What happens during a BBL?
A BBL is a fat-grafting procedure. Fat is removed with liposuction, processed, and transferred to the buttocks. Your individual plan can vary substantially.
Start with candidacy, not a target photo.
A consultation should cover your goals, general health, prior procedures, available donor fat, skin and tissue characteristics, medication use, anesthesia considerations and the trade-offs of the proposed plan.
Online photos cannot tell a surgeon whether you are an appropriate candidate, and they should not be treated as a promise of a specific result.
- Which areas would be liposuctioned?
- What amount and distribution of fat is being proposed?
- How will fat placement be monitored?
- What alternatives should I consider?
The safety issue that deserves a direct answer
Professional plastic-surgery organizations have warned that gluteal fat grafting has carried a significant risk compared with other elective aesthetic procedures, particularly the risk of pulmonary fat embolism. Multi-society guidance supports fat placement in the subcutaneous plane above the gluteal fascia and real-time ultrasound imaging during injection to help confirm cannula position.
“Do you use real-time ultrasound during every gluteal fat injection, and do you keep fat above the fascia?” is a reasonable question to ask the operating surgeon directly.
Technique is only one part of safety. Surgeon training, facility standards, anesthesia, patient selection, pre-op preparation and postoperative care also matter.
Read the full safety guideFrom consultation to follow-up.
Evaluation
Medical and surgical history, goals, examination and individualized risk discussion.
Liposuction
Fat is removed from planned donor areas using the technique your surgeon selects.
Fat grafting
Processed fat is placed in the planned gluteal areas. Ask how safe tissue planes are confirmed.
Recovery
Monitoring, mobility, garment and positioning guidance, follow-up visits and travel planning.