1 year post- op- Why will no doctor fix a bbl gone bad? (photo)

You are in good company with many others who had high hopes for BBL but instead received disappointing results (lumpiness, unevenness, lack of projection in the central and/or lower buttock, post-deflation sagging, etc.) as most of the fat melts away. It is not quite as much the quality of the doctor nor liposuction technique but rather the quality of the procedure that is a large part of the problem. Thus, going back for round 2 BBL most often produces the same disappointing results but at another financial loss. Buttock implants indeed provide a more reliable, predictable, relatively safe, and permanent result, especially for adding projection to the buttock and often smoothing out lumpiness. Occasionally a lower buttock tuck may be advantageous for lower buttock fold asymmetries and/or sagging. Please keep in mind that an extremely few number of board-certified plastic surgeons specialize in buttock implants so be sure to consult with one that is reputable and experienced. Unfortunately you may have to travel long and far away from home to find this particular surgeon. Glad to help.

Dear ella5659,
I understand your concern. However, without a proper assessment, it would be difficult to determine what went wrong. It is best that you visit your plastic surgeon for further assessment or ask for a second opinion. Only after a thorough examination, you can get proper recommendations and advice.
Daniel Barrett, MD
Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

Sorry for your bad outcome. Good news is I am one of the few whom "fixes" bad BBLs. You have the term "torpedo butt" deformity. I have fixed these. Fees from $8,000+ Best to virtual.

Fixin your buttom will require buttock reshaping with transfer of fat, addition of fat, and skin tightening. Your lump may also require excision if it is caused from fat necrosis that is called a blow out deformity. Please consider a virtual consultation from a high definition BBL expert.

You are correct in saying that plastic surgeons are apprehensive to do revision work on other providers patients.

Personally I do very few revisions and other doctors mistakes but I will do them on occasion.

I changed my policy regarding offering free consultations when it comes to doing Revision Work and I charge for second opinion consultations. The reason for this is that a consultation for doing a revision is usually very lengthy and usually includes substantial follow up questions and concerns.

Patients are scared an apprehensive and have way more questions and concerns than somebody coming in for a primary procedure. In the end many of the patients who come in simply aren’t candidates to have any more surgery or the amount of improvement that can be achieved is so limited it isn’t worth having more surgery.

When a surgeon takes on doing a revision the patient relies on the new surgeon to fix the problem and I’ll hold them accountable for the results coming out the way they want. The fact that someone else created the problem goes out the window and the new surgeon is on the hook for making them look right.

In reality once surgery has been performed often there is little that can be done to correct the outcome.

In many ways body contouring is permanent and irreversible.

Patients are often not happy with the outcome and to get progress sometimes requires doing multiple procedures.

Patients were not happy after one attempt of trying to correct it well often insist that the new provider do free revisions.

Revision Work is many times more difficult than primary work and patients don’t understand or realize how many limitations there are from tissue being removed, scar tissue being in the way and not knowing what the original anatomy looked like.

All plastic surgeons have had patience or unhappy with their results. all plastic surgeons have had patients go to other doctors to seek second opinions or have revision work done by others.

For that reason all of us are in someways obligated to take on a certain percentage of other providers revision work since all of us have created problems that required other providers to do revision work. no matter how talented nobody is so good that they have left 100% of all outcomes the way patients had anticipated.

There are plenty of plastic surgeons willing to do Revision Work but you will for sure find that they are more selective.

For revisions I would always insist on having in person consultations which I typically tell everyone to do regardless.

By scheduling in person consultations you’ll begin to get a better assessment in regards to what the actual problem is and what treatments could potentially improve your situation.

This could be very useful especially if you hear the same thing being said consistently.

Some situations simply can’t be approved upon and some situations can be approved upon within limits.

Some outcomes require multiple procedures to get a significant improvement.

Considering that Revision Work is so many more times difficult than primary work it also goes without speaking did you as a patient need to find the most talented and experienced provider in your community.

To do that requires having a lot of consultations. In this way scheduling lots of in person consultations serves both to help educate you and get you a better understanding of what’s going on and what could be done to improve your outcome as well as for you to vet each provider in helping you find the most talented and experienced provider to do the job.

I always encourage patients to stay local for elective surgical procedures and this is even more true when it comes to revision work.

Continue scheduling in person consultations with experienced local board-certified plastic surgeons who seem to perform a lot of liposuction and fat transfer procedures.

Recognize that these are difficult and challenging cases and respect that seeing patients who need revision work is generally not very financially lucrative and often takes a substantial amount of time on behalf of the surgeon.

Good luck,

Mats Hagstrom MD