter pretzels from Trader Joe's and dump it into another plastic bag and then label it, as that's a pro tip. Or making a fruit platter for her kids. We don't need somebody to teach us how to do that. It's like giving Pinterest 20, I don't know, 2002?

Bri (03:37):
2000. Let's go back. I will be giving everybody peanut butter pretzels in a bag for their birthday. Just letting you now.

Dr. G (03:43):
I'm just going to quickly, I've already lost the name. Oh, here it is. Okay. Are you ready? Will you want to do the reveal of her new podcast name is going to be Confessions of a Female Founder with Love, Meghan,

Bri (04:03):
What did she found? Find?

Dr. G (04:08):
Prince Harry. That should be her confessions.

Bri (04:11):
How to Drop a Man in 60 Days. I feel like J Lo did this one time.

Dr. G (04:17):
I know I saw that movie with Insert J-Lo, insert Kate Hudson, insert, but there it's just an actual movie. This is ridiculous, but yes, making her own pretzel bags.

Bri (04:29):
Yeah, a female founder, she is somebody who was an actress, barely and then married somebody and then made him leave the Royal family cuz they wanted privacy and then was like, oh wait, I want to make a whole TV show and podcasts. I don't want privacy. I just want it to be about me. And then puts peanut butter pretzels in a bag for a living.

Dr. G (04:49):
I know I went to Trader Joe's this weekend and I was sort of disappointed they didn't have a sign that said, as featured on With Love with Meghan next to the Trader Joe's Peanut Butter pretzels, those things are amazing anyway, baseline. So at least she has that good taste, she didn't get 'em from erewhon or something weird.

Bri (05:07):
The $19 strawberry?

Dr. G (05:09):
It's going to be relatable.

Bri (05:10):
If you go this weekend, I need you to bring back a $19 strawberry

Dr. G (05:13):
If you Venmo me. Just kidding.

Bri (05:16):
Deal.

Dr. G (05:17):
Okay, I will go check out erewhon for you this weekend. Regrettably. Okay, moving on to more plastic surgery-ish related. I mean, I will say Meghan Markle has great skin, so.

Bri (05:30):
We'll give her that.

Dr. G (05:33):
That's what she should do is share with us our skincare tips.

Bri (05:37):
That would be good.

Dr. G (05:38):
Or start a skincare line like every other celebrity.

Bri (05:41):
That would probably fail, cua she doesn't market it to the right people,

Dr. G (05:47):
But she should go with one of her strengths. Okay. Doctor Allegedly Tries to Kill Wife at Hawaii Hiking Trail. Are you giving tips to Dave or what's happening here?

Bri (06:00):
For the husband's watching, you need to do better. If you're going to try and kill your wife, you need to succeed because then she's going to go on to tell the story. Also, the doctor was an anesthesiologist, so the first thing I did was ask our anesthesiologist, I assume all doctors know each other. I swear they do. And I was like, do you know this guy? He just tried to kill his wife. First thing I asked.

Dr. G (06:25):
Where's he an anesthesiologist from? I mean there is a lot of connections, multi connections, but

Bri (06:32):
I mean we'll be in the OR and then they'll talk about one doctor and then another doctor. Oh, I know her. They all know each other. You know everyone. I'm like, how are you throwing out so many names? It's just like crazy.

Dr. G (06:47):
Well, we don't know this guy, his Gerhardt Konig and he tried to push her off the trail and struck her in the head with a rock.

Bri (06:58):
He also had

Dr. G (06:58):
I mean he has mad skills as an anesthesiologist, and he went with this?

Bri (07:03):
He brought two syringes of something he injected her with.

Dr. G (07:06):
Oh, okay.

Bri (07:07):
Hit her with a rock and pushed her, but she survived. She's not dead. So what kind of anesthesiologist are you if you can't even kill somebody?You know what I mean?

Dr. G (07:18):
Now he is on the run, which I will say in every true crime story involving physicians, they're very quickly captured because our survival skills are garbage.

Bri (07:28):
Cuz they're bougie bitches and they need to go home, to their bougie cars.

Dr. G (07:34):
Like I'm not staying out here on the trail. Forget that. Where's he going to go? You're on an island. Where are you escaping to?

