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Big Butts No Lies Plastic Surgery Podcast
Big Butts No Lies is a plastic surgery podcast created to help women feel informed, confident, and prepared when navigating the world of cosmetic surgery.
Hosted by plastic surgery consultant and former patient coordinator Mavi Rodriguez, the show offers a rare behind-the-scenes perspective into how the plastic surgery industry really works. With more than 18 years of experience working inside top plastic surgery practices, Mavi understands how surgeons evaluate patients, how procedures are planned, and what recovery truly looks like after surgery.
Each episode features conversations with board certified plastic surgeons, recovery specialists and industry professionals who share their experiences with procedures such as breast augmentation, liposuction, BBL, tummy tuck and other aesthetic treatments.
Whether you are researching plastic surgery, preparing for a procedure, or want to understand the process better, Big Butts No Lies offers honest conversations, recovery guidance, and expert insight to help women make smarter and safer decisions.
Big Butts No Lies Plastic Surgery Podcast
Natural Looking Tummy Tucks ft. Dr. Vasileios Vasilakis
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In this episode of the best plastic surgery podcast "Big Butts No Lies", our host & plastic surgery consultant Mavi Rodriguez is joined by Dr. Vasileios Vasilakis, known for his expert hand in natural-looking tummy tucks and mommy makeovers. Together, they dive into a range of topics:
1. What to do if you don´t want to get breast implants? Does fat transfer to the breast replace breast implants? What is the difference between breast implants and fat grafting to the breast?
2. What to look out for when choosing a plastic surgeon?
3. When should you get your first post-op massage after a tummy tuck? Is a drain-less tummy tuck better than a tummy tuck with drains?
4. Having realistic expectations about achieving a natural look.
5. Bariatric and skin removal surgery
6. Are combination surgeries a good idea?
Join us for a deep dive into these questions, as we unravel the essence of creating harmonious, natural-looking results that align with a patient´s aesthetic goals, while also touching upon the critical aspects of patient well-being and ethical practices in plastic surgery.
📞 Want help planning your surgery?
Book a discovery call with Mavi Rodriguez.
🌐 Visit our website: www.bigbuttsnolies.com
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Hey, guys. My name is Mavi, and I've spent the last 14 years in the plastic surgery and beauty industry working alongside some of the best plastic surgeons in the country. Now I don't work for anybody, so I have unbiased opinions about 100 of surgeons from across the world, and I can help you achieve the body of your dream. Hey, guys. Do I have the show for you today? I am super excited and honored, I feel, to have doctor v on the show today. And if you guys follow him on Instagram, you might remember him for being a master of the natural appearing tummy tucks. That I was binging your Instagram before we started today, doctor b, and Thank you. Beautiful, beautiful work.
You. I really appreciate it, especially coming from you. Yeah. Before we started, you're telling me about your journey and your and what, has driven you and motivated you to do what you do. And I have to tell you, like, it'd be and we are all very grateful for all the the help that you're providing to patients and you being excellent resource and source of education. And you're doing great work, so I really appreciate it. And I'm honored to be in your, your podcast.
Thank you. Thank you. I do it with a lot of love, which I'm sure you do your surgeries with a lot of love, and we can totally tell. So something that I really loved about your feed is your mommy makeovers. So I would love for you to that's probably the top procedure I hear about. And one of those other the second part of that is a mommy makeover combination procedure where you do an abdominoplasty and a VBL at the same time. So I would love to hear from you, you know, how you do your patient selection. What do you do differently that makes your tummy tuck so beautiful and that belly button so perfect?
Yeah. So first of all, money makeover is a really, really, really great procedure because it it's not just the aesthetic component. It's also the functional component. It's the well-being component. It's really women after, you know, had given birth, have come through, through pregnancy, have seen alterations in their anatomy, alterations in their bodies, in their physique, their ability to exercise. So money may also the the appearance of the breast, the the engorgement of the breast during pregnancy, and then the deflation after pregnancy, breastfeeding potentially. All these factors really, really, really affect women. So a mind makeover procedure or if broken apart, a tummy tuck with liposuction and a breast lift and other community, like adding implants, adding fat to the breasts, the degree of liposuction.
