DR. WORLDWIDE GETS SOCIAL
DR. WORLDWIDE GET TO KNOW HIM
Frank Agullo, MD, FACS — known globally as Dr. WorldWide — is a double board-certified plastic surgeon in El Paso, Texas. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Affiliate Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso. Specializing in preservation-based aesthetic surgery and the Deep Plane Facelift, he has been named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for thirteen consecutive years and has a global social following of over 3.5 million across Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. He is the founder of Southwest Plastic Surgery and Plastic Surgery Studios.
Meet Dr.WWDR. WORLDWIDE GET TO KNOW HIM
Frank Agullo, MD, FACS is the plastic surgeon the world watches. Known globally as Dr. WorldWide, he has built one of the largest followings of any surgeon on the planet (over 3.5 million on Instagram @RealDrWorldWide) by pulling back the curtain on plastic surgery and showing what extraordinary results actually look like. Celebrities, influencers, and patients from across the United States and around the world make the trip to El Paso, Texas, because when you have seen the work up close, there is nowhere else to go. More than 80% of his patients travel from outside El Paso. The practice handles every detail of their journey.
Dr. Agullo is double board-certified, Mayo Clinic fellowship-trained, and a Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. But credentials only tell part of the story. What sets him apart is a philosophy built on preservation: enhancing, restoring, and elevating what is already there rather than changing who you are. Not cookie cutter. Every plan is molded around the individual patient's desires, their anatomy, their life.
That philosophy drives every decision in the operating room. His Motiva Preserve breast augmentations deliver results that feel as natural as they look. His deep plane and endoscopic deep plane facelifts turn back time without announcing themselves. His Supercharged BBL has been refined, published, and presented on international stages. And his ability to combine face and body procedures in a single operative session is a capability few surgeons in the world can offer safely at his level.
The same philosophy applies outside the OR. Forget synthetic fillers. Dr. Agullo restores volume with regenerative grafts including Alloclae, Lipoderma, exosomes, and platelet-derived growth factors. Recovery is treated as part of the result: lymphatic massages, scar management, and Elixir MD LED light therapy ensure that what happens after surgery is as intentional as what happens during it.
Castle Connolly Top Doctor for eleven consecutive years. Texas Super Doctors Hall of Fame. Best Plastic Surgeon in El Paso for thirteen consecutive years. Aesthetic Everything Top Plastic Surgeon 2026. Founding Vice President and President of the World Association of Gluteal Surgeons, where he helped write the global safety standards for gluteal surgery.
The results are daily. The standard is uncompromising. The philosophy is simple: #MakeItHappen. #HappyIsBeautiful. #StayBeautiful.
#PlasticSurgeryIsMyPassion
GLAMOUR SHOTS
Plastic Surgery is a very personal choice and a unique experience for every individual who chooses to undergo a change, be it a discreet or major surgery. The one thing in common for my patients though is that they experience an inner transformation which ultimately shines through as confidence in themselves. Confident is Beautiful!
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- Posted on: July 1st 2026
- Category: Commentary, Facial Aesthetics
A surgeon’s candid case for filler and biopolymer removal, why migrated filler does not just dissolve, and why getting material out is often the right call.
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- Posted on: July 1st 2026
- Category: Commentary, Facial Aesthetics
I have an unpopular opinion about the filler-everything era. I see the cleanup.
More and more of the people who book with me are not asking for volume. They are asking me to take something out. Migrated filler that drifted off the cheekbone. Old filler that puffed up under the eyes and simply never left. Permanent lip biopolymers, injected years ago by someone who is no longer in the picture, now causing asymmetry and firmness that will not resolve on its own.
When someone tells me “I want it out,” that is often exactly the right instinct, and I want to explain why.
Permanent Biopolymers in the Lips
Yes, I can remove them. Over time the skin stretches around permanent material and you get those little bags. I make an incision right where the wet and dry parts of the lip meet, then remove the affected tissue and whatever I find inside.
The incision goes all the way across, because doing it in spots leaves little dog ears (puckered bunches of tissue at the edges). Placed where it is, you will not see it. It heals fast, around five days, and the scar keeps improving for about two months. Look closely and you will find the line. No one else will.
No, I Will Not Cut the Muscle
Some biopolymer sits deeper, down in the muscle. I do not remove muscle, because I am not willing to compromise your motion or your expression. Your own body is already working to push the material toward the surface, which is part of why you see those bumps in the first place.
The Honest Part: It Can Come Back
I tell every patient this up front. Once I remove what has surfaced, your body may keep pushing more up, and sometimes about six months later you notice it again and we go back in to remove more.
That happens roughly forty percent of the time. We apply a discount when it does. I would rather give you an honest number than a perfect-sounding promise I cannot keep, because honesty is the entire point of the people coming to me for cleanup work.
Placement vs. Removal, Side by Side
| Putting Filler In | Taking Material Out | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | Minutes | More involved, sometimes staged |
| Reversibility | Easy to add more | Depends on the material |
| Honest expectation | Looks good immediately | Biopolymers can recur (~40%) |
| Right call when | True volume loss | Migration, puffiness, firmness |
Migrated Filler in the Face
Old filler often does not fully dissolve. It migrates. If you are already having a facelift, I can place medication during the procedure to dissolve some of it, so we end up working with your natural tissues instead of over-inflating an area like the high cheekbones.