Bri (07:41):
Where's my Ferrari?

Dr. G (07:43):
Where's the Lambo with my personalized license plate that I'm going to get to make a getaway car.

Bri (07:49):
Right? Okay. This is what happened. He was working and he had an affair, has to be a nurse because all nurses and yeah, that's what I assume. And now he's leaving her because his mistress is pregnant and he tried to kill his wife instead of divorcing her because he didn't want her to take his money. And you know what? That's what I used to, I should be a detective because

Dr. G (08:16):
You could just piece it together.

Bri (08:18):
I could. I know better.

Dr. G (08:20):
We will follow up. It's either that or it involves money. Those are the two reasons. Affair with a nurse or money problems.

Bri (08:28):
But wouldn't he kill himself if he had money problems?

Dr. G (08:30):
Yeah, you're right.

Bri (08:31):
Yeah. I feel like,

Dr. G (08:32):
I guess the fact that he had syringes locked and loaded is a little,

Bri (08:36):
He's been thinking about this

Dr. G (08:38):
Sussy as they used to say.

Bri (08:39):
What's more Sussy is that he didn't know what he was doing enough to.

Dr. G (08:43):
Right. Yeah.

Bri (08:46):
This is horrible.

Dr. G (08:46):
I mean you could probably just hire one of the women in my book club and figure out a better way to kill somebody and get away with it since

Bri (08:52):
That's crazy.

Dr. G (08:53):
We spent a lot of time discussing that for some reason.

Bri (08:55):
It's fine.

Dr. G (08:57):
I'm not really sure why. Alright, that's be on the lookout, I guess if you're, he's from Maui.

Bri (09:04):
If your partner wants to take you hiking.

Dr. G (09:06):
Oh, and he went to O'ahu, so yeah, he should way no better. All right, well we'll follow up on the next podcast how this lands because a hundred percent he'll be captured by then.

Bri (09:17):
I thought everyone that lived in Hawaii was supposed to be happy.

Dr. G (09:22):
Yeah, I mean I feel like you should be. Alright, and then let's moving on to The Sun. Lily Allen Reveals Secret Boob Job. Oh yes. Love her.

Bri (09:32):
Good for you girlfriend.

Dr. G (09:34):
She waited until she ditched Stranger Things actor, David Harbour. They've been together for quite some time. I'm not sure it's a secret boob job if you tell The Sun about it.

Bri (09:47):
The not so secret, secret boob job.

Dr. G (09:50):
Secret from whom?

Bri (09:52):
At least she's coming out and is like, I'm so happy. Instead of getting it down and being like, oh my God, I can't believe I would do this to my body.

Dr. G (10:02):
Yeah, they look really incredible when I take my top off.

Bri (10:07):
I love that.

Dr. G (10:08):
But there's a contrast in age to my face. Okay.

Bri (10:14):
Big perky boobies and

Dr. G (10:16):
Yeah. That's awesome. So she's already considering more plastic surgery. Yes. When you make breast augmentation, your gateway surgery.

Bri (10:26):
Yes, it's a gateway drug.

Dr. G (10:28):
Oh, she's thinking she'll get the BBL next, a Brazilian butt lift. I don't know. She needs a slow her roll.

Bri (10:34):
She's tiny.

Dr. G (10:35):
Yeah. I don't know where they're going to get fat from.

Bri (10:37):
Throw some Sculptura or something in there.

Dr. G (10:39):
I guess when you date somebody who is usually pretty open about their lives, then you're going to reap the benefits. But I guess he had a secret profile on a dating app, which has to be Raya, the one that all the celebrities use.

Bri (10:57):
That's crazy.

Dr. G (10:58):
The word secret doesn't apparently mean the same thing to celebrities like it does to us. Secret profile, secret boob job.

Bri (11:07):
The not so secret public. That's crazy. So why, see, this is what I just don't understand. Why can't we just go and get divorced before going on dating sites and killing each other?

Dr. G (11:23):
Which leads us into our next story, speaking of dating gone very wrong.

Bri (11:31):
The Diddler.