All this is really, really, really not just a cosmetic procedure, but really a functional procedure that aims to improve anatomy and, help women get over and feel better about themselves, wear clothes better, improve their self esteem and overall well-being. And we see that case after case, patient after patient, woman after woman. And they feel better. They look better. They come with a smile. They never almost never regret it, and, it's just an honor to be able to do that surgery. Yes. Combining it with with BBL or fat transfer to the breast, it's not for everybody for sure.
Number 1, it's for women who have now have a really nice skin envelope. Okay? Because when you add fat to the breast, you have to anticipate a degree of predictability. Otherwise, you really cannot cannot predict results. So you need to make sure that when you inject the fat, the fat actually, you know, kinda stays where you're supposed to be. They they don't see you have to predict the changes that you will see through time, years, 2 years, when the skin envelope that's not very tight because of weight loss, weight gain, because of pregnancy changes, hormones, the elasticity changes. So you have to take all these factors into consideration. So when you add the fat, there is a sense of predictability, sense of accuracy, and you're not surprised by the outcome. And, also, women need to be on the same page and understand the anatomical, I would say, challenges as well as differences in that patient population than, let's say, somebody else who's a little younger, who's never had children.
And also very important, be able to go through the recovery process. Because when you recover from a tummy tuck, it's challenging, but recovering from a tummy tuck, NBBL is a little extra because you have to protect that fat. So when somebody is on this is ready, committed, understands all that, then, yeah, it's it's a good candidate for that procedure.
I love to hear that. I have a question that I get all the time in my DMs. How much fat is gonna stay? So you having all of the experience that you have in doing BBL fat transfer and breast transfer, do you find that the percentage of fat that stays the same for the both areas, or are they different?
With fat transfer to the breast, for sure, there's definitely less survival. I never what I tell my patients is the fat transfer to the breasts is more of a contouring procedure, not a breast augmentation procedure. Fat transfer to the breast is not to replace an implant or in place of an or a substitute to an implant. Breast augmentation to the breast will achieve half to one full cup size increase. The only time I have more I've had more than that in in essentially fat transfer to the breast For augmentation purposes, it was a lady from California, winged her circapsized by 1a half. That was the most success I ever had. Usually, it's about one cup, but I tell the patients half cup is possible, and they might need more rounds of fat transfer to get them to a more satisfactory result. But most of my breast lifts are now done with fat transfer.
Great improvement in terms of the contouring, the cleavage, as well as the upper pole. Keep great transition between the chest and the breast. Cleavage is great after fat transfer. We see great results there, and the survival is totally acceptable, but definitely not a replacement for implants at the level at the lowest of all my patients.
I think we might have to go into that spiel, doctor v, because I I hear it so often where they're like, oh, I don't want implants, so I'm just gonna have fat grafting. And I really want you guys, my listeners, my girls, if you are decide if you're like, I don't want breast implants, maybe I should just do fat grafting, You have to be the right candidate, I feel, for that procedure when you're, 1, are your nipples pointing to the ground? You that's that's a breast lift. That's not fat grafting that's gonna make that nipple point forward. Is your breast envelope, like doctor v was talking about, how big is it? Is there a way to put enough fat in there to fill up that volume? There's a misconception that it's in replacement of an implant.
Exactly. 100%. 100%. We need to establish the expectations and make sure we match the expectation and, more importantly, educate our patients. So there's nothing wrong with not wanting an implant. Could be that you want a significant increase in their size. In in your size of the breast, might need a lift at the same time. Like you said, if the envelope is loose and the the nipples are pointing downwards, then we have to lift them.
In addition to that, we might need to do more rounds of fat transfer to get the increase in the volume that we're looking for. And, also, consider, other avenues like an implant if the patient really wants a significant increase is not willing to accept anything less than that. So that one, we have to go to the more more detailed discussion about implants and, you know, pros and cons and advantages with modern implants, and that's why the consultation process is very important. We have to take time with our patients and talk about everything. And wish picks. Wish picks are very important, not because you're gonna match the result, but because you see what the patient has in mind. So if somebody says to you, well, I want an increase improve that's a small increase in the size of my breast, but then they give you they show you a wish pick that shows a really significant increase that you have to moderate expectations or say to them, you know what? I don't feel that at this point you should be proceeding with surgery, at least not with me. We say it all the time.
So it's it's important to actually take a more very, very detailed approach.
