In my opinion, the process of having a BBL begins with first and foremost, getting a good understanding regarding your own candidacy for the procedure. The second step is provider selection, not until these variables have been taken care of properly. Should anyone even consider scheduling surgery. Nugget everybody seeking a BBL procedure is a good candidate for the BBL. That transfer is always done as two procedures being Liposuction and fat transfer. The ideal candidate for a BBL is both a good candidate for Liposuction, and a good candidate for fat transfer. There are a lot of variables to take into consideration regarding candidacy. Delivering consistent quality, liposuction and fat transfer results is more difficult than most people realize. The number of plastic surgeons who truly mastered this procedure are in a small minority. There are a significant number of plastic surgeons. We’re simply not good at either Liposuction or fat transfer. Poorly done body contouring can leave people disfigured and bad results are very difficult to improve, and sometimes can’t be fixed. Being board-certified in plastic surgery with years of experience, and overall good reputation does not mean somebody has mastered anyone single procedure especially not Liposuction or fat transfer. To get a good assessment regarding your candidacy for the procedure and to begin setting plastic surgeons to find the best provider I suggest patients schedule multiple in person consultations, preferably with providers in your community. I recommend avoiding virtual consultations whenever possible. I do not recommend people travel long distance is for elective surgical procedures, unless absolutely necessary. During each consultation, ask each provider to open up their portfolio and show you their entire collection of before and after pictures of the previous patient who had similar body characteristics to your own. An experienced plastic surgeon that should have hundreds or even thousands of before and after pictures to choose from. An experienced plastic surgeon should have no difficulty showing you the before and after pictures of at least 50 previous patients. Being shown at a handful of pre-selected images, representing the best results of a providers career is insufficient to get a clear understanding of what average results look like in the hands of each provider, what the results will look like, based on your individual candidacy or how many of these procedures any one surgeon has actually done. Take careful notes during each consultation, especially regarding the quantity and quality of before, and after pictures shown.There’s no correct number of consultations needed to find the right provider. The more consultations you have the more likely you are to find the best provider. I personally do not think it’s possible to find the right plastic surgeons using your phone or a computer. Properly vetting plastic surgeons generally requires meeting them in person, asking appropriate questions , and insisting on seeing sufficient numbers of before, and after pictures to get a clear indication of a typical results look like based on your own candidacy. Considering how much variation there is a Liposuction and fat, transfer skills among plastic surgeons I suggest patients consider having at least five consultations before choosing to have a permanent irreversible body contouring procedure. The time to be critical of plastic surgeons is during the vetting process before you schedule surgery. Some providers will have availability while others may be booked out six months in advance or longer. Plastic surgery practice success is not necessarily correlated with skill, talent or experience. There are many famous, highly successful plastic surgeons, who do average work. There are also many exceptional plastic surgeons, who do some of the best work, and have very little Internet notoriety. If you’re concerned about weight times and surgery schedule availability, then you can always call and advance and ask each office how far out they’re booking surgery. July 2024 seems like a very appropriate timeframe to still have enough time to interview a sufficient number of providers to properly bad plastic surgeons, go through preparation‘s for surgery and still get your procedure done in a timely manner if that works with your schedule. There may be some providers who are booked out longer than this, but I would say the majority are not. Best, Mats Hagstrom, MD