Surgical Butt Lift vs. Brazilian Butt Lift: What’s the Difference?

The vast majority of women are unhappy with the way one particular part of their body looks for some reason or another. Some women feel self-conscious because they think their breasts are too small, while others are unhappy with the saggy skin and extra fat around their belly that often results from childbirth. Furthermore, the huge rise in the number of Butt Lift surgeries being performed seems to indicate that many women are more concerned with their rear ends.

In this sense, there is no doubt that a buttock lift or other enhancement procedure may hold the key to improving your self-confidence and giving you the round, full or firm butt you’ve always dreamed of. However, it is important that all patients understand that there are different butt lift techniques and that each technique is generally more suitable for correcting specific problems. Therefore, here is a quick overview of both surgical butt lifts and Brazilian butt lifts and how they differ in terms of surgical procedure and expected results.

Image Credits @ Dr. Donald Roland

Basic Facts about Surgical and Brazilian Butt Lifts

If you’re looking for a rounder, more natural and shapelier appearance, either a surgical butt lift or a Brazilian butt lift may be a good option. Nonetheless, it is vital that you understand the type of results each procedure can potentially provide in order to determine which gives you the best chance of meeting your specific goals.

With a traditional gluteal lift, the goal is to produce more slender, younger looking thighs and a tighter, firmer, shapelier butt. In this way, a surgical butt lift should be looked at as a purely restorative procedure designed to combat issues caused by loss of skin elasticity due to aging and/or excessive weight gain. In effect, this type of butt lift does exactly what its name suggests, which is to lift the skin and fatty tissue in your butt back up to a higher, more natural position and improve the overall shape, tone and contour of the butt.

A Brazilian butt lift, on the other hand, is designed to serve an entirely different purpose altogether. The obvious goal of this procedure is to provide the patient with a much rounder, more shapely derriere. However, the fact is that a Brazilian butt lift isn’t actually a lift at all.

Instead, it is really more of a butt augmentation designed to add volume to the patient’s rear end. Still, the reason it usually isn’t referred to as one is because a traditional butt augmentation uses implants similar to those used in breast augmentation, whereas the Brazilian butt lift achieves the desired volume increase by filling out the butt with fat taken from your own body through liposuction. This gives you the advantage of both getting the larger, rounder butt you desire and also potentially being able to tackle stubborn fat in your belly, thighs or other areas with liposuction.

Steps to Performing a Surgical Butt Lift

When performing a surgical buttocks lift, the surgeon’s main goal is to better shape and tone the underlying tissue in a way that better supports your gluteal skin and fat. Generally, this mostly involves removing excess sagging skin and suturing the tissue in a way that raises the butt back up to a more natural position. The ultimate purpose of a surgical butt lift is not to remove any excess fat to achieve a smaller butt, nor is it to increase the volume and make the butt bigger.

However, some excess fat is still usually removed during the procedure, and the surgeon may also opt to do a small amount of liposuction to help better shape and contour the butt. On the other hand, some patients choose to undergo butt augmentation at the same time as their butt lift in order to achieve a bigger, fuller appearance.

Understanding What’s Involved in a Brazilian Butt Lift

Once you understand that a Brazilian butt lift isn’t a butt lift at all, it also becomes much easier to understand what it is, and that is a procedure designed to give you that bigger, rounder, fuller butt that so many women crave. However, a Brazilian butt lift can potentially provide many advantages over traditional butt augmentation with implants.

In essence, this procedure is a highly specialized type of fat transfer whereby the surgeon uses liposuction to remove excess fat from the belly, thighs, hips or lower back, and then use this to increase the size and improve the overall shape and appearance of the patient’s butt. What this means is that a skilled cosmetic surgeon can actually use this procedure to almost completely reshape and contour your entire lower body. Not only will it enhance the size and shape of your butt, but it can also improve any areas where you struggle with stubborn fat.

Factors That Can Influence Patient Satisfaction

Choosing the right type of butt augmentation procedure is obviously one of the most important factors in determining how likely you are to be satisfied with the results of your butt lift surgery. It is essential you understand the specific advantages and benefits provided by each procedure as this will help to ensure you go into your operation with realistic expectations of what type of results you can expect. Still, it is just as important that you understand that your choice of cosmetic surgeon plays a huge part in both expected results and patient satisfaction.

No matter whether it’s a surgical butt lift, Brazilian butt lift or most any other type of cosmetic surgery, the knowledge and skills of the surgeon combined with their level of experience with the specific procedure are hugely important when determining the outcome. In a way, a skilled plastic surgeon is as much an artist as they are a medical professional. Extreme precision, attention to detail, high levels of concentration and various other factors determine just how good a cosmetic surgeon is at producing results their patients are satisfied with.

A board-certified doctor in both plastic and reconstructive surgery, Dr. Donald Roland provides patients with a down-to-earth, hands-on approach to cosmetic surgery. Dr. Roland specializes in body contouring, facial plastic surgery, breast surgery as well as in Brazilian butt lift at his office in Manhattan, New York.