Absolutely. I really love the approach of, hey. Maybe I'm not the right surgeon for you, when you have to moderate those expectations because it's such a classic, right, where they're like, I wanna look natural. Okay? Natural. And then they show you a picture of Kim K's booty. And they're like, I like this. And you're like, we have very different views of what natural is.
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And they also show you a little photoshopped or filtered videos and Photoshop is is you have to really tell them that this is not a reality, and we see this a lot, unfortunately. Patients sometimes I'm I'm surprised sometimes that they we would look at those filtered videos and Photoshop photos, and and they don't they they actually think that this is reality. So you have to really, really sit down with them, talk to them, and like you said, better to say no. So the actual is the patient will reflect and say, why did my surgeon say no? There must be there must be some sort of disconnect that I need to address. And it's also for their own benefit.
Nobody wants to spend time recovering, spend money, and then become very, very unsatisfied.
Absolutely. So I think that's a really important thing to take into consideration. When somebody is considering multiple procedures, do you find that they save money by doing them in a combination procedure?
They save money, but most importantly, it saves recovery time, time of work, the in the psychological burden of actual recovery from major surgery. It's it's it's better to go to go through it once than keep going through it. Now not everybody's a candidate for combination procedures. Not everybody can have all their desired procedures in combination. That's very common in weight loss patients. They have to be reasonable. But knowing that when a surgeon feels confident that they can do the procedures in combination equally to, you know, to the same standard if they do individually, my recommendation is to do it combined, provided, of course, it's safe. That's a given.
Absolutely. 100%. You guys know that my number one priority is for you to be safe, for you to go through your surgery journey and end up on the beach in a bikini somewhere feeling wonderful and great and loving your new body. So safety is number 1.
So important.
So, doctor Vi, one of the questions I always like to ask my plastic surgeons is if your team drains or team no drains.
Oh, team drains is so important. I did an aesthetic plastic surgery fellowship with one of the biggest names in plastic surgery. Okay? Doctor Hunstead, who's a pioneer in most of his body contouring procedures, and he's tried it. He tried everything. He tried drainless. He tried all these mattress sutures, all these tacks, all that. Eventually, he settled in drain. So first of all, drainless tummy tuck is a good marketing tool.
It's a good a good marketing tool to get patients into your office. Because, hey. I do drains. You have to worry about drains, so we're gonna get the exact same result. But if you were getting this exact same result without drains, then we would all be doing it. And there's a reason why most of us in a lot of well, actually, most of the experts that I am aware of do not do the drainless tummy tucks. Number 1, nowadays, we do a lot of liposuction. Okay.
We do large volume liposuction. We do 3 6 liposuction. Even when we do flanks liposuction or tummy or we always do liposuction to the abdomen and flanks with our tummy tuck. We position the patient in different ways. We take time. So we're aggressive because we wanna come through the ladies nicely. But that creates a lot of fluid overload post surgery. Okay? And now this requires a drain to get the fluid out during the massage or in between massage sessions.
Get the fluid out and make the patient feel better. The patient is feeling better early. They're able to walk, able to eat, able to feel that they're progressing their recovery, able to transition to more compressed garments. And all this enhances their recovery experience and also enhances the medical aspect of it because patients aren't feeling better, eating better, do better in both short term as well as long term. Okay? Plus the massages are more efficient. That's why drains are very necessary. Seromas, sure. Seromas happen both with drains and with drainless tummy tucks.
To my knowledge, there isn't of a definitive paper, definitive edit evidence that drainless tummy tucks offer less seromas. Because nowadays, actually, serum mauries are pretty low with drains, certainly not lower with drainless drainless tummy tucks. Possibly, they're actually at a higher rate. I'm not a fan of drainless tummy tucks for these reasons. And, yeah, everybody hates the drains, but the question is, do you hit your drains more, or would you like to stay swollen longer, have a worse recovery, go, you know, start driving later, go back to work later, get to your narrower garment later. So I'm not a huge fan of drainless time attacks. That might change, but at this point, I'm I'm drains.
I'm with you. I'm team drains all the way. All the way. I've seen drainless and with drain. And like you just said, just because they're drainless doesn't mean they're not having issues of seromas. They might have more incidence of seromas. So I do agree with you on that. Like I was telling you before we started recording, I worked in the industry for quite a while, and I always talk on the show about how post op care has changed so much in, like, even the last, like, 10 years, maybe maybe 6, 7 years, where before it was like, don't touch it, no massaging, leave it alone, to now the industry is really changing.
