Butt Enhancement

If you’re not happy with the overall shape and appearance of your buttocks post-baby, there are viable options available to enhance the area and help you achieve the shape you desire. Whether you’ve been considering butt enhancement for some time or are just now looking into the possibility, there are a variety of butt enhancement surgeries available.

It’s important to know which is going to offer you the look you’re going for and what’s involved in each procedure before moving forward. The following guide contains everything you need to know about the different types of butt enhancement surgeries performed, their associated costs, risks, benefits, and more.

Types of Butt Enhancement Surgeries

There are multiple types of butt enhancement surgeries available. Here’s what you need to know.

Butt Augmentation

Butt augmentation, also known as gluteal augmentation, is designed to enhance the size, shape, and contouring of your buttocks. A butt augmentation procedure can significantly increase the roundness and fullness of your butt and balance out your overall shape.

How Does Butt Augmentation Work?

Butt augmentation is performed via butt implants or fat grafting. Augmentation may also be done through a combination of implants and grafting. The butt implants are silicone devices inserted into the buttock tissue. When augmentation is performed with fat grafting, this requires fat to be transferred from one section of the body to the buttocks tissue.

Butt Lift

A butt lift, or gluteal lift, helps to enhance the tone and shape of the tissue supporting the fat and skin in your buttocks region. Pregnancy, in particular, can vastly affect the elasticity of your skin, leading to sagging skin that affects the overall appearance of the area. A butt lift surgery can be a good way to attain a smoother more contoured look.

During the butt lift, excess skin, sagging skin, and fat are removed to achieve that taut look. It is important to note, that a butt lift will not enhance the size of your butt, but it can reduce the appearance of dimpled skin with irregularities.

How Does a Butt Lift Work?

Butt lifts can be done on their own or performed as part of a full body lift procedure. The surgeon can customize the butt lift surgery in accordance with your needs and intended results. During butt lift surgery, the plastic surgeon will administer local anesthesia and sedation or general anesthesia to ensure your comfort throughout.

Once the anesthesia has taken effect, the surgeon will make an incision into your buttocks to reach the tissue underneath. The incision could be made on the upper or lower region of your buttocks, or via a lateral or butterfly incision. Next, the surgeon will take out deposits of fat with a scalpel, or occasionally, through the use of liposuction.

The surgeon will re-situate the tissue left over in the area for that firmer butt look you’re going for, suturing the tissue either to your hip muscles or hip bones. If you decide to have butt implants inserted after the butt lift, these will then be placed into the incision before the skin is pulled tightly across and trimmed.

If you opt for fat injections with the butt lift, this would be the point at which those would be administered. A traditional butt lift can take anywhere from two to four hours to perform.

Brazilian Butt Lift

The next type of butt enhancement surgery is a Brazilian butt lift. With this type of procedure, the goal is to increase the shape and size of your butt for a more prominent appearance that fits your figure well. A Brazilian butt lift is a more natural type of butt enhancement because it involves the use of your own tissues rather than synthetic fillers or implants.

How Does a Brazilian Butt Lift Work?

During a Brazilian butt lift, fat is removed from certain regions of the body through liposuction. The areas the fat is typically taken from include the thighs, hips, back, and abdomen. The surgeon makes a tiny incision in the area with excess fat and installs a minute tube.

Then, using either vibration, air bursts, manual motion, lasers, or ultrasonic waves, the doctor dissolves the fat and sucks it out.

During the liposuction stage of a Brazilian butt lift, a local anesthesia is usually the only type of anesthetic required. If more fat needs to be removed, the surgeon may advise that sedation or a general anesthetic be used.

Once the fat is removed, the cells are purified, and the best of the tissue is injected into the butt with cannulas (tiny tubes). The depth and number of injections, as well as the amount of fat used in each, depends on the doctor’s technique and the results you seek to achieve. Typically, more injections with smaller amounts of fat cells offer the most natural appearance.

During this stage, local anesthesia can be used, but sedation or general anesthesia may be administered instead. The surgery takes around two hours from start to finish.

Butt Enhancement Liposuction

If you would like to improve the appearance of your butt rather than increase its size, butt enhancement liposuction could be a viable option for you. Butt enhancement liposuction typically doesn’t just involve the butt but multiple regions in the body to enhance the overall look of the buttocks.

However, if your buttocks are protruding and you simply wish to reduce this effect, you can opt for butt enhancement liposuction on the posterior region only. Fat deposits are most commonly found in women’s hips. By taking fat from the flanks and hips and transferring it to the butt, this can greatly improve the overall appearance of the area. Other areas where fat may be drawn from include the waist, thighs, and lower back.

How Does Butt Enhancement Liposuction Work?

A butt enhancement liposuction procedure is customized according to your desired results and body type. The procedure typically begins with the administration of local anesthesia to ensure your comfort. Next, a tiny cannula tube manufactured for the use of suctioning fat is inserted into small incisions in the buttocks, which will be marked before the procedure commences.

Laser technology liquefies the fatty deposits to simplify the suctioning process and make the procedure more comfortable. Next, the doctor removes the outside fatty layer of the buttocks, and potentially nearby regions, to achieve the desired “perky” appearance. After reaching the intended results, the surgeon applies dressing and a compression garment to the area.

Butt Contouring

Butt contouring involves adjusting the shape of your butt to reach the desired look. Butt contouring can be done surgically, but there are also non-invasive, nonsurgical procedure options.

How Does Butt Contouring Work?

With surgical butt contouring, there are a variety of enlargement, lifts, and reductions available that alter your natural shape. Surgical butt contouring can remove sagging or excess skin remaining after pregnancy, sculpt the issue beneath, and help you get back to your desired shape.

