BOCA RATON — Wouldn’t it be nice to head to the mall, grab a latte, browse the shoe racks – and lose 10 pounds? Sleek Med Spa in the Town Center at Boca Raton is offering “Smartlipo” liposuction procedures at its store in the mall near Saks, the first time that this procedure has been done at any mall in Palm Beach County.
Sleek Med performs Botox injections and other medical procedures in its mall location, but this is the first one that has required any sort of anesthesia, Rudnick said. Several of Sleek Med Spa’s other mall locations in the Northeast have experimented successfully with offering liposuction; the Natick Mall in Massachusetts does 10 to 15 of the procedures a week, Rudnick said. “It’s a novel idea that they have started,” said Dr. Jeffrey LaGrasso, a Jupiter board-certified plastic surgeon who will be doing the liposuctions for Sleek Med Spa.
“What we’re offering is what you can get at a plastic surgeon’s office at the convenience of a mall.” Others are not so sure. “The convenience that this is in a mall is one thing, but convenience and safety are two separate issues,” said Dr. Stephan Baker, a spokesman for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. “It’s not like buying a Gucci bag. You can’t just say, ‘This looks cute. I’ll have some of that.’ ” LaGrasso counters that this is no impulse buy. You can walk in and make an appointment, but interested consumers must first talk with a treatment consultant and the doctor to make sure they are good candidates for the procedure. Still, Baker cautions, shoppers might want to think carefully: “You can’t return this if you don’t like it.”