So I would love to hear your take on that.
It's one of the greatest advances that we have had because it allows us to be very aggressive with liposuction. Okay. Safe, of course. That's a given. But aggressive with liposuction that allows for a better result and more importantly, allows speedier recovery. Patients are less swollen. They get to the garments keeps them keep them compressed so they have less fluid changes. Therefore, they get to the next level, the next step faster.
And more importantly, they get they get to be involved in their recovery. Because every time they go to the massage session, they look at the bodies. They feel better after their massage. They are involved with the recovery process instead of just sitting at home and, you know, just not doing anything. They get to really, really speed their recovery, and the ones who are really motivated by ambulating faster, eating better, take the supplements, then they are they are the ones who actually do phenomenally well. And we see really, really great great results in patients who are very challenging, have had a lot of or a lot of surgery done, very speedy recovery, very healthy recovery, getting them to works, sooner, getting to driving sooner. And, I think it's probably the most important advancement because it allows us to be more aggressive.
I 100% agree. I love seeing, the patients go from stiff and feeling not so great to getting off the massage table when I'm I'm not doing the massages, but I'm there with them. And they're like, Oh my God, I feel so much lighter. I was feeling so stiff, and now I feel so good. And then
they go to the
restroom, and they have a feel so much lighter. So I really do see such a great benefit when patients have their massages after surgery. How soon can they get a massage?
For us, it's one day after surgery. It's one day after we have we trust the massage therapist tremendously. They're very well educated. They do an amazing job. They're safe. They stay away from the incisions. They know where to massage. They work with us all the time, so they know what we like and what we don't like, and we have no problem in our practice setting them to massage sessions the day after surgery.
I love that. I see different date ranges. I have some surgeons that are starting to do massages, right, in their practice, but they're still like, wait 7 days. Don't do anything immediately. And then I have other practices where they're just like you guys. The next day after surgery, get your first massage. And I do notice a difference in how fast the patient recovers after
surgery. To hear that. Yeah. Happy to hear that. I think there is. I think it's also psychological. They they they see that everything is well. They see that they look good.
After the first massage, all that's a lot of that fluid that was dripping through the incisions and making really blood is now going away. So they see their abdomens, in their trunks, in their arms, smoother and smaller. They get excited. They wanna and very important is when we ask them, say, how how how's it been? Yeah. The massage is the massage is very early. They're hard. There's discomfort, but they they always go back. They feel it's worth it.
I've never had anybody said, oh, you know what? You should start your patients in a couple of you should wait a couple of days. No no one's ever said that. No one's ever said
They all enjoy it. I think that those first few massages might be a little bit more tender. But what I tell them is, hey, take your pain medication before you go or before your massage therapist is there with you because you it'll it'll make it a little bit easier for you. You might sleep the whole time. And by the time you wake up, it's gone. It's done. Doctor v, one of the things that I really love on your before and after gallery is your BBLs. You do an amazing
Oh, thank you.
Amazing BBL. And I noticed that you do a lot of that liposuction in that lower back. And something that I like to talk to my girls about is, you know, different things that I've seen and how sometimes you don't even have fat transfer, but just liposuctioning, that lower back can give the illusion of a bigger booty.
A 100%. It happens because aesthetics and beauty is not size. It's proportions. It's It's proportion. It's what you have in relationship to, you know, and so to the rest of your body. So if you are able to get nice harmony in your body by liposuction, the excess fat in the in the lower back and the flanks and and the waist would decrease, and you are able to bring out what's there. Because, genetically, a lot of women do have a pretty nice buttocks when you actually focus on the buttocks, but what's above or the thighs may actually take away from the appearance of the buttocks. So, yes, some that's why sometimes not doing a big BBL or doing very modest BBL is better because number 1, don't really alter the anatomy.
Don't stretch the skin too much. Don't make it disproportionately big, but it just complements the rest of the liposuction. So that's really, really great to take into consideration when when you're looking at a at a final result that having everything in harmony and a good transition between the upper back, the lower back, hips and the waist, and then the buttocks, then that's something that's very that's really makes the results more than just taking fat and adding it to the buttocks.
