It may seem like the ideal body — flat stomach and a shapely, rounded butt. If dedicated gym workouts and a proper diet aren’t making you go “yes” when you look in the mirror, there is a combination of cosmetic procedures that might be the answer. But, patients have to know to ask and few are familiar with the tummy tuck that uses fat grafting to re-shape the ‘rear view’. It’s a one-two punch that Dr. Rob Whitfield of Austin, Texas says gives patients the look they may not have known possible.
by Dawn Tongish
and Robert Whitfield, MD
Valuable ‘Leftovers’
It may come as a surprise to some patients seeking abdominoplasty that the ‘leftovers’ can be used to create a fuller, firmer backside. It’s a common procedure for Dr. Rob Whitefield, a plastic surgeon at the Breast and Body Center in Austin, Texas. “We do abdominoplasty with fat grafting all the time. It’s a routine thing.” Whitfield says the excess fat that is removed from the midsection can be transferred to the buttocks. “It’s a great way to use the material that you would otherwise just discard.” Whitfield says using fat grafting to improve other areas of the body just makes sense. He says gluteal shaping is quickly becoming a popular procedure. “You are going to throw that liposuction fat away, so you might as well just put it back into another area and improve that part of the body, especially the buttocks.”
Butt Seriously…
The buttocks are getting a lot of attention these days. Women, and even men, want the ‘junk in the trunk’ to look firm and full. It comes as a surprise to most patients that they can achieve a better bottom, while improving their tummy. “People just don’t know to ask about this,” says Whitfield. He says the procedure removes fat from one area using liposuction and puts it somewhere else on the body, where it’s needed. “So you take from maybe the lower portion of the waist – like the love handle area – and you can use that to contour the hip area and give it a nice profile look. It’s really fantastic.”
Know To Ask
Pick your plastic surgeon wisely or you may not get the best surgery for your body. “If a patient comes in for a tummy tuck, they might get just the standard when really that patient needs contouring with liposuction to create a narrow waist and then the gluteal reshaping,” explains Whitfield. Combination surgeries require a level of expertise, and patients should ask a lot of questions to guarantee that. “Patients just need to understand what they are getting before the procedure,” adds Whitfield. He is excited to continue with gluteal shaping, a double-whammy procedure that he says really allows a patient to walk away knowing they look good all the way around. “The addition of body contouring to a tummy tuck procedure gives you much more power to reshape the buttock and narrow the waist to really give powerful results to the patient.”