Dr. G (11:31):
Diddy, we were actually, our Spotify went off the rails yesterday in the OR and I feel like my patient's going to have some weird dreams related to listening to music that started out as alt nineties music and then segued into kind of alt nineties hip hop. Yeah, we listened to,

Bri (11:55):
It was Red hot chili peppers to, we heard no Jay-Z though.

Dr. G (11:59):
No, Jay-Z was notoriously absent, but Notorious B.I.G. was in the playlist. So yeah, so we were laughing because Diddy was there. I'm like, isn't he canceled? How is he still playing on Spotify? How did they not take it down? I don't know. But speaking of celebrity friends, I guess people are using this opportunity to settle out of court.

Bri (12:22):
There's so many people that are pressing, it would be stupid to not settle because there's no way he can afford to pay off all of the victims that are claiming things against him, right?

Dr. G (12:33):
No, he's saying if you were at a party, I would throw out a name, but I don't want to get sued. Let's say you're at a like Drake's pictured there, right? Let's say

Bri (12:43):
I believe it.

Dr. G (12:46):
Drake is settling with the people, suing the victims. Let's call it what it is. If you attended those parties, if you're Ashton Kutcher or whatever, you're already settling so that it doesn't, it stays out of court.

Bri (13:02):
That's crazy.

Dr. G (13:04):
Right? So we'll never really know the full extent.

Bri (13:08):
Has J Lo commented on any of this yet?

Dr. G (13:11):
They have all wisely not commented on anything, which would be the advice of your lawyer. It would be insane unless you're Blake Lively, not to drag her back into this, or Justin Baldoni. Most people don't comment on ongoing litigation. So yeah, I think that's probably the smart move. Even though as a person you probably want to either defend yourself or make excuses or whatever you want to do. Explain, it's human nature to want to explain what's going on, but if your lawyer is, legal representation is correct, you should just shut it. And then this is your opportunity actually, if you have good legal representation to settle out of court before any of this hits the fan at trial, assuming they don't also settle. This stuff takes forever too.

Bri (14:02):
Just like how we have to wait for Blake and Justin next year for their court date.

Dr. G (14:07):
The wheels of justice turn slowly. Yeah and then of course also you have to sift through, these parties were massive. I mean there were parties before the parties, so anybody who was remotely in contact at those, if you catered the party, if you went to the first party and not the after party, if you just think you're going to get in on it, people are calling in probably too. The lawyers have to sift through verifying who was actually there, I would imagine.

Bri (14:39):
Right.

Dr. G (14:39):
Thousands of calls from people claiming to have been abused.

Bri (14:43):
Everybody wants their cut.

Dr. G (14:45):
Yes, they're there for the free cheese. I mean just again, human nature being what it will be, people will be like, well, I mean I remember hearing about the party, so I think I'm just going to throw my name into the hat.

Bri (15:00):
No, that one time.

Dr. G (15:02):
Yeah. Alright, well let's move on to skin tightening.

Bri (15:09):
Renuvion. Also another procedure I have had.

Dr. G (15:14):
Oh that is true. A procedure I want and I can never find somebody to do it for me. I think I might have Dr. Chao do my neck.

Bri (15:25):
Ooh.

Dr. G (15:26):
But I really want someone to Renuvion beyond my abdomen.

Bri (15:29):
I can do it. I'll just Chula Vista this. I can also do anesthesia.

Dr. G (15:38):
Right? Yes, of course.

Bri (15:40):
In case you want little something something.

Dr. G (15:43):
And we can do it after hours so that I can too make the news as untimely death of plastic surgeon who colors outside the lines. No, thank you.

Bri (15:53):
She was missing her Louie bag and credit card. I have no idea where those would go.

Dr. G (16:01):
I also feel like you would not last very long on the land. I'm just saying.

Bri (16:06):
I would not. I would not be a good on the run person. I need,

Dr. G (16:11):
You're like, can we stop at erewhon on my way? I know I'm dying to try one of those smoothies.

Bri (16:19):
I know we're running from the cops, but I just need my collagen and my beauty serums. I also skincare, I feel like I would need to definitely, my skincare. I need my sheets.

Dr. G (16:34):
Your sheets. Yeah. I can just imagine the, it's that pretty famous video where they're like, you're running from the cops and they're like, excuse me miss, and you turn around, oh did you just call me miss instead of ma'am? You immediately stop.