Are you seeing a trend for women coming in and requesting smaller BBLs, more moderate?
Yeah. I never really had patients requesting really big butts in my practice. These I I don't think I was a target surgeon for that. But in general, most patients nowadays, at least the ones that come to me, they all say I don't want something big. Pretty much that's what I hear all the time. And that's why sometimes I say you actually don't need it, but you have a really nice a really nice bite or just add some fads to the hip dips, and then make it move more round more than just doing a full BBL. And, you know, actually, results are are are sometimes actually much better. But most of the patients that come to me for BBLs want a natural results.
Actually, patients that come to me in general want natural results. I don't I don't see patients coming and say, I want to be overdone. I wanna look fake. I don't get these patients.
What I see and what I've seen with the women that I talk to is their moms. They a lot of them are moms. A lot of them are professional women who they just wanna look like themselves, but a little bit better, but just better. Yeah. I don't wanna look like somebody else. I don't wanna look, too exaggerated. I just wanna look like I did before I had kids.
Go back to my younger self. Yeah.
Exactly. Just I wanna look like I did before my stomach was stretched out with 3 or 4 pregnancies. I just wanna be able to look in the mirror and be happy with how what I see. So I I love to hear that that that's a trend that you're seeing in your practice as well.
Oh, yeah. For sure. You know, there's there's trends that come and go. It's my opinion that the fake trend or overdone trend is something that's falling out of favor nowadays, and people wanna look natural, athletic, but more importantly, healthy. And it's it's a feedback that they get from people around them, and they say, hey. You know what? You lost the half plastic surgery, and it doesn't jump out. But they hear, hey. You know, you look good.
You look good, young, refreshed, athletic, and healthy. That's what they want to hear, not the the wow factor being overdone because very often, this just doesn't look good sometimes. So I think patients are are realizing the importance of just looking healthy and, looking active and just looking at a younger version of themselves.
And I believe a lot of these, like, very exaggerated BBLs, they don't age well. That's what I tell my girls, like y'all gotta think about how is this gonna look when you're 50? How is this gonna look when you get older and your skin starts losing elasticity? And how is this gonna look in the long run? So you might want it huge right now, but you might not like that later.
Exactly. I mean, the buttocks is not, immune to the signs of aging and weight fluctuations or that if the all other areas of our bodies in the face are. We know that aging involves this is typical in the face because we see it there. We see it in the breast. We see it with skin everywhere. It involves drooping, you know, losing a little bit of losing a little bit of elasticity, and the skin becomes a little bit more loose and droopy. The underlying structural components also become loose, which allows, for everything to look a little stretched down and kinda like, you know, the tired look. So and that applies to the buttocks.
It's the same concept with you add fat, so you stretch the skin to begin with. So you can say that probably accelerates as there'll be, you know, the inevitable dropping and losing of elasticity and everything essential, say, 5 years, 10 years, 50 years dropping down and stretching. And then it reaches the point where we used to be perky and youthful, but now it just looks the reverse looks kinda like sad, I would say. So definitely say that to my patients. It's nothing is immune to to growing up and aging. Nothing is immune to weight fluctuations. And we're all humans. We cannot have, a perfect trajectory.
Sometimes we let loose and we gain weight and we lose it. And there's an effect. So that's why sometimes being modest in in in your approach and moderate is actually the right way to go. The more natural the result,
patients, when they come in for post op photos like 6 months later, and you put the side by side of this is what you look like before and this is what you look like now? And they're like, ah, don't show me that.
All the time. All the time. And back to the natural point, has anything unnatural ever looked beautiful? That's your answer right there.
Yeah. Exactly. You're 100% right. So, doctor v, something that I always love to talk about on the show because I encourage my girls, if they're thinking about having surgery, there's nothing wrong with having surgery. It doesn't make them vain. They don't have to have mom guilt and feel that they shouldn't be spending on themselves. And that I like to inform like, tell them that they are worth the investment. That money is gonna be I've heard it so many times with my guests where women who have had mommy makeovers, and they say it's the best money I've ever spent.
I send my my like, if they pay for it with the CareCredit, they're like, I send that payment happy because I am so happy with my results. And something that I see also is, like, an inner transformation of them. So I would love to for you to tell me, do you see that in your practice with your patients?
