“There’s a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about the new drug Kybella. It’s a drug that when injected dissolves fat and creates some skin tightening. It was approved recently in the last few months by the FDA for chin or neck fat, so it can change that hanging chin or neck area, and it potentially has many other applications in the body. The molecule is deoxycholate, and it’s been studied for safety and efficacy or effectiveness.
One of the things that a lot of people are asking about Kybella, both personally in my San Francisco office, on the web and even socially is “Does this drug get a permanent result?”
The answer is “yes”. It causes rupture of the fat cells, and when they rapture they don’t return. Those fat cells, we are born with the certain number of them and once they’re gone or destroyed they’re not going to come back. The fat or lipid that’s released into the tissues creates some inflammation which also is a benefit because it creates some skin tightening effect along with it.
So this indication on the neck is done typically in a series of small treatments, it depends on how much fat you have. One treatment will show a very good result because initially a small amount of swelling that’s a series of little shots under the neck, you go home the same day.
We will be using compression which I think will change the outcome or recovery time significantly by reducing the swelling effect that some people get. There is rumors that everybody gets a “bull frog” like effect, that’s not true. It was in a small percentage of the now over 300 treatments that I’ve done, do people get a lot of swelling.
With the neck, it’s a long term result, it probably won’t replace liposuction, which is a one-time treatment in the neck, but this drug with its many potential applications is going to be a very important part of what we do in plastic surgery.
Kybella is a permanent result, it’s something that is offered in the offices as an outpatient way of improving the contour of the neck. If you have any other further questions about Kybella, how it works or are you a candidate, please don’t hesitate to visit my website at MaasClinic.com or send a note or a message or even a picture of yourself at DrMaas.com and we can give you a response and some ideas about your candidacy for this treatment.
