Brazilian butt lift in Thailand

A Brazilian butt lift is two operations in one sitting: liposuction of the waist, back, abdomen or thighs, then the injection of the cleaned fat into the buttocks and hips to add volume and reshape the profile. Nothing is lifted in the surgical sense and no implant is placed. Thai clinics use the same abbreviation the rest of the world uses, BBL, but their price lists also carry buttock augmentation, fat grafting to the buttocks and lipofilling, which are the same operation under other names. Several other things are sold next to it, and a "butt lift" enquiry can quietly turn into any of them, so the first thing to settle with a clinic is which operation is being quoted.

If your frame is slim and the question is whether there is enough fat to work with, the Thailand skinny BBL page covers that version. If the waistline is the main goal and the buttocks come second, start with the Thailand lipo 360 page. If loose skin after weight loss is the problem rather than volume, the operation you want is on the Thailand butt lift page, and the general Thailand fat transfer page covers grafting to other parts of the body.

The BBL has a risk that other cosmetic operations do not. When fat is injected into or beneath the gluteal muscle, it can enter the large veins that run through that muscle and travel to the lungs, a fat embolism, and that is how the deaths that gave the operation its reputation happened. The response of the American and British plastic surgery societies was to advise injecting fat only into the layer above the muscle, with a wide cannula, and many surgeons now use ultrasound during the operation to confirm where the tip of the cannula is. Ask every clinic you consider, in writing, whether the surgeon injects above the muscle only and whether ultrasound guidance is used, and treat a vague answer as a no.

• Ask whether the operation takes place in a hospital with an anaesthesiologist in the room and an intensive care unit in the building, or in a clinic operating theatre with a hospital on call. Both exist in Bangkok, and the quote should say which.
• Ask how many BBLs the named surgeon performs, whether that surgeon does the liposuction and the injection personally, and who operates if the surgeon is unavailable on the day.
• Ask what happens if you need to be seen in the first weeks after you get home, and whether the clinic has a surgeon or hospital it works with in your country.
• Ask for the earliest date the clinic will let you fly, in writing, and what the clinic requires of you on that flight. This is the number that decides how long the trip really is.

A large share of the people who reach this page are looking for what a BBL looks like on a slim or Asian frame, and that is a question Thai surgeons answer every week, because most of their patients are slim. The aesthetic they generally work to is proportion rather than volume: a smoother line from the waist into the hip, the hollows at the side of the hip filled, a modest lift of the upper buttock, rather than the exaggerated projection associated with the operation in parts of the United States. With less donor fat, the surgeon gathers it from several small areas, or asks you to gain a little weight before the trip, or proposes a smaller change now and a second session later. If the fat is genuinely not there, a good clinic says so and talks about implants or nothing at all; a clinic that promises a large result on a slim frame is promising fat it cannot find.

Almost all the BBL clinics in our listing are in Bangkok, and the rest are in Phuket. Our listing has no BBL clinic in Chiang Mai, Pattaya or Hua Hin, so if you find a quote there you are comparing it against a clinic we have not verified.

Bangkok

Bangkok is where the hospitals are. The Bangkok side of the listing runs from large private hospitals such as Yanhee, Phyathai, Bumrungrad and Wansiri, through hospitals built around cosmetic surgery such as Kamol, Asia Cosmetic, Masterpiece and Lelux, to smaller surgeon-led clinics such as ID Clinic and DGB Clinic. A hospital adds an anaesthesiologist, a ward and intensive care on the same site, which matters for a BBL more than for a smaller operation; a clinic adds a lower price and often more time with the surgeon. Bangkok also has the direct flights, the hotels near the hospitals and the massage therapists who do post-liposuction lymphatic drainage all day, and it is where most of the clinic-name searches that reach this page point.

Phuket

Phuket has a few clinics that treat international patients for BBLs, and most people who choose it want to recover near the beach rather than in a city. Recovery after a BBL is not a beach holiday: you cannot sit, swim or sunbathe on the result for weeks, and the humidity makes garment hygiene harder. Phuket makes sense if you already live there or plan a long, quiet stay in a villa with help; it makes less sense for a short trip, because a complication in the first days is easier to handle in a Bangkok hospital.

• You have enough spare fat on the abdomen, flanks, back or thighs to give the buttocks a visible change, and a stable weight you can hold afterwards.
• You are a non-smoker, or will stop well before the trip and stay stopped, because nicotine reduces the share of fat that survives and slows the liposuction wounds.
• You can arrange the recovery honestly: weeks without sitting directly on the buttocks, someone with you for the first days, and a flight home that you can spend on your side or standing.
• You are not a candidate if you want a large change on a slim frame, if you have a clotting disorder or a recent thrombosis, if you are planning pregnancy soon, or if you cannot take the time the clinic asks for.
• If loose skin is the problem, or you have lost a great deal of weight, the Thailand plastic surgery after weight loss page is the better read.

The rule that shapes everything else is that you must not put your weight on the transferred fat while it is establishing a blood supply. That means sleeping on your stomach or side, standing and walking rather than sitting, and, when you must sit, using a BBL pillow under the thighs so that the buttocks are lifted off the seat. The compression garment stays on for weeks and is worn through the Thai heat; a second garment to change into is worth packing. Lymphatic massage, which many Thai clinics bundle, reduces the swelling from the liposuction. Walking starts on the first day and is the main protection against clots; exercise, swimming and sun on the incisions wait for the clinic's clearance.

The flight home is the part that makes a Thailand BBL different from one done a few hours from home. From Bangkok to the United States or the United Kingdom you are in the air for most of a day, and the clinic's advice will be to book an aisle seat, sit on the pillow, stand and walk often, wear the garment and compression stockings, and drink water; some surgeons ask for a lie-flat seat, which changes the cost of the trip. Australians and New Zealanders have a shorter flight, which is one reason the operation attracts them to Thailand. Whatever the route, the clinic's earliest-flight date is the number to plan around.

A few days after the operation, the fluid used for the liposuction and some blood drain from the small incisions and are caught by the garment and the pads, which is where the sour, metallic smell that people ask about comes from. It fades as the drainage stops and the garment is washed. A foul smell together with fever, spreading redness or discharge from an incision is a different thing and needs the clinic the same day.

The other destination pages compare the same points in detail: Brazilian butt lift in Turkey, Brazilian butt lift in Colombia, Brazilian butt lift in Mexico, Brazilian butt lift in Hungary and Brazilian butt lift in Poland. Thailand wins on hospitals and on the long, quiet recovery; it loses on the flight home for anyone west of India.