Posted on 08/28/2004 8:28:09 PM PDT by aculeus
For years, men have known to bite their lips dutifully and shake their heads convincingly when asked the classic question: "Does my bum look big in this?"
They need lie no more. The answer women now want to hear, it seems, is "Yes".
Buttock augmentation surgery has soared in popularity, as women seek to plump up their rumps and prove that bigger is better. Plastic surgeons attribute the trend partly to the popularity of ample-reared, "bootylicious" pop divas such as Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce Knowles.
"It seems to be this year's 'it' surgery and Jennifer Lopez is the poster-girl," said Dr Leroy Young, director of the American Society for Plastic Surgery's Emerging Trends Taskforce, which has recorded a five-fold increase in buttock augmentation operations in the past 12 months.
The trend has also reached Britain, with a substantial rise in patients anxious to have the surgery. Adrian Richards, a consultant plastic and cosmetic surgeon practising in Harley Street, said that four or five years ago he was never asked to perform the surgery but now increasing numbers of women sought augmentation.
"The reason for the change is that our perception of the ideal body shape is changing," he said. "Patients want a rounder and fuller posterior. Ten years ago it was fashionable to look slim, be small busted and have no bottom, the body ideal now is more rounded and voluptuous."
Dr Young in America agreed. He said: "People like to emulate celebrities and women like that well-endowed look. Clothes these days are cut to show the figure very anatomically and they just don't look right if you don't fill them out. Buttock augmentation has moved from being a fringe procedure into the mainstream, it's reached a tipping point."
Nearly 4,000 Americans underwent underwent buttock augmentation last year, compared with 614 two years ago. The procedure involves implanting bags of silicone, or quantities of fat removed from elsewhere in the body, into the buttocks to make them more pronounced. About 90 per cent were female, some of them 50-year-olds on a mission to turn back time and others as young as 21 and anxious to reach more "bootylicious" proportions.
The implants used are the same as those used for breast implants. State-of-the art buttock implants are made with soft silicone. Recently, there has been an an increase in the use of saline implants, which are made from salt water. These, however, are harder and firmer than natural bodyflesh and can be uncomfortable.
The method of inserting and positioning the implant depends on patient preferences, anatomy and the surgeon's recommendation. The implants are placed into each buttock area through a single incision overlying the tailbone. The buttock muscle (gluteus maximus) is lifted up and a pocket is made just large enough for the implant. Having one's gluteus maximised does not come cheap. Costs typically range between £3,800 to £5,500, similar to a facelift or breast enlargement.
Nor is it the most comfortable of cosmetic procedures; patients are warned that they probably won't be able to sit down for around 10 days after surgery.
Suzanna Drake, 34, from Stanmore, London, had the procedure last year after reading about it on a holiday in America. She never felt comfortable with her bottom and was surprised at how many plastic and cosmetic surgeons in Britain performed the surgery.
Ms Drake is delighted with the results. "I never used to walk around the beach, I would dread the summer. I had no bottom and I felt so unfeminine. Now I can wear jeans and my confidence has soared."
Lynne, a 40-year-old American who had the surgery last year, agreed: "My butt has always just been really flat and oh my goodness, the difference now is unbelievable. It's the shape, the contouring, the slope. It's cut years off my age - I look like I have an 18-year-old's butt. It's firm, it's tight, it looks good."
Surgeons say that the trend for buttock augmentation has been stimulated by television programmes that revolve around cosmetic surgery, such as the drama Nip/Tuck and Fox television's The Swan, in which 17 "ugly ducklings" are given three months to get themselves to beauty queen level assisted by a small army of plastic surgeons.
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As a Bootyologist, I approve this message.
I'll remember that one. If I ever need to get all my teeth removed and not have to pay a dentist.
Ping
JUNK IN 'DA TRUNK!!!
LOL...
Pre or post Living Color Fly Girls?
I wonder how many of our "soldiers" are getting this surgery on the US taxpayers dime.
* There has been a great deal of speculation recently that the government might reinstate the draft at some point, in order to replenish the nation's armed forces.
* "Anyone wearing a uniform is eligible," Dr. Bob Lyons, the chief of plastic surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center, said recently, in his office in San Antonio.
* It is true: personnel in all four branches of the military and members of their immediate families can get face-lifts, nose jobs, breast enlargements, liposuction, or any other kind of elective cosmetic alteration, at taxpayer expense.
* (For breast enlargements, patients must supply their own implants.)
* For most procedures, there's at least a ten-day recovery period, and while soldiers are recuperating they're on paid medical leave rather than vacation.
* A Defense Department spokeswoman confirmed the existence of the plastic-surgery benefit.
* According to the Army, between 2000 and 2003 its doctors performed four hundred and ninety-six breast enlargements and a thousand three hundred and sixty-one liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents.
* In the first three months of 2004, it performed sixty breast enhancements and two hundred and thirty-one liposuctions.
* "The benefit of offering elective cosmetic surgery to soldiers is more for the surgeon than for the patient," Lyons said.
* We do it to maintain our skills"---skills that are critical, he added, when it comes to doing reconstructive surgery on soldiers who have been wounded.
* "If the Army is doing breast augmentations, it's doing it to practice breast augmentations, period."
* There has been talk lately among soldiers that this benefit is indeed being used as a recruiting tool, but there is no mention of it in any of the recruiting literature.
That woman cannot even reach around to wipe!!!
Of course, he never saw Helen Thomas.
Helen Thomas is a WOMAN?
Now, I have been out of the military medical service for about 5 yrs, but before I left:
- if an active duty individual had cosmetic surgery and required a recovery period, they took LEAVE for the recovery period (vacation time for the civilians);
- Military plastic surgeons REQUIRE work to hone their skills to help wounded soldiers/sailors;
- The military plastic surgeons GET PAID whether they do NOTHING or 15 cases/day...what's your beef?
- 496 breast enlargements over 4 years??? 1361 liposuctions in 4 years?? That's not enough work to keep even ONE plastic surgeon busy..and you are talking about 3 services (USN, USAF and USA).
Why did you post that? I never did anything to you! Now I am blind!
In a theoretical sense only. I'd pay a year's income to avoid touching her.
Reminds me of Susan Estrich.
Eww.. butt implants. How gross is that!
Isn't it just easier to eat yourself to a fat arse?
Ukraine?
I Like big butts
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