Your Questions
Your Questions
Q: Dr. Eppley, I am a 29 year old female who four years ago had silicone injections done into my buttocks. Now I’m having some issues with pain and uncomfortability. I am trying to find a doctor who can help me but I have not found one yet. Do you remove these silicone buttock injections?
A:No one can completely remove silicone oil injections from the buttocks unless major excisions (cut outs) are done. While curative the aesthetic trade-off is a resultant disfiguring buttock deformity. So the concept of complete removal by excision is very rarely ever done.
Silicone injections can be treated, however, through liposuction and fat injections. The liposuction removes some of the oil and, more importantly, breaks up the scar tissue/granulomas. The fat injections add fresh cellular elements and encourages new tissue ingrowth as well as maintaining one’s existing buttock size. This will usually relieve most of the symptoms caused by silicone granulomas in my experience. But complete removal of silicone buttock injections is not possible. Think treatment and symptopmatic improvement instead.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Q: Dr. Eppley, I would like my silicone butt injections removed. Does the scar tissue contain silicone oil, fat oil or is it just scar tissue? Will this procedure help reduce my butt from being sensitive? Is breaking up the lumps dangerous? Can it travel to other places when it’s broken up?
A: Silicone buttock injections can not be removed per se. They can be treated by liposuction and/or fat injections. These techniques allow for some of the silicone to be removed but what it mainly does is break up any hard tissue lumps (e.g., oil cysts and their surrounding scar tissue) caused by the silicone material as well as place new fat in and around where the silicone material/tissue reactions have occurred. Whether these efforts are worth it depend on what symptoms you are now experiencing. These efforts will not change any outside pigmentation changes in the skin but can help with some visible contour issues such as indents.
Oil cysts means silicone oil cysts. Breaking up the lumps is not dangerous. It is the injection of the material that poses the risk of getting in a blood vessel and traveling to other places.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Q: I want a bigger butt and am interested in silicone injection buttock augmentation. How much does it cost?
A: As you may not be aware, the use of silicone injections is poor medical practice (if not illegal) in the United States..not to mention that it is a terrible procedure associated with a lot of complications. It seems to be performed only by the most nefarious of practitioners some of whom are not even physicians. I would advise you to stay well clear of this approach to buttock augmentation. Fat injections to the buttock, however, are a different matter and are an accepted method of natural buttock enhancement. This is the injectable procedure you should be considering. It has the advantage of not only being safe but gives one the secondary benefit of liposuction done elsewhere, usually on the stomach, waistline and back. Its one drawback is that how well the fat survives and takes is not always assured and only so much fat volume can be done at a single time. But that is a much better ‘problem’ and easier to recover from than infection, granulomas and skin pigmentation changes that are not infrequent problems with silicone injections into the buttocks. Not to mention that the silicone can never be removed no matter what problems it may be causing,
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis Indiana