Dr. Robert Vitolo has been described as having “the eye of the artist and the hands of a seasoned surgeon, whose skills make your vision of beauty, a reality." He is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and is a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Additionally, he is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the International College of Surgeons. He is a licensed physician in New York and New Jersey and has three office locations in the New York City and New Jersey area.
Photo Credit: Dr. Robert Vitolo
In the eyes of the medical community and Haute Beauty expert Dr. Robert Vitolo, Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) is a cosmetic procedure that has created a great deal of concern in the plastic surgery community because of the high complication and mortality rate. As a result of this several plastic surgical societies have established “task forces” to study the procedure and they have proposed guidelines to make the BBL a safer procedure. In spite of this, the BBL still has a negative connotation for the public. Dr. Vitolo is a proponent of a safer alternative to the BBL that can create the appearance of a BBL through buttock sculpting. Here Dr. Vitolo sat down with Haute Beauty to explain why this method is so great.
Understanding Buttock Sculpting
Buttock sculpting alters the patient's basic shape to create the appearance of a larger, rounder buttock without any injections of fat, silicone implants, or fillers by removing the excess surrounding fat that makes the posterior look flat and wide.
Dr. Vitolo's technique sculpts the surrounding fat with external ultra-sonic assisted liposculpture (EUAL). The liposuction technique reduces the patient's volume in the love handle, saddlebag, inner thigh, and the back of the thigh under the buttock crease. Adding to the bargain is the benefit of shrinking your waist down by several inches through the removal of excess fat in the love handles and getting rid of the “saddle bags”
It is very common for women to have a lower buttock crease that is flat, making the buttock look wide. So, to allow the buttock to stand out and look more prominent, Dr. Vitolo puts a finishing touch on the buttock crease by curving it upward around the buttock and sculpting the fat underneath the crease. The result of this “Butt Sculpting” gives an illusion of a round, perky buttock that projects outward without adding anything to the buttock!
Why Choose Buttock Sculpting
The BBL is really not a permanent procedure since the process of harvesting fat with suction thru a metal cannula damages the fat cells causing many of them to die after they are re-injected into the body. If fat cells are injected in large volumes only the fat cells that can secure a new blood supply will survive and the others will die. The result you see immediately after the procedure is not the result and size you will eventually see over time because 50 to 60 percent of the fat cells will be reabsorbed by the body.
In contrast, “Butt Sculpting” creates a new permanent shape. If you gain weight, that shape will get larger, but the shape will remain the same. If you lose weight the shape will remain the same, but it will be smaller in proportion to the whole body.
Photo Credit: Dr. Robert Vitolo
There is a risk of pulmonary embolus in many surgical procedures but the risk with BBL is 1 in every 3000 people. This is not the case with “Butt Sculpting” which uses liposuction, which is one of the most performed procedures in the world.
With BBL there is a prolonged post-operative period, and often restrictions on sitting and lying down for fear of damaging the newly transplanted fat cells. Patients are also required to wear compressive garments for a long time in many surgeons’ protocols.
With Dr. Vitolo’s “Butt Sculpting” procedures the patients only wear a garment for two days and most patients can return to work or their normal activities in three days. Do it on Friday, and return to work on Monday.
With the BBL, the procedures often take many hours under general anesthesia, and to harvest as much fat as necessary patients may have to be turned over while under anesthesia so fat may be harvested from the abdomen. Often 5000 ccs of fat are removed to have enough fat to transplant, consequently, there is a larger amount of blood loss.
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Dr. Vitolo’s “Butt Sculpting” usually takes an hour and a half and the patient is not turned turning the procedure. Since he is removing fat areas selectively the is not a large volume of fat removed, and consequently, there is much less blood loss than a BBL.
To achieve a good result with the BBL the patient must have a lot of fat in their bodies so that an ample of fat can be transplanted. With Dr. Vitolo’s “Butt Sculpting” the procedure can be performed on patients that do not have a large amount of fat because he is reshaping the fat on the body by selective liposculpture, not just bulk fat removal.
For those patients who are determined to have a BBL, one can limit the down-side risks by selecting a Board Certified plastic surgeon who has vast experience in performing that procedure, such as my co-Haute Beauty Expert Dr. Alexander Earle. For the rest of you, just consider the “Butt Sculpting “ procedure, with Dr. Vitolo, it's easier, safer, and quicker!
