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Over the course of the past few years, big butts have become increasingly popular. As social media and body culture has expanded, so have the sizes of people’s backsides, especially after Kim Kardashian’s fame followed by her sister Kylie Jenner, who is well known for the cosmetic procedures that she has gotten. Aside from general cosmetic procedures, the number of minimally and non-invasive procedures in the United States have grown exponentially over the past decade. “A lot of my patients come in for a Sculptra Butt Lift to either correct a previous surgical buttock augmentation, or to avoid a surgical procedure but still get results,” says Dr. Schwarzburg, an expert in cosmetic and laser medicine who owns a medspa in New York. Even though surgical procedures are just as effective, because they involve surgical intervention, they also come with additional possible risks side effects as well as post-surgical downtime. Before we go into more detail about Sculptra as a non-surgical and minimally invasive alternative to a surgical butt lift, we will go over a few details about the history behind buttocks augmentations, when they were developed, and how trial and error has led us to the options we have for butt lifts today.
Butt enhancements have been around since the 1960s and continue to grow (figuratively and literally). There was some trial and error using silicone breast implants in the butt, then converting them to more fitting butt implants, to a more butt-appropriate prosthetic. Because they were first implanted above the muscle with little success, surgeons moved on to submuscular gluteoplasties and intramuscular butt implants, placing the implant under the muscle instead of above. Later, in the 1980s fat grafting to the buttocks began to take over when Dr. Ivo Pitanguy, a Brazilian plastic surgeon created the Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL). The procedure involves the harvest of fat from a different part of your body (typically the abdominal region, the arms, and the thighs) to then be injected into the buttocks. The procedure involves surgical intervention and several weeks of downtime. The downtime involves recovering from the liposuction as well as the actual butt injection. There are some risks and side effects involved in the Brazilian Butt Lift. Risks and side effects include pain, infection, scarring, bumps and lumps on the area of injection, and loss of skin due to infection. The most serious side effect is fat embolism which is fat being lodged into a blood vessel and blocking blood flow. Though this can be treated, there is a 5% to 15% fatality rate, which is a risk that needs to be considered before opting for the procedure.
A few years later in 2004, a safer version of the BBL was approved by the FDA called the Sculptra BBL (or Sculptra butt lift). Sculptra is an injectable filler made up of Poly-l-lactic acid, sterile water, and lidocaine. Sculptra is a biocompatible, biodegradable synthetic polymer naturally found in the body. The solution can be mixed differently based on what the physician administering the procedure finds appropriate for his or her patient. The Sculptra butt lift works by stimulating your own collagen production, which then wraps around particles in the body that would naturally break down, ultimately growing the treatment area over the course of 1.5-2 months. A normal dose to start with is between 8 and 12 vials, but a lot of people end up getting up to 60 vials over the course of several months. While Sculptra does have some possible risks and side effects, they are fairly uncommon and usually treatable. The possible risks and side effects include, but are not limited to, swelling, bruising, redness, edema, discomfort, hematoma, inflammation, and granuloma formation, in which case steroids can be injected to reduce the granulomas. Sculptra can also be injected into other parts of the body such as the face, including the under eyes and cheeks. It was originally used on human immunodeficiency disorder (HIV) positive individuals to fill out hollow areas of the face caused by lipoatrophy (loss of fat in the face). It was then developed and used as a general dermal filler and now as a Sculptra butt lift. Sculptra is a great minimally invasive and nonsurgical alternative to any kind of surgical butt augmentation and will last you up to 4 years.
Sculptra alone can give you amazing results but is also often combined with another treatment called EMSculpt, which is a tool that uses electromagnetic technology to contract your muscles for you, giving you the results of a workout without a workout. There are similar procedures out there that essentially do the same thing, for example, CoolTone, which involves an applicator that is placed on whichever muscle group you’d like to strengthen, particularly the abdomen, glutes, and thighs. The reason why EMSculpt may increase your butt lift, is because it will strengthen your glutes, which can tighten and lift them. EMSculpts can also help motivate you to go to the gym, as seeing results may make you want to continue to maintain them.
While a Sculptra butt lift alone will give you great results, a little booty pump to finish it off will give your butt an amazing lift, leaving you with the perky backside you’ve always wanted. Before you opt for either of these treatments, be sure to consult with your physician to make sure that these are the appropriate treatments for you.
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