Bri (16:49):
Thank you. So you think I'm skinny? Somebody called me ma'am the other day and I was so offended.

Dr. G (17:00):
Oh my gosh.

Bri (17:00):
I was like, and he was trying to be so nice.

Dr. G (17:03):
I know he was trying to be polite and you're like, suck it. Don't ever do that again.

Bri (17:07):
I was, so rude.

Dr. G (17:11):
Alright, well let's talk about this knee skin tightening procedure. She's loving the results.

Bri (17:17):
I need it on my knees.

Dr. G (17:18):
Your Alien knees.

Bri (17:20):
Yeah, I have baby faces on my knees. I'm going to send in a picture so this could go on the podcast. There are literal alien faces on my knees.

Dr. G (17:30):
Yeah, so you're talking about the skin above your knee, which people, women definitely have issues with. They don't like it. It's a common complaint. There's a couple of things you can do to address that. It looks like Dolores Katanya had Renuvion skin tightening. I do like to point out that the skin tightening with Renuvion is in the subcutaneous layer. So if you have a ton of crepey skin over that, then you're shrinking the subcu, sometimes the overlying really thin tissue above that will look more wrinkly, so more crepey. But in this case, Dolores had, she's real housewives, girly 53, good age to do it. So she used that to tighten up the skin in her, I'm sure thighs and above her knees. The one thing that's great about Renuvion is that it's FDA cleared, which was a big contention at one point when it was out on the market and it wasn't FDA cleared for skin contraction.

(18:35):
And so there was a year or so period of time where we had to have people sign an extra consent while that clearance was getting going through the process, which was also around the time of covid. So the FDA is like we've got bigger fish to fry than Renuvion skin tightening device, but it is now and I feel like the alternate company InMode with their BodyTite was leveraging that pretty hard because they got a letter from the FDA warning, Renuvion did at the time, and so the competing company was leveraging that and now it's turned on its head where it's the only one that's FDA cleared for this. So it is radio frequency energy with helium plasma, the helium plasma cools. It's been around for actually a while, just not for this indication. So it was a device used to get rid of endometriosis and laparoscopic gynecological surgery. So you could use it to ablate those little, some women have endometriosis and it's kind of scattered all over the inside of their abdomen.

(19:45):
You could use this device to do that. Anyway, so then they realized it had this other use for skin tightening. You can also use it for skin resurfacing, but it is extremely intense for that. So I use it for skin tightening. I've yet to use it for facial skin rejuvenation. I just have to be extremely careful. It has a long recovery period and you have to be basically pale like you Brianna. You have to be a skin type one to two, not a three. I'm too dark for it because the ability to maybe get some hypopigmentation is real. So you need to be pretty pale. It is amazing.

Bri (20:24):
Wait, do you still do it inside or do you do it?

Dr. G (20:27):
No, it's like an external laser device, but we're getting off track. Sorry. So we can talk about that in a minute, but I have a friend in Florida who does it in combination. Instead of doing a CO2 laser, which is my preference, she'll use the Renuvion device to take off your face and the results are great, but it's two weeks of downtime. Again exosomes I think help. Alright, I will go off topic. So there's a Renuvion university, so there's a portal for physicians to get on and we can share tips and tricks and expert advice. And this guy who's probably 50 ish white had it done to himself, the facial resurfacing version and then how people like to post every day, what they look like? And again, his final result was amazing, but looking at those early pictures, I just thought, oh hell no.

Bri (21:24):
I haven't even heard of this. I can't even fathom what those pictures are like.

Dr. G (21:29):
He looked like just burn victim to the, it just looked bad the first day. Your face is really, really swollen and crusty and the post-op care is not, you have to get in the shower and let the steam mist it and gently cleanse. It's a lot. But like I said, it was interesting because I thought, oh cool, he's doing it so he can also know what his patients are going through, which I love. I feel like male plastic surgeons tend not to have that relatability, but his pictures made me not want to do it.

Bri (22:03):
Gave the opposite effect.