100%. And this is this is why I love these procedures because it's what we're talking about before is it changes the psychology and the well-being of a patient, of of the person. It restores the anatomy, allows them to exercise better, wear clothes better. It allows them to look themselves in the mirror and look a healthier self. So all that definitely improves improves their well-being, which is ultimately the goal. It's not just looking better in photographs. It's also feeling better when you when you go to the store, when you go to the gym, when you put a nice dress to go out. It's the overall effect, and I think that's why this positive feedback is really one of the most important things, the factors that really encourage me to continue to do these surgeries.
These are the surgeon I'm most passionate, about together with weight loss with, post bariatric or weight loss, post weight loss patients. So definitely huge, huge factor in term. That's why it's something there's a definite reconstructive component in terms of restoring the function, but not the function of the area you're operating or by the function of the person.
Oh, 100%. I agree with that. I hadn't thought about that. It restores the function of the person as well. I have favorites. I hate to say it, but I do have favorites. And massive weight loss patients are really my favorite because I love watching them go through their transformations. And I feel like even if their results are not 100% how they imagined them to be, they are just so happy and thankful to have a a shape, to have, their body look beautiful in dresses.
So touching on the, weight loss patients, what do you see the most with your bariatric patients coming in that they are requesting?
Definitely definitely treatment of the trunk and excess skin, extended tummy tucks, most of the time a body lift, just to get that skin from around. That really takes away both from their weight, so they're able to ambulate better to be more active, wear clothes that they were not previously able to wear, and also, like you said, restore the anatomy so they're able to exercise more. With these surgeries, they do get their confidence and confidence back and they they they they feel better, and they're able to do more. And these patients have done such an amazing and difficult job losing the weight, recovering from their previous surgery if they did lose it with bariatric surgery, diet strict diet, extra strides, restricting themselves. They're already so strong, so doing these surgeries is really the next level. Finally, they'll see the result because they lose the weight and then they see themselves and they're not happy because they have all this loose skin. So by doing these surgeries, finally, we get them to the point where they're happy and say, you know what? All that 2, 3, 4, 5 year effort now has paid off and highest satisfaction rate. You tell them that, you know, they're not gonna look like Instagram models.
Right? But they do look better with motor techniques and with expertise and surgeons who do this a lot. The results are absolutely pretty great, to be honest with you. Some of them require second and third stage, and then you can go back and get scars better, scars in better position. You can get more skin out. You can do additional liposuction, where eventually, you can get them to looking pretty, pretty great. And the breast, obviously, is another factor because they lose the weight. They deflate the breast. Breast is already stretched, so you can lift them and add an implant or add fat.
Obviously, it takes, you know, away from arms, but then you combine it now with 360 liposuction as well. So it's pretty great. And I love working with these patients. Very appreciative, very respectful, very, very, realistic expectations, and they take care of themselves. So they come in at a pretty, very, very healthy starting point. So I'm very happy very happy to take care of these patients. It's actually a passion of mine.
I love to hear that because I actually just recorded an episode with one of my girls. She weighed £600. She lost £468.
Wow. Amazing. Remarkable.
Amazing. And, we were talking about all of the weight loss surgeries. And one of the things, maybe it's because it my show is big butts, no lies, but
Yeah.
Something that we like to talk about is the booty. Right? And the booty, I know the complexity of a booty after massive weight loss or after weight loss is very complex. So I like to tell my girls, like, you can't expect to have a BBL and have the same results as somebody who didn't lose, you know, £300 or £200.
Yeah.
I'd love to hear from you. I think I know what you're gonna say. Is there a way for somebody who has lost a lot of the weight, who maybe doesn't have that much fat, who still wants to have a little booty, is there different techniques that you can do to help them build that?
In my opinion, a lot of the things have to been tried during a because somebody who's lost a lot of weight has such a deflated skin envelope, they will need a body lift to get that skin. Now once you get the skin tight, the skin over the butt area stretches, and then actually the butt appears much smaller and much tighter and patients are not happy about that. Okay? The lower of the buttock after weight loss is skin. So once you tighten it or remove skin from the, from the lower waist and through a body lift, then you definitely definitely get a stretched out and smaller looking, smaller appearing buttocks. Nothing to be done about that. Honestly, the patient actually tell them. I I I when you throw the mirror before they do the surgeries, I I lift the scan and I look, that's how your product's gonna be look like. And they're most of the time, they're disappointed and say there's nothing else to be done.
