infection, implant extrusion, asymmetry, nerve compression, capsular contracture (a hard capsule of scar tissue around the implant), and shifting.
The surgery takes about an hour. It’s usually performed as an outpatient procedure (meaning you’ll be able to leave afterward) in a hospital or surgicenter, under general anesthesia. You’ll be groggy when you wake up, so be sure to have someone there to take you home.
Once you’re fully unconscious, your surgeon will make incisions in the same sites that were used for the insertion. Then they’ll remove your implants, leaving the capsule of scar tissue that naturally forms around them.
Once the implants are removed, the incisions will be sutured closed. Drains will likely be put in to remove excess fluid buildup during recovery. Even with drains added, about 20% of patients go on to form a seroma, says Dr. Stanton. “These seromas aren’t dangerous, but they may require needle aspiration anywhere from one to five times,” says Dr. Ryan Stanton, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California.
If you’ve had large implants in place for several years and your skin doesn’t have great elasticity, you may have sagging afterward. This can be corrected with a butt lift.
Many patients have very little or no sagging after buttock implant removal. Sagging is more likely when the patient has had relatively large implants placed on top of, instead of under, the gluteus maximus muscle, the patient has had implants in for more than five years, and the patient is more than 50 years old.
Other experts agree that if the implants were in for six months or more, there’s usually a permanent expansion of the tissues, with some permanent increase in buttock size despite the implants being removed.
Alternative Options to Butt Implants
Other options to resculpt and improve the contour of your derriere include having a butt lift with autoprosthesis augmentation, says Dr. Frank Agullo, a plastic surgeon in El Paso, Texas to RealSelf. During this procedure, the buttocks are lifted, and your own tissue is rearranged to increase volume.
You could also have a Brazilian butt lift (or BBL). This procedure takes fat from other areas of your body, via liposuction, and reinjects it just beneath the skin of your buttocks. Just keep in mind that BBLs are the riskiest type of plastic surgery, so be sure to find a board-certified plastic surgeon who understands the latest safety protocols.