Too much lateral hip fullness

A Full Lateral Hip and a Hip Dip Both Break the Line

Brazilian butt lift planning has moved from the central buttock out to the lateral hip. That lateral hip is an extension of the mid-lateral buttock. A concavity there is a lateral hip dip. A hip dip and too much lateral hip fullness both break the smooth line of the hourglass. One is a dent. The other is a point. Neither is the transition the silhouette is built on.

When the lateral hip is empty, the upper lateral flank and the lower lateral thigh both bulge. That pair is the double bubble. The lower bulge is the saddlebag. Patients often want the central buttock filled and the lateral hip filled in the same operation, so the back and the buttock read as one contour. The question this operation answers is what to do when that lateral hip was filled too far.

Too much volume at the lateral hip pushes the hip out to a point. The smooth lateral contour is lost. Jeans will not pull over that point, and the waist then sits loose because the hip, not the waist, is what stops the fabric. The waistline looks large only because the hip below it is wider than the jeans can clear. Narrowing the waist without narrowing that point does not fix the fit.

Liposuction Alone, or Liposuction With a Tuck

Two techniques correct the point. When the skin has excellent texture and is taut, liposuction alone smooths the extra fullness. When the lateral hip skin has poor texture or is loose, liposuction of the lateral hip is combined with a lateral thigh tuck. The tuck removes the skin that will not shrink after the fat is gone. Liposuction on loose skin leaves the point smaller and the skin wrinkled over it.

The liposuction used on a taut lateral hip and on the lateral thigh is ultrasound-assisted. That ultrasound-assisted method is VASER. It takes the extra fat that is pushing the hip out. It does not fill a hip dip, and it does not replace a tuck when the skin is already loose. The flank above the hip and the saddlebag below it are separate bulges. They are suctioned when they are full. They are not the same pocket as the pointed lateral hip.

High definition body contouring is aiming at an hourglass with a lateral hip that continues the mid-buttock, not a hip that sticks out past it and not a hip that caves in. Too much lateral hip fullness is the loss of that proportion. The central buttock and the lateral hip are judged together. Filling only the center and ignoring a point, or filling the lateral hip until it points, both break the same line.

How the Skin Chooses the Operation

The standing exam is what grades the skin. Taut skin with a good texture can redrape after the extra fat is removed, so liposuction is the whole correction. Loose skin, or skin with a poor texture, will not redrape, so the lateral thigh tuck is added to the liposuction. The tuck is an excision of that lateral thigh and hip skin. It is not a second pass of the cannula. A patient can have taut skin on one side and loose skin on the other. Each side is graded on its own.

A hip dip is the opposite volume problem. The lateral hip is empty, so the flank above it and the saddlebag below it stand out as the double bubble. Filling that empty hip is a different plan from reducing a hip that already points. Suctioning a dip makes the dent deeper. Tucking a dip does not put volume into the concavity. The photographs include a 46-year-old patient after a Brazilian butt lift, front view, and a 31-year-old woman who no longer has the extra lateral fullness. They do not label which side was taut and which side needed the tuck.

Liposuction of the pointed hip is fat removal from the lateral hip itself. It is not a waist treatment that happens to narrow the jeans. The waist looks looser in those jeans because the hip point was blocking them. Once the point is reduced, the waistband can sit. If the flank is also full, that flank is its own suction. If the saddlebag on the lower lateral thigh is full, that thigh is its own suction. Leaving either bulge while only shaving the point keeps a step in the outline.

The Central Buttock Stays in the Same Plan

The lateral hip is read with the central buttock because it is the outer end of the mid-lateral buttock. A full center with a pointed lateral hip looks wider than the hourglass line. A full center with a hip dip looks broken at the side. Reducing too much lateral hip fullness brings the point back into that line. It does not deflate the central buttock, and it does not treat a dip by adding fat there. The two findings are not interchangeable just because both sit on the lateral hip.

VASER is the tool for the fat when the skin can redrape. The tuck is the tool for the skin when it cannot. Using VASER on poor, loose skin and skipping the tuck leaves the wrinkle. Using the tuck on taut skin removes skin that was not the problem. The exam at the liposuction locations is where texture and looseness are called, with the patient standing, before either technique is promised. The 31-year-old result shows the fullness gone. It does not show the skin grade that chose the technique.

Jeans, the waist, and the hourglass are the same observation from three places. The hip point stops the jeans. The waist looks loose above that point. The hourglass line breaks where the hip leaves the mid-buttock. Correcting the point with the technique the skin allows is what puts those three back together. A flank that is still full, or a saddlebag that is still full, is marked on that same standing exam so the outline does not step from the hip into the thigh.

The Point, the Dip, and the Two Bulges

Four findings can sit on the same side, and they are not one pocket. The point is extra volume at the lateral hip itself. The hip dip is missing volume in that same spot. The flank is the bulge above an empty hip. The saddlebag is the bulge on the lower lateral thigh. A double bubble is the flank and the saddlebag showing because the hip between them is empty. Reducing a point does not fill a dip, and filling a dip does not shrink a point.

Skin grade is independent of which of those four is present. Taut skin over a point can redrape after VASER removes the fat, so the tuck is not added. Loose skin over a point will wrinkle if only the fat is taken, so the lateral thigh tuck comes with the liposuction. The same grade applies if a flank or a saddlebag is being suctioned beside the hip. Poor texture is treated like looseness: the tuck is part of the plan, not a later surprise.

The 46-year-old front view is one patient after a Brazilian butt lift. The 31-year-old caption is a woman whose extra lateral fullness is gone. Neither print is a diagram of taut versus loose skin, and neither print labels a saddlebag or a flank. The hourglass line is judged standing, with the central buttock and the lateral hip seen together, before liposuction or a tuck is chosen. Jeans that will not clear the hip are a fit problem from the point. They are not a reason to suction a hip dip.