There's a lot of the trick needs like the purstring gluteoplasty, or reversing skin or reversing, flops and dropping them down. In my opinion, none of that works. I've tried them all. Like like I said before, I trained one of the surgeons who pioneered the purse string. Not happy with the results at all. I think it's kind of like a waste of time. That's my personal opinion, and that's what I think. Now there's one alternative that's better.
That's adding fat. First of all, everybody has fat, so we can do a fat transfer on selected patients. And select they actually did did that on Monday. On selected patients, we can do a bottle lift with the BBL together. If the patient has not lost all the, overweight, liposuction 360, we can identify and put in the products. We tell them beforehand that it's not going to be a traditional type of PBL. The skin is different. The incisions are different.
The properties of your anatomy, everything is different, but you will get more fullness than you had before. Typically successful with that. And modest increase in size, and that's really great. Or we can go to 2nd stage and add fat if the patient has fat. Add fat at that point after they recover from the body lift or the extended tummy tuck. That's when you can go back and add fat, to the buttocks or hip dips and improve their appearance at a later stage, where they'll have other procedures such as brachioplasty or Thylates can do liposuction at the fat there. To me, fat transfer is superior than any other technique out there in terms of both predictability, natural appearance, and improvement in anatomy when the patient has enough fat. So there are ways, but it really varies from patient to patient.
Absolutely. And that's why it's so important to really build a relationship with your plastic surgeon. And when they're talking and you're in the consultation, I always like to tell them, you can bring somebody with you because you they might be hearing different things than what you're hearing. Because I believe I read a study where, like, the patient during a consultation only only grabs, like, 30%
Probably less.
Maybe less of what is being said during the consultation. And that's because the the surgeon's saying something to you, and you're thinking about it. But he's still talking, but you're thinking about what he just said. So you're not catching everything that they're saying to you.
That is very important, and that's where the patient coordinators it's very important. An open, warm patient coordinator who invites the patients will will encourage the patient to submit questions and call them, email them after the consultation for clarifications and say, hey. You know, I know doctor Vivint talked about that, but I don't really remember what was said or I didn't understand this. And then the patient coordinator can can say, you know what? Let's set up another appointment or, can talk with the surgeon. The surgeon can call the patient. So there's a lot a lot to be said about communication after the consultation phase of the process in order to get the patient and the surgeon the right pace the right pace. And that's where the patient coordinator comes in play is very, very important to be available to the patients.
You guys know I loved being a patient coordinator. It was Yeah. It was my when I left my I was And I was just so sad. I was like, this is not for me. Like, I I miss my girls. I miss, like, interacting with my patients and watching them come in, and, you know, they're wearing oversized shirts or they're wearing stuff that that they're, like, hiding underneath and then watching them transform from this shy person to coming through the door 3 months later, and they're wearing, like, a beautiful sundress, and their hair is blow dried, and they have a full face of makeup, and they're wearing heels, and they smell fabulous. And just that transformation and being able to be a part of it was just something so special to me. It was so special to me that I launched my show and was like, how can I do this for women everywhere all around the world?
Yeah. No. That's great. Noah, this is so important, what you do, and your experience is just so important. And, yeah, I I really, really think that all the patients and women you're in, you know, in communication with, we are really grateful for what you do for sure.
Thank you. I'm very happy that I get to do this. And I tell my girls, I told them at the beginning of the season that I'm just forever grateful that I get to watch them transform and I get to help introduce them to plastic surgeons like yourself and show them like, this is what a good plastic surgeon looks like, talks like, sounds like, this is how their practices are. This is what their pictures look like. This is what you should be looking for. And being able to showcase any all types of plastic surgeons and being able to showcase different expertise, like hearing you talk about your passion, which is bariatric surgery or massive weight loss patients. And I know I have so many massive weight loss patients who are listening, who are think who are wondering where can I go have my surgery, how can I find a surgeon that's gonna do a good job for me? A lot of times, they actually end up having skin removal by the surgeon that did their bariatric surgery.
Yeah. That's not something that's great. It's actually, there's a lot of ethical, aspects to that. And I don't really I'm not sure if I wanna go into it, but there is certainly, yeah, there's there's certainly an unethical aspect to, stepping out of your specialty and stepping out of your expertise for not for motives that are not in your patient's benefit or to your patient's benefit. And I think that we should all have our patients, benefit and well-being as number one priority and not doing things that, you know, just benefit us.
