With over 220,000 Lap Band surgeries performed worldwide, the Lap Band is a proven safe, viable alternative offering excellent weight loss results. This minimally invasive surgical procedure eliminates the need for drastic stomach stapling and gastrointestinal by-pass of normal digestion.

If there is an ideal procedure for adolescents looking to control their weight, the lap band is it. The fastest growing group of obese people in the United States is teenagers. The lap band has been used to safely and successfully to control obesity in teenagers. The teenage years are often filled with issues of self-esteem and peer pressure without adding to it the shame and isolation obesity causes.

Teenagers struggling with obesity are handicapped to live and lead a normal life. A thorough evaluation of the patient is necessary, including an interview with the parents. The teenager needs to understand the procedure and how it works. Psychological, nutritional and pre-operative assessments are performed prior to surgery. Surgery is, as always, performed under the strictest guidelines for safety.

There is a special discussion group with a handful of our teenage patients to share their experience and help others in their journey to successful weight loss and life. Their ages vary from 13 years and up from all over the U.S. Some are only a couple of weeks out from their surgery, others a couple of years. All of them sharing their experiences, challenges and triumphs to defeat this devastating disease.

Obesity should not be treated lightly. It can cause diabetes, stroke, cancer and other debilitating illnesses which may prove to be fatal. People who are obese and over weight tend to have such illnesses at a later time in their lives. Hence, prevention is better than cure. So it is better to control your weight now through lap band surgery than later on which may be too late.