If surgical butt contouring feels a bit too extreme to you, there are non-surgical contouring options to consider. These noninvasive options require little recovery time and are approved by the FDA to adjust your butt’s contours by reducing cellulite, fat, and increasing the tone and quality of your skin.

Different non-surgical butt contouring options include:

  • Laser therapy
  • Cryolipolysis
  • Radio frequency energy
  • Ultrasound waves

Laser therapy involves smoothing fat deposits with lasers which liquefy and destroy the fat cells. The fat cells might be suctioned out or left alone for the body to dispose of on their own. Lasers can enhance the appearance of the skin and increase its smoothness and tightness.

Cryolipolysis, also known as fat freezing, is a good option if you are near your target size but want to fix a couple of problem areas. Cold is used to target localized deposits of fat beneath the surface of the skin, killing the fatty cell tissue and contouring your shape without damaging the outer skin layer.

Some butt contouring methods utilize radio frequency energy to target fatty cells as well. Ultrasound butt contouring focuses on subcutaneous fatty cells, dissolving them with sound waves at frequencies that are far higher than what the ear can recognize. The ultrasound technology causes the cells to vibrate and break up so the body can get rid of them naturally.

The Cost of Butt Enhancement Surgeries

A very important factor in your decision-making process is the cost of the butt enhancement surgery you’re considering. Bear in mind, the costs of butt enhancement procedures vary widely, not only based on the type of surgery you have performed, but on the experience of the surgeon, their office location, and other miscellaneous fees.

These cost projections can give you a target amount to keep in mind when deciding which butt enhancement route to take.

Cost of Butt Augmentation

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons conducted a study in 2017, finding that the average cost of butt augmentation (including fat grafting) comes to around $4,000. Remember, costs like anesthesia and operating room facilities are not included in these figures.

Cost of a Butt Lift

The same study found that the approximate cost of a butt lift is around $5,100. The majority of health insurance plans don’t cover the costs of butt enhancement surgeries or any associated complications. However, some medical providers offer financing plans, so this is an option worth looking into.

Cost of a Brazilian Butt Lift

Brazilian butt lifts are definitely one of the more costly butt enhancement options available. The Brazilian butt lift is a two-fold procedure, in which fat is taken from another region like the hips or waistline before being injected into the buttocks. The extent of the lift you require will also affect the price, and any complicated procedures will be more expensive.

The office location where you have your Brazilian butt lift performed will also have a significant effect on the cost, as regions where the cost of living is lower will typically have less expensive surgery fees. Brazilian butt lifts in the more affordable range could cost anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000, while those on the higher end range from $12,000 all the way up to $40,000.

Cost of Butt Enhancement Liposuction

The region of the body you are having liposuction performed on will affect the final price. Butt enhancement liposuction can range anywhere from $2,000 up to $5,000 for the procedure.

Cost of Butt Contouring

The extent and type of butt contouring you choose will be a major determinant of price. Most butt contouring procedures start at around $10,000.

Risks of Getting a Butt Enhancement

As with any surgery, it is wise to be aware of the potential risks of getting a butt enhancement.

These include:

  • Bleeding
  • Infection
  • Insufficient wound healing
  • Anesthesia risks
  • Accumulation of fluid
  • Death of fatty tissue beneath the skin
  • Numbness and other skin sensations
  • Pain
  • Skin looseness
  • Discolored skin
  • Swollen skin
  • Asymmetrical skin
  • Potential for revisionary procedures
  • Loss of skin
  • Pulmonary, cardiac, and deep vein thrombosis risks
  • Scarring
  • Sutures that come through the skin and require removal

You can discuss any risks and/or concerns associated with butt enhancement with your surgeon. You will also be required to sign consent forms detailing your acknowledgement of the upcoming procedure.

Benefits of Getting a Butt Enhancement

If you want to revitalize and restore your buttocks area, butt enhancement can be a viable option to do that. Benefits include:

  • Heightened or restored butt volume
  • A lift of the lower region of your buttocks
  • Improved butt contouring and shape
  • A reduction in the appearance of cellulite
  • Clothing can fit and appear better
  • Enhanced personal satisfaction and body confidence
  • Improved body proportions

Who Should Consider Getting a Butt Enhancement?

The decision to get a butt enhancement is a very personal one. In general, to be considered a good candidate for butt enhancement, you should meet the following criterion:

  • In good physical health
  • Have realistic desires and expectations for the final results
  • You feel that your butt is currently too small
  • You don’t like the shape or current roundness of your buttocks
  • You have an irregularly shaped or asymmetrical butt
  • You have loose, soft tissues in the buttocks region
  • You do not have any medical conditions that would result in complications or prevent healing
  • You are a nonsmoker
  • You adhere to a healthy way of living including fitness and proper nutrition

When considering getting a butt enhancement, you should only undergo the procedure for yourself, and not because you are trying to live up to anyone else’s expectations or body image projections.

Recovery from a Butt Enhancement

Following your butt enhancement procedure, the doctor will apply bandages and dressing to the incisions. You might also have tiny tubes inserted into the skin for a short time to drain fluid or blood. You may be able to go home a few hours after the procedure.

After the surgery, you will need to wear a support garment at all times for the duration instructed by your doctor. Your surgeon will also give you directions regarding caring for the affected site, any necessary medications, risk indicators to look for, how to maintain the drain tubes, and follow-up information.

After a butt augmentation, you will need to avoid sitting for long periods for a minimum of two weeks. Sleeping on your stomach or side will be encouraged. Follow your doctor’s instructions to the letter and advise if you are experiencing any symptoms like shortness of breath.

Be sure to adhere to the advisement of your doctor, and avoid high impact activities. The majority of patients resume normal activities in six to eight weeks following butt enhancement.