Dr. G (22:05):
I was like, oh no, that looks extraordinarily painful. So anyway, so that is an alternative use for Renuvion, but I think there's less extreme things you can do. So maybe do a couple CO2s or I don't know, take really good care of your skin in the interim. Or if you're desperate you could do that. For body contouring, it's a great adjunct and helping tighten the skin above the knees is nice. I don't know if Dolores Katanya did any before and afters though. I'm not sure that was shared in the article. She's just talking about how amazing it is.

(22:44):
Yeah, I think again, if you have crepey skin over your knees, you're going to want to do Renuvion plus, you're going to need something to address the outer epidermis creepiness. And so there's a couple ways to tackle that. You can do Radiesse, like dilute Radiesse, which is a filler, that's a biostimulatory filler and you can layer that in. I've had really nice results with that in the above the knees and around the elbows and along the arms. For crepey skin you can do radiofrequency microneedling. So attack the problem from the outside in. So that's when we're taking needles that have radiofrequency energy in the tips and you stamp that area and the needle causes collagen damage just by mechanical penetration of the skin and then also deposits energy in the dermis. So those two things can compliment doing Renuvion underneath, which like you said is usually that wand that goes in. So you've watched me do Renuvion a handful of times. What's the observer since you're ready to do it anyway on my abdomen.

Bri (23:54):
II feel pretty confident I could do a lot of surgery.

Dr. G (24:00):
I mean you have to watch it. So how would you describe it to somebody?

Bri (24:05):
So basically it is a small incision. She inserts fluid, which we tumescent, which numbs the area. It is very hot, it's very cool. You turn the lights down, you can see the tip of the wand. She goes in and out, in and out. There's a whole bunch of lines. I'm sure there's a much better way to say this on the podcast, but it's really cool. It fills up, uses helium.

Dr. G (24:32):
What's your favorite part at the end?

Bri (24:34):
My favorite part is it gets very crunchy and I push all of it out and it's so satisfying. It's like the crunchiness and the helium. Sometimes she sucks it out with the cannula before I get to do it and then I'm pissed.

Dr. G (24:51):
Ruin your fun. Yeah, so that helium gas is what's cooling things down and so it's gas, you're putting gas in that area and so it's kind of going through the subcutaneous tissues. That rice crispy effect is what we know as crepitus. So it's just the gases in the tissues and you want to try and push some of that out so that people don't wake up with too much rice crispy in their, sensation in the subcu. I mean you could leave it, but it's got to get absorbed at some point, so milking it out is nice. And your background as a massage therapist, certified lymphatic massage therapist is drawn to pushing that out.

Bri (25:33):
It's so satisfying. Even with lipo, just the fluid, you can feel the fluid move and it's, ugh.

Dr. G (25:40):
Milk the fluid out?

Bri (25:40):
Yeah.

Dr. G (25:41):
It really does make your recovery a little bit faster if you don't leave all that in there. So yeah, you mentioned we put tumescent fluid in. I do have to make space for it. I use a cannula from a liposuction cannula if you don't need liposuction in that area that I'm using the cannula but not on suction to make little holes or little pathways because the Renuvion wand is pretty small and then I'm making passes with the Renuvion wand that is contracting the skin, but it's multiple passes so it's not just like, let me just wave this wand around underneath and it's not that magic. So it's usually six passes per area. So that's the part you have to be patient. It takes a little time and you can see on table things starting to contract. Can you do it with liposuction? Absolutely. So instead of just passing the cannula without on suction at the beginning, I will do liposuction first.

(26:35):
It works great with that. So in the neck, in the abdomen, I think the thighs are another popular area. I do think it works great for the arms, but I feel like you have to be in that kind of age range, maybe under 50 depending on the quality of your skin. So if you're between 35 and 50 and you have a little laxity, it works great in the arms. I've done it for patients who are older and it does contract the skin, but the crepey skin above that, which everyone seems to hate over their bicep area. When your arm's pushing against your chest and people get that little crepey skin there, as you get older, it makes that worse. I think if you don't address it with something else.

Bri (27:16):
The chicken nugget.

Dr. G (27:19):
Yeah,

Bri (27:20):
You have done recently a whole bunch of Renuvion in the neck. Phenomenal results. They look so good. We had this one patient, she was very strict about her aftercare. She massaged it, she did all of the things. She was constantly guasha-ing and she looked phenomenal. So good.

