Is Butt Implants Safer then Fat Transfer?

Allow me to share with you some information that you may not hear elsewhere. There are only two proven safe and relatively effective methods for Buttock Augmentation and Hip Augmentation: 1) Autologous Fat Transfer (using your own fat, transferring from one area of the body to the other) and 2) Buttock/Hip Implants (semi-solid silicone rubber implants that cannot rupture &/or leak). Both are very good options so what it comes down to, like any surgery, is proper patient selection. Indeed because at least 50+ % of the fat transferred will melt away within a year, most patients are not good candidates because they lack an adequate amount of fat to harvest. Another tip is that if you gain weight for the procedure, the fat that you lose first when you go back down to your baseline weight after surgery is in fact that fat that you originally gained and transferred into your buttocks...so don't fall victim to this recommendation.  Although using your own fat is relatively safe, the one serious complication that can rarely (< 1%) happen is "fat embolism" in which some of the fat gets into the blood stream and travels up into the lungs, heart, and/or brain causing serious problems. This complication is more likely to happen with the larger amount of fat being transferred. This can also happen when using fillers like PMMA and hyaluronic acids. Also fillers, when injected in large quantities, have a relatively high tendency to migrate away from the original area they were placed and tend to stimulate a lot of inflammation and subsequent scar tissue/hardening.

 

Thus buttock/hip implants become a very good, safe, and long term reliable option for most patients seeking buttock augmentation (at least in my practice). I prefer to insert the buttock implants through a single 2 ½ inch long incision over the tailbone (concealed within the crevice between the buttock cheeks) and the hip implants through a ~ 1 inch incision just below the beltline above the hip region. The buttock implant should always be placed under or within the gluteus maximus muscle. In this position, the implant is less palpable, less visible, and does not sag or shift/migrate over time unlike implants placed on top of the muscle. Therefore it is extremely important to seek consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon who specializes in this procedure. And in this case too, at least in my surgical practice, the infection rate is minimized to ~5%. Glad to help… @drryanstanton

 

Your own natural tissue is always going to be safer than a synthetic implant when safety is defined as a lower risk of potential complications. That is never the question because that is always true. The more relevant question is which is more effective for you and your buttock concerns and what risks do you want to take for their potential benefits. While the use of fat is by far the most popular method of buttock augmentation today, and is most appropriate for many patients, there is a role for buttock implants in a small number of patient seeking buttock enhancement.