Photo Credit: parkavenueplasticsurgeon.com
MEET DR. DAVID RAPAPORT – NEW YORK PLASTIC SURGEON AND COOLSPA FOUNDER
Aesthetic Plastic Surgeon David P. Rapaport is a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon in private practice in New York City on the Upper East Side. His illustrious credentials as a plastic surgeon include serving as Chief Resident at Harvard Medical School and Chief Resident at the Plastic Surgery Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at New York University Medical Center in New York City where he did his plastic surgical training. After completing a one-year microsurgery fellowship, Dr. Rapaport moved to Florida, where he spent four years on the faculty of the University of South Florida. In 1997 he returned to New York City and opened his private plastic and cosmetic surgery practice on Park Avenue.
Dr. Rapaport is also the founder of Coolspa, a state-of-the-art facility that features all forms of body contouring procedures, specializing in Coolsculpting®, the uber popular non-surgical treatment that harness the power of cold to freeze fat cells. Coolspa offers DualSculpting by using two systems at one time, so that you can have twice the areas treated in half the time. Picture this; you can sit in a comfortable setting while getting your fatty bulges frozen in total privacy.
He shared his expertise in body shaping with Beauty in the Bag and his vision of what the future holds.
1. What are the differences in your approach to body contouring today versus a decade ago?
Clearly the biggest difference is that today, I can offer effective and lasting fat reduction with CoolSculpting. A decade ago, the only way to permanently reduce fatty bulges was liposuction. Today, there are several technologies available which can effectively eliminate localized fatty deposits. CoolSculpting is the only technology which uses cooling instead of heating to kill fat cells. In my opinion, this method is by far superior to the other competing technologies both in terms of results and the fact that it is generally very well tolerated. A year ago I founded Coolspa, and I am proud to report that since its launch, Coolspa remains the leading provider of CoolSculpting services in New York.
I still maintain a very busy liposuction practice, as liposuction remains the gold-standard procedure for spot reduction of fat. I perform my procedures in the office, generally with the patient receiving mild IV anesthesia. I find that my patients, as well as I, enjoy both the procedure and the results.
2. What are your patients most interested in having done, in terms of surgical procedures?
Even before I launched Coolspa, liposuction was the number one procedure I performed in my practice. With Coolspa, my liposuction practice has only increased, due to so many patients now interested in shaping their bodies. I also have a very busy breast augmentation and facial rejuvenation practice.
3. In your opinion, what facial procedure or treatment gives you the most bang for the buck?
Unquestionably, I would say that a facelift definitely provides the most value to patients. While fillers are extremely important in facial rejuvenation, and I perform injections on many more faces then I treat with facelifts, there are no injectables that can deliver the neck and jowl improvement which a facelift can. Most importantly, in terms of bang for the buck, the results of a facelift are very long lasting. While fillers last about a year, a facelift provides benefit for the rest of the patient’s life. Most patients do not seek a second facelift until after about 7-10 years, and even when they do, their faces and necks still look better than they would have had they never done the procedure.
4. How would you describe the ideal patient for CoolSculpting versus liposuction?
The ideal CoolSculpting patient has relatively smaller bulges and has either personal or physical aversions to liposuction. The personal reasons I of course cannot control. These include fear of surgery, and or fear of anesthesia, as well as reluctance to experience any downtime at all (a typical liposuction patient can have fairly extensive liposuction on Friday and be back at work on Monday; bruising however, will last 2-3 weeks). The main physical reason that I will advise an otherwise excellent liposuction candidate to undergo CoolSculpting instead of liposuction is in the case of people with unblemished naturally light brown skin. This may include people of Asian descent, or other people who tend to form dark scars. Even a small scar can stand out when the skin has no other imperfections if the scar becomes hyperpigmented. The ideal liposuction patient may have more than one area they desire to have treated, and would like to achieve their result in one treatment rather than many. Liposuction also provides for more custom, detail-oriented body contouring.
5. What do you see as the most significant recent advances in aesthetic breast surgery?
The two most recent advances in aesthetic breast surgery are:
- Shaped formed stable implants also known as gummy bear implants.
- A variety of implantable sheets which can reinforce the patient’s natural tissues (products such as Alloderm and Seri Surgical Scaffold).
Truthfully, as is frequently the case with new products, I believe these new products are “over pushed†by their manufacturers. I continue to feel strongly that round implants – either textured or smooth – are superior to shaped implants for many reasons. These include the fact that round implants feel not nearly as stiff as gummy bear implants and do not have the risk of rotation. I find that many women with gummy bear implants also have excessive fullness in the upper part of the breast.
Sheets for tissue support are indeed important but most cases can be performed very well without them.
6. Which products or technologies on the horizon are you excited about adding to your practice?
We will soon have smaller CoolSculpting applicators which will extend its use to areas including under the chin, we will soon have an injectable product which permanently reduces fat, but because it will be painful and will require multiple injections, I anticipate that it will be used primarily by dermatologists. We may use it to perform very small touch ups in small areas. Further off in the future, may be techniques which can lift tissues including the breasts and face by effective internal threads. Thus far however, they have been disappointment.
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