Dr. G (27:41):
She did have an awesome result. So she was in her early sixties, darker skinned patient, had originally thought she might want a neck lift, but I mean her neck was not that saggy and she had really great quality skin. So we decided to go with Renuvion, which can be done awake, but you can also do it under general anesthesia if you don't want to be awake for it. So then putting tumescent fluid in that neck area here and then pushing the cannula through just a tiny little bit of liposuction for her. She didn't have very much fat there. Making passes with the Renuvion device to tighten along here a little bit along the jawline. And then as you mentioned, aftercare is important, right? Because she was so meticulous with it and she wore, we put you in this silly little garment that's like this that you're supposed to wear all the time. And I saw at two months and I was like, okay, you're looking good. And she's like, can I stop wearing the garment? And I was like, what? No wonder. I kind of want to wear the garment and see of just wearing that around the clock for two months would make a difference.

Bri (28:49):
You know what, I wore my garments for six months, if not longer for every surgery I've had.

Dr. G (28:56):
It's impressive. The massage, the guasha, the garment, it really, I think it made a difference. And then recently I just did someone else who hopefully is going to be as compliant with her garment wearing, but then I think it's all about finding the right patient. The problem with some of these devices is it's not a one size fits all and you can't do it to everybody and then expect the same result.

Bri (29:22):
I do have to say though, having Renuvion it actually really does work. But you definitely, like I said, I'm not going to say I don't want to talk bad. I talk shit like half this podcast, but the surgeon that I did get my lipo from definitely should left a little bit maybe more fat. I am like skin on muscle. I have no fat on my abdomen. So I did do Renuvion and it completely tightened up the skin. It works wonders, but I think just the fact that I have zero fat on my stomach, you can definitely see on below my belly button. It tightened down and it does look a little dimply.

Dr. G (30:08):
Because it's so tight, you can see every fat cell that you have left.

Bri (30:13):
Literally. I wish I could just stand up and show you my abdomen right now, but you can see every little, I'm pretty sure I have a teeny tiny hernia next to my belly button. Pretty sure you can see that. You can see everything, every little vein.

Dr. G (30:29):
Yeah, it's definitely some people wouldn't complain about that look, but I know you're picky.

Bri (30:36):
Just because I look at it all the time and I see things. Anytime everyone's like, oh my God, you look phenomenal, you need, and I'm like, but, and I can nitpick a thousand things. But that's, I'm looking at it all day. I see things.

Dr. G (30:51):
Yeah, I think that's mostly over liposuction, right? You've taken out so you have a contour deformity and certainly Renuvion is not going to help that look better because tightening around that little bit of absent skin on fat. It's overall though you still really have a nice abdomen. I've definitely seen worse.

Bri (31:13):
Thank you.

Dr. G (31:15):
A lot of times I think if you are seeking liposuction for the abdomen and you're really concerned about that kind of lower belly pooch, my advice is to make sure that you're addressing the entire abdomen with whomever it is that you seek to get your liposuction with, ideally a board certified plastic surgeon, not a pediatrician or OB GYN masquerading as a cosmetic surgeon, because those are usually the most jacked liposuction results I've seen. And the abdomen is hard to correct once it's been done poorly. So if you just aggressively liposuction below the belly button, it looks weird. The upper abdomen doesn't tend to have a lot of fat there relative to the lower abdomen in most patients, sometimes people have the reverse. But it'll look carved out and then you have to kind of equalize that tissue. Also, liposuction alone will cause some skin retraction generally in people less than 40 years old.

(32:18):
So that lower skin is going to retract and the upper skin's not. So I really think you just kind of have to do the abdomen as the abdomen. So do a little bit of upper abdomen even if you're not taking out that much fat, at least you're addressing that area to equalize with the lower abdomen so you don't have that shark bite. So that's one common mistake I see. And same with Renuvion, if your lower abdomen's bothering you, I'm going to Renuvion the entire abdomen because you want your abdominal wall to shrink wrap. You want it all to stick down. You don't want to then be like, okay, well now this area is loose. So that's not exactly you. They just sucked every last little piece of fat from you because they were trying to get it in your booty.

