Thanks to celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Kim Kardashian, the desire for butt implants has risen among patients across the country. In fact, many red carpet photos focus less on the dresses worn by celebrities and more on their ample backsides. According to numbers released in 2014, a total of 11,505 augmentation procedures on the buttocks were performed using fat grafting. This number is a 15% increase from the numbers released in 2013. Buttock implants increased 90% between the two years.
Thanks to the amount of pictures shared on social media of celebrities with ample assets in their behind, many women feel pressure to live up to these new standards of beauty. They will go to great lengths to get the look they are trying to achieve including having injections and surgeries. As the demand for buttock implants rises, the amount of people performing them on patients is also on the rise. However, not everyone who performs buttock implants is actually a licensed physician. There are a large number of individuals who perform “back alley” surgeries on a regular basis. These surgeries are performed in a variety of locations including homes, office buildings and apartment complexes. Although the locations might look like regular clinics on the inside, they are not licensed facilities. Unfortunately, these illegal buttock implant procedures performed by non-certified physicians often leave women with scars, injuries, deformed areas and serious health issues.
One of the issues preventing many women from visiting licensed physicians is the cost of butt augmentation procedures. The average cost is around $4500 and this number does not include the operating room fee, anesthesia costs and various other expenses related to the surgery. Women not wanting to spend that much money are instead visiting the non-certified physicians.
Some of the complications that have developed from treatments performed by non-licensed physicians include coughing up blood, pneumonia, swelling of the legs, numb toes, infections, scarring, chronic pain and amputation of limbs. In some extreme cases, the procedures have even resulted in the death of the patient. Experts warn of having procedures performed by unlicensed people in facilities that could have unsterile conditions. Also, there is a good chance that “back alley” procedures are performed using unknown fillers instead of the filler advertised and being paid for by the patient. Investigations into many underground procedures find the person performing the injections is simply using super glue on cotton balls to cover the injection site while preventing any of the injected substance from leaking out. The investigators also warn that complications can happen as far as 20 years after the procedure is performed on the patient.
The first and best step before undergoing any type of butt augmentation is to make sure that the person performing the procedure is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. A board-certified plastic surgeon needs to complete 3-5 years of general training and 2 or 3 years of plastic surgery training before being allowed to operate on patients.
