RICARDO L RODRIGUEZ, MD
Board Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Medical
Director, Cosmetic Surgery Facility, LLC
Board Certified,
American Board of Plastic Surgery
Dr. Ricardo L. Rodriguez discusses plastic surgery for butts as well topics related to them.
Media reports over the past couple of years detail many BBL tragedies, the most recently reported tragedy was just last week. I have been performing this procedure safely for 15 years and the new data emerging about the increased mortality rates is disturbing. As a member of the multi-society task force team of surgeons studying gluteal fat grafting, I believe that the recent mortalities with this procedure can be dramatically reduced.
Your BMI, or Body Mass Index, is calculated with a mathematical formula using your height and weight. The higher your BMI, the higher your surgical risk for complications both during and after surgery. Therefore, when I am evaluating patients for cosmetic (elective) procedures, I use their BMI as a surgical complication risk assessment factor. Find out what your BMI needs to be in order to schedule plastic surgery.
There is an old saying in photography: “A photographer is known for what he shows, not for what he shoots.” In other words, a photographer only shows his best work and there may be a lot of lousy pictures… he is just not showing those. Think of post-operative pictures of Brazilian butt lifts the same way. You may be seeing the surgeon’s best work because that is what he is showing! So the question is, “how do you find out about what the surgeon is NOT showing?” Here are few hints for gathering information about a plastic surgeon’s Brazilian butt lift results by seeing what he’s really showing you in his patient photo gallery.
I have been performing the Brazilian butt lift for almost a decade. With this procedure, I remove fat from unwanted areas and then reinject into your buttocks. Patients are now doing so much research , that I often get the question about how much fat is injected into the buttocks. To answer the question, I looked at my last 100 procedures to find out the average amount of fat which is injected per patient, per buttock cheek. Before I give you the answer, you should know that the final amount injected will NOT be the amount which is removed. The amount reinjected will only be a fraction of the amount of fat which I have removed. I only keep the ‘good fat’ . The rest of the fat contains dead cells, blood, and other components that will *not* help the fat survive.
A lot of surgeons now are beginning to perform Brazilian butt lifts. Fat grafting is highly technique dependent and some surgeons are having more success than others. Unfortunately most surgeons do not see other surgeon’s work so it is hard for them to compare results. But you can. The information you can get from these questions will help you pick the best surgeon for yourself!
In 2007, I wrote a blog post about Hydrogel for Buttock augmentation. In the post I detailed my reasons why I did not think it was a good idea to do a Buttock augmentation or Butt Lift with Hydrogel. The only thing that has changed since I wrote that post is that I have seen many patients who have suffered terrible damage from Hydrogel injections! My position remains the same: Hydrogel to buttocks: Don’t do it! To recap.
I get this question asked often, “How do I get a lift in the Brazilian Butt Lift?”. The patient will then push her own buttock up to help me understand what she wants. They ask me, “Can you do it?” I have answered this so often, it is time to write about it here on our blog.
How do I get a lift in the Brazilian Butt Lift?
The Brazilian Butt Lift is a type of Butt Augmentation performed with your own Fat injections. As a matter of fact, in this procedure the butt is physically lifted very little, if at all. But after a Brazilian Butt Lift, the buttock definitely looks perky, and definitely looks lifted! Let me explain…
As if you didn’t know it already–big, prominent, perky butts are in! The February issue of Juicy Magazine featured a story on Brazilian Butt Lifts. Our own Dr. Rodriguez was interviewed for the story and is quoted with a pink shout out next to Kim Kardashian!
“Can I have another procedure at the same time as the Brazilian butt lift?” The answer is yes and no. A Tummy tuck can be safely combined with the Brazilian butt lift to give a great result. However, combining the butt lift with breast aug is usually not advisable. Watch this video by Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez, a Yale trained Plastic Surgeon.
Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez, a Yale trained Plastic Surgeon, explains what happens when you lose weight after a Brazilian butt lift procedure. Do you lose some of your new augmented buttocks or does the fat graft survive? Watch his video which profiles a Brazilian butt lift patient who lost weight following her Brazilian butt lift surgery.
The year 2010 ushers in a new decade where science , beauty, and your own fat make a marriage that promises to deliver one of the most disruptive medical technologies of the century. Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez, a Yale trained Plastic Surgeon believes that stem cells from your own fat will lead the cosmetic surgery trends.
Fat injections are long lasting if done correctly. That is my position and I stand by it! If you frequent various plastic surgery blogs, there is a big difference in the types of techniques that surgeons are using. Thus, there is a wide variation in their results, so many patients think that fat injections do not last. Fat injections are permanent if the following is done:
During the past decade, researchers have discovered that stem cells can also be extracted from your own fat tissue. These adult stem cells have the same potential as embryonic stem cells, except for the ability to differentiate into sperm or ova. Unlike embryonal stem cells, stem cells extracted from your own fat are abundant, easily available, and pose no ethical or political controversy.
Dr. Rodriguez’s Brazilian butt lift technique is featured in the Washington DC – Baltimore spring issue of the Women’s Journal.
Your own fat has little fountains of youth built in. Dr. Rodriguez, Board Certified and Yale trained Plastic Surgeon, explains the role of stem cells in plastic surgery in his CosmeticSurg blog.