Bri (33:03):
Yeah, yeah. I don't think mine was normal.

Dr. G (33:06):
But I've had a couple of patients that had botched liposuction elsewhere and it's hard because I had somebody actually had lower abdomen only and not Renuvion, BodyTite, and it really was, remember he was all scarred down and it took me, I think three rounds of unscrewing that to make it look better. Also, you need to know that you're going to have to wait at least six months to 12 months after something like that to let the tissues settle before you even consider revision. So you want to let everything soften.

Bri (33:47):
And it takes a little bit longer, I feel like to heal at least. You're more swollen.

Dr. G (33:51):
I feel like you see some immediate skin retraction and then you get swollen, then your swelling goes down and so you see laxity all of a sudden, and then the tissues start to contract again. So it can be a cyclical process over three to six months, especially when you add the Renuvion in. So you just have to be patient for your results, which none of us ever are.

Bri (34:14):
But it does work.

Dr. G (34:16):
It does work.

Bri (34:16):
Much better than all the gimmicky creams that do not work. Yeah,

Dr. G (34:23):
No tightening creams, Brazilian bum bum cream. I mean some of that stuff is doing magical tightening, but it's as long as the cream is on there. So it's pretty short. The treatment doesn't hurt per se. It just feels warm. So when you do do it under local, people tolerate it because of the tumescent anesthesia and the treatment itself doesn't hurt. It's doable. I usually limit awake stuff to one area because people just can't tolerate more than that after a while. It is uncomfortable. It's just not painful.

Bri (34:56):
So what would you say is the average downtime for Renuvion that people should anticipate taking off work and then anticipate being swollen?

Dr. G (35:04):
Some of it depends. If it's your neck and you don't want people to know you had anything done, I would say two weeks before people aren't going to notice that your neck's all beat up. But if you don't care about that or it's a body part, you can hide, I would say you can take a couple of days off, you're just going to be sore like you are from liposuction in terms of work, you can't raise your heart rate or blood pressure for two weeks, so you got to take it easy for two weeks. You can walk as much as you want and after two weeks you can aggressively exercise. Most people are more sore than they think after these. We always say that liposuction is uncomfortable to recover from. I'm shoving a steel cannula in and out of your soft tissue. Of course it's going to hurt.

(35:49):
It's going to be bruised and swollen, but it's not like a hernia repair or something more. There's not incisions in your abdomen that you're going to split open by doing anything. You just have to take it easy and you're going to feel really sore. If you have a job where you're standing on your feet all the time, then you just need to know that you're going to be more swollen at the end of the day. And so you need to go home and either put your legs up depending on what area we've treated or your arms up if that's what we treated, stay in your compression garment. We do like Arnica and Bromelain to help kind of decrease bruising and swelling after surgery. Lymphatic massage is also super helpful starting eight to 10 days after surgery to help move that fluid out. People really like that and it works.

Bri (36:37):
Remove all those little crunchies.

Dr. G (36:40):
Yes, get somebody who's super

Bri (36:41):
You don't come here.

Dr. G (36:44):
Right.

Bri (36:44):
Got to get it done elsewhere.

Dr. G (36:46):
Brianna does lymphatic massage, but now that we're busier, she has less time on our schedule to offer it to our patients. But we know plenty of certified lymphatic massage therapists in the community at all different locations. So we can usually find someone that is close to where you live because you want to go two to three times a week for at least a couple of weeks, maybe longer, to get the best results. If you're going to be traipsing back and forth, maybe something closer to home or closer to where you work is ideal for you.

Bri (37:17):
I did so many massages, my massage therapist said we had to break up and I was like, but why? She's like, you just don't need 'em anymore. And I was like, yes, I do.

Dr. G (37:26):
I do feel like people come and spill their secrets while you're doing the massage.

Bri (37:30):
They do. They do.

Dr. G (37:31):
She gets all the tea.

Bri (37:32):
It's like therapy. Yeah,

Dr. G (37:34):
All the tea.

Bri (37:36):
I love it.

Dr. G (37:37):
I love a little good girls gossip.