Exactly. And you're being very respectful because it makes me quite furious actually when I really talk about it and I really think about it. If I think about it too hard, it makes me mad.
Yeah. That's why education is so important. We see that as well. And sometimes, you cannot do anything about it afterwards because you can reverse a lot and you can improve a lot, but not everything will.
And that's absolutely true. So
Yeah. And but now the thing is we also see for plastic surgeons who don't do this a lot, and they they do get results nowadays that are not acceptable. And they also need to look themselves in the mirror and consider doing you know, focusing on certain areas so they can actually produce results that are considered acceptable today rather than doing things that are just very, very mediocre because that's not you know, the patients deserve better.
The patients deserve better. Women I know that they're saving for years. I know that they're taking out loans. I know that they're doing everything that they can to have this surgery, and they have high hopes. And sometimes that research that they're doing, they're finding unethical practices, practitioners, and they spend that money that they have been saving for 3 years with, you know, not going out for dinner on Friday nights, not spending the extra money that they could be spending because they're saving for this surgery. And then they spend it, and the results are not what they were expecting. And then it's then they end up on a different journey of how can I can I find somebody to fix this?
100%. That's what it is. And there's no surgeon that gets a 100% perfect result. This doesn't exist. Everybody has, you know, everybody has complications. Everybody has results are not as great as they would expect or they they think, you know, they are predicted beforehand. But it's also very important for your surgeon to, number 1, take full responsibility. Number 2, be hold themselves accountable and to the highest standards.
And number 3, be there to help and know how to correct issues. Because an expert is not somebody who gets, you know, hits a home run every time. That's impossible. Doesn't exist. Nobody does that. An expert is somebody who can correct imperfections, can take care of complications, and knows how to get the patient there eventually. That's an expert.
Absolutely. I 100% agree. I preach that on this show all the time. So doctor b, before I let you go, I always like to ask my surgeons, if you were talking to your sister, your mom, your best friend, and they're considering going on their plastic surgery journey. What's one tip that you would give them to set them on their way?
Take your time. Choosing your surgeon is not something that should be done on an impulse, isn't something that should be done out of excitement. Be open be open to see a lot of plastic surgeons. Be open to check a lot of resources, and look at every surgeon from every standpoint. Don't just look at their Instagram page. Don't look at the website. Don't just look the the testimonials. Look at everything.
Take all that into consideration and then meet them and see how they talk to us. See that the practice the practice is very important. Is it neat? Is it organized? Is it spacious? Look at the credentials. Make sure that they they they are who they they they claim to be. Make sure that they are board certified by the Board of Plastic Surgery. Make sure that they operate in legitimate facilities. Make sure that their results showcase what you're looking for. For instance, you know, somebody who's doesn't doesn't have a picture of rhinoplasty in their in their website or their their Instagram should not probably do your rhinoplasty.
And look at the reviews. That's extremely important because these are, you know, a good indication of the surgeon's character. Right? And then talk to them and see how they talk to the approach and see, you know, your personalities match and and your goals match. And after a thorough consideration, once you choose your surgeon, trust them. Trust them. Let them take care of you. Listen to them, and, make sure also the sir the surgeon is available. Make sure your surgeon is available because you always have questions.
Everybody will have insecurities afterwards. Make sure they're available to you and, trust them. And, it's a journey like everything else. When you go when you buy a house, you look at many houses. Right? You try to build a house. You interview a lot of, contractors and builders and, you know, and then once you do decide on one that you trust them. And that's that's how it is. It's a very important decision, so it shouldn't be done.
Also, trust your friends or family. If somebody has had a surgeon who had a similar procedure by you and they can vouch for the surgeon, that surgeon should get extra points because you have somebody you trust who had a very, very pleasant experience. So that was very important.
I 100% agree. I think we couldn't end the episode on a better note. And if my girls wanna come see you, how can they find you?
We're located in Houston in the Memorial area. You can find us on Instagram, Memorial Plastic Surgery, or my Instagram handles. Doctor Vasilakis. It's Memorial Plastic Surgery in Houston.
Alright. And with that, I will see you guys next week.
