Butt jobs . . . this is sickening!

[Guest guest]

One would think that God doesn't know what He's doing

when He makes women's bodies - He should have

consulted this plastic surgeon! - Rogene

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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/sfl-buttsurgerymar12,0,5951694.st\

ory?coll=sfla-features-headlines

The bottom line

" No matter how perfect that posterior seems, there's

always room for a nip or a tuck. "

By Natasha Singer

New York Times

Posted March 12 2006

Dr. Constantino Mendieta, a plastic surgeon in Miami,

has never seen a woman's backside that he didn't want

to tweak with a little surgery.

" A casual observer might think that's a pretty

buttocks over there in the pink sweatpants with the

narrow waist and full bottom, " Mendieta said one

evening last month as he pointed to a young woman

window-shopping on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach.

Perched at an outdoor cafe table under an orange

umbrella, Mendieta had agreed to a reporter's request

that he rate buttocks as they sashayed by -- all in

the interest of medicine of course.

" But, professionally speaking, I would enhance her

buttocks by adding more fullness and projection at the

middle and the top, " he said. " I can always make a

pretty butt even prettier. "

After decades spent developing and refining treatments

for the breasts, a few American plastic surgeons are

beginning to focus on procedures for the buttocks.

Mendieta is among those who have become experts in

enlarging women's posteriors with solid silicone

implants or injections of fat. And at medical meetings

in the last two years, these doctors have taught the

techniques to nearly 400 of their colleagues.

Many women would shudder at the thought of padding

their bottoms. But certain fashions like low-rise

jeans and spandex workout gear call attention to the

derriere. (This spring there are even bustle panties.)

And now some women have begun to fixate on their

backsides.

Last year 2,361 Americans had buttock augmentation

surgery, almost four times as many as in 2002, the

first year that the American Society for Aesthetic

Plastic Surgery kept statistics on the procedure. The

operation typically costs about $20,000.

" The buttocks used to be something you hid, but now

it's something you show off, " said Dr. L.

III, a plastic surgeon in Spartanburg, S.C.,

who has performed more than 300 of the procedures.

Some women over 50 get the surgery to bulk up

deflating derrieres, while younger patients say they

want larger buttocks to complement prominent busts. " I

always got compliments for my front but never for my

back, " said Del Rio, 18, a high school student

in Miami who had the procedure last month with

Mendieta. " Now my mom says I look like a Coca-Cola

bottle. "

Compared with breast implants and face lifts, buttock

augmentation is in its infancy. Surgeons are still

perfecting their techniques. And although many

patients know what looks good to them -- said

they often arrive in his office with magazine photos

of Beyoncé Knowles or Serena -- doctors do

not agree on what constitutes ideal buttocks.

Efforts to enhance the size of the posterior date to

ancient Greece, when Spartan women performed a

bottom-kicking dance, said Dr. V. Leroy Young, a

plastic surgeon in St. Louis who is chairman of the

emerging trends task force of the American Society for

Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. " Women would kick

themselves in the fanny to make themselves bigger and

firmer. "

The word callipygian, meaning having a shapely rear,

comes from the Greek kallipygos. Modern gluteal

enhancement began in the 1950s when surgeons in Brazil

and Mexico tried transferring fat cut from the

abdomen.

In the 1980s and '90s surgeons experimented with

rounded silicone implants specially made for the

buttocks. But the incisions often broke open and

became infected, and patients didn't like the way the

solid implants felt.

Finally, in the late 1990s, adapted a

fat-grafting procedure originally designed for the

face. In this technique, fat is removed from the

stomach and thighs via liposuction, mixed with

antibiotics and purified. Then thousands of fat

droplets are injected one by one, so the fat can be

contoured to mimic flesh and muscles.

" It's like sculpting with clay, " said. " You

are trying to create a shape tailored to each

individual patient and a fullness of the outer buttock

that you can't get with implants. "

The transplanted droplets are thought to establish a

new blood supply more easily than a mass of fat tissue

could, theoretically allowing the fat to survive in

its new location for years. Sixty to 80 percent of the

fat stays where it is injected, said, and the

rest is absorbed.

Each augmentation takes six to eight hours,

said, and typically 1 to 2 pounds of fat are added to

each side. Skinny patients are asked to gain 10 to 15

pounds before the procedure to create enough fat to

work with, said.

For several weeks after their surgery, patients are

not to sit down or lie on their backs lest they damage

the fragile fat. They must also wear a surgical girdle

to help the abdomen and thighs contract. Patients say

they don't mind the discomfort.

performed augmentation surgery in 2004 on

Frances , 63, a retiree who lives in northern

Virginia. " Before I had the procedure, I had a nice

bust line, but I didn't have much booty or whatever

they call it today, " said. " It was totally flat

back there.

" Now it's rounder and fuller, " she said. " I'm

thrilled. "

Fat grafting to the buttocks is such a new procedure

that little is known about how safe it is, how well it

works or how long it lasts.

The most frequent complication is infection, which

occurs in 2 to 3 of every 100 patients, said.

Other surgeons have reported tissue necrosis, in which

the fat dies and must be removed. Patients also may

have scars at the injection sites that fade over time.

As in all liposuction, there is a small risk that fat

drops or blood clots will migrate to the lungs,

causing respiratory problems and even death.

What exactly constitutes good-looking glutei? Two

Mexican plastic surgeons, Dr. Ramon Cuenca-Guerra and

Dr. Quezada, examined 132 patients and more than

1,000 photos and concluded that a beautiful bottom has

four features: slight hollows on each side, a curved

fold where the buttocks meet the thighs, a V-shape

crease that looks like cleavage at the top and two

dimples in the lower back. Mendieta also examined

hundreds of photos but came to a different conclusion:

that the overall shape of the buttocks is most

important. He proposed that female buttocks come in

four basic configurations: square, round, V-shape and

A-shape.

" The prettiest buttocks look like A's, like

upside-down hearts with a wider bottom than top, "

Mendieta said.

argued that each ethnic group has its own

standard of beauty. Asian patients look for small,

shapely buttocks, he said, while Caucasian patients

are after either " voluptuous Playboy bottoms " or the

" athletic, tiny " rear. Hispanic patients want full

round buttocks, said, while African-American

and Afro-Caribbean patients often ask him for " as big

a buttocks as will fit their bodies. "

Young said buttock augmentation may turn out to be,

like 19th-century bustles, a passing fashion. But

others say it may have staying power.

" In primeval days the butt was the primary sexual

attractor, not the breasts, " said Galdino F.

Pranzarone, a professor of psychology at Roanoke

College in Salem, Va. " This is really a return to what

cave men were originally interested in. "