Bri (37:40):
Sort of like our Labiaplasty patients don't goss as much, but they'll chat. We learn a lot of things, but not about them personally. Just more pop culture or places to go in San Diego, TV to watch.

(37:54):
I know.

Dr. G (37:55):
But something about lymphatic massage makes you confess all your secrets.

Bri (38:00):
Yeah, you're just relaxed and lying there and it's just like yada, yada, yada. Sometimes I'm like, I don't know if they want to stay quiet and then they just start talking. I'm like, perfect. Let's go girlfriend. I know everyone's dirty little secret.

Dr. G (38:20):
It stays with Bri.

Bri (38:21):
Pretty little Liars.

Dr. G (38:26):
You're like the hairstylist, facialist. People like to talk.

Bri (38:31):
I got all of it.

Dr. G (38:33):
Is there any topics about Renuvion that we've missed? We really do like it. It's a good option as a standalone or in combination with liposuction. It really does tighten up your skin. So we're fans.

Bri (38:46):
Yes. Recommend.

Dr. G (38:47):
Thumbs up. And then I think if you have more questions about the procedure itself, certainly reach out to us at Restore SD Plastic surgery. Ava can talk you through it or you can come in for a consult and we can discuss it further.

Bri (39:04):
Absolutely. Come.

Dr. G (39:06):
Like and subscribe.

Bri (39:07):
Like and subscribe. I also want to give a shout out to press juice. Our Diet Coke was back ordered until Thursday.

Dr. G (39:17):
We had to post about that. How do you delay an order of Diet Coke? We ordered it on Monday and got Amazon delay.

Bri (39:26):
Oh, there is nothing worse. Nothing worse.

Dr. G (39:29):
Actually the mistake was not ordering it with our Costco hall on Friday.

Bri (39:34):
I didn't realize we were out.

Dr. G (39:35):
Dangerously low.

Bri (39:38):
Oops.

Dr. G (39:39):
We definitely need fluids in this office.

Bri (39:42):
I know. Another way to get fired. Don't order the Diet Coke.

Dr. G (39:46):
Preferably caffeinated.

Bri (39:47):
I ordered her a steamer though. I did get her a steamer.

Dr. G (39:50):
That's right. Which I need to use.

Bri (39:54):
I would be a great executive assistant.

Dr. G (39:57):
One job, Diet Coke and whatever other accoutrements I need. The steamer that your son uses to press his shirts every morning

Bri (40:04):
He does. My son every single morning has to steam his shirt. He is like, I don't know. I was just going to say, I don't know where he got it from, but I've never used a steamer. He cares more about his appearance than

Dr. G (40:17):
I'm telling you, these teenagers are fastidious. That's a word of the day. So I was like, this kid can use his very particular So

Bri (40:27):
A ubiquitous place.

Dr. G (40:29):
Yes, to use it. Yeah. He's fastidious about his appearance and so are my kids that are teens and it's wild. But I was like, if this kid is using this steamer every day to get his clothes ready, then I'm in. I don't need any more endorsements. I don't need Meghan Markle to tell me. I just need Trevor to let me know.

Bri (40:49):
It's doctor proof.

Dr. G (40:51):
Yeah.

Bri (40:51):
My 12-year-old

Dr. G (40:54):
Can handle it then I should be able to steam my clothes and that confidence.

Bri (40:59):
We don't let doctors do things. They operate.

Dr. G (41:02):
Laser focused on that. The rest of it's up for grabs.

Bri (41:07):
Yeah, no touchy.

Dr. G (41:11):
Alrighty. Well, we would do a cute outro right here, but

Bri (41:14):
We suck, so.

Dr. G (41:15):
We struggle. Buzz right back. We'll be right back with another episode.

Bri (41:23):
Oh, cute.

Dr. G (41:27):
Until next time.

Bri (41:28):
Bzzz.

Dr. G (41:34):
If you're listening today and have questions, need info about scheduling, financing, reviews, or photos, check out the show notes for links. Restore SD Plastic Surgery is located in La Jolla, California. To learn more about us, go to restoresdplasticsurgery.com or follow us on Instagram @restoreSDplasticsurgery. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it and subscribe to All the B's on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.