I am genuinely cautious about stacking more filler on top of filler. That is not a marketing position. It is what I see when I open these faces up.
Under-Eye Filler That Has Been Puffy for Years
This is one of the most common complaints I hear. Filler placed under the eyes can hold water and stay swollen for a very long time. Dissolving it is usually the first step, and it can take more than one treatment, especially if it has been there a while or if earlier attempts to dissolve it did not work.
Once your own tissue is back to baseline, fat grafting is a safer way to address true hollowing than chasing it with more product.
Why Removal Is More Delicate Than Placement
People assume that if filler went in easily, it must come out easily. The opposite is usually true. Putting material in takes minutes through a needle. Taking it out, especially permanent biopolymers, is more delicate work and is sometimes staged across more than one visit.
The reason is simple. Injected material does not stay in a neat pocket. It spreads, it scars into the surrounding tissue, and with permanent products it bonds to structures I want to protect, like nerves and muscle. So removal is not the same procedure run in reverse. It is its own operation, with its own planning, and I will be straight with you about what can be fully reversed and what cannot.
What I Want the Filler-Everything Era to Learn
I am not anti-filler. Used in small amounts, in the right person, by careful hands, it has a place. My objection is to the reflex of treating every concern with more product, because the cleanup lands on my table years later.
The pattern I see most is volume chasing volume. A little filler softens a line, the face adapts, more goes in to keep up, and eventually the proportions drift away from the person’s actual features. By the time someone sits across from me asking to look like themselves again, the honest answer is rarely another syringe. It is usually subtraction, patience, and letting their own tissue come back to baseline before we decide anything.
And when volume truly is missing, I would rather replace it with your own fat than with a product that migrates and holds water for years. Fat grafting uses your tissue, settles into your face, and does not leave me a cleanup to do down the road. That is the whole philosophy in one sentence: restore with what is yours, and stop renting volume by the syringe.
The Credential Behind the Caution
Double board-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, American College of Surgeons Fellow, Mayo Clinic plastic surgery fellowship, and Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. Removing material thoughtfully, and being straight about recurrence, is its own skill, and I take it as seriously as any operation I do.
Ready to Talk?
If you are tired of chasing one filler with another, or you want a biopolymer out, come talk to me. For the patient-facing walkthrough, see the companion post on agulloplasticsurgery.com. For the facial-aesthetics menu, see the version on swplasticsurgery.com.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online at agulloplasticsurgery.com. #StayBeautiful.
@RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
- Posted on: June 30th 2026
- Category: Commentary, Skin
A surgeon on why the wound-healing science is the real reason red light therapy deserves to be taken seriously, what the trials show, and why home units fall short.
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- Posted on: June 30th 2026
- Category: Commentary, Skin
Patients ask me whether red light therapy is real or just a nice glow. The reason the wound healing research gives us confidence in red light for skin rejuvenation is that the mechanism for wound healing is the same as for skin rejuvenation.
The Mechanism Is Pretty Well Established
The mechanism for LED red light therapy is pretty well established. That’s the mechanism of action on the wound healing side. The light at red and near-infrared wavelengths is absorbed by the mitochondria of the cells. This raises ATP, or energy production, and drives the proliferation of specific cells active in wound healing, like fibroblasts and keratinocytes. It increases collagen synthesis and local blood flow. This has been described in peer-reviewed publications.
And the same mechanism of action is activated in aesthetic applications. So when I use it on skin, I am not hoping for a vague glow. I am running the same cellular cascade that closes a wound.
What the Studies Show
There are randomized controlled trials showing reduction in the wrinkles around the eyes up to thirty percent. There’s also a controlled trial that showed increased intradermal collagen density, which in turn reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in the skin. And there have been other multicenter randomized studies that have shown measurable crow’s feet improvement.
Where I Put It in the Hierarchy
I am not going to pretend red light replaces a facelift or resurfacing. As an adjunct, though, it earns its place. After surgery it supports the healing the body is already doing. For skin, it supports collagen, and it stacks well with microneedling.
The Catch Nobody in the Gadget Aisle Mentions
Now, it’s important to know that results do vary by wavelength, dose, and device, and many home consumer units are weaker than the devices used in clinical trials. I personally use Elixir MD, which is an FDA-cleared LED device, which builds credibility for plastic surgeons to cut post-surgical downtime. This device uses a spectrum of wavelengths: red for mitochondrial stimulation and blood flow, infrared for deeper tissue repair, blue to reduce bacterial load, and yellow for cellular repair.
The Credential Behind the Opinion
Double board-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, American College of Surgeons Fellow, Mayo Clinic plastic surgery fellowship, Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, and Castle Connolly Top Doctor for thirteen consecutive years. I never write a confident claim that is not grounded in peer-reviewed evidence or my own practice experience, and red light clears that bar.
Ready to Talk?
If you want red light to do real work, the device and the dose matter as much as the idea.
For the patient-facing guide, see the companion post on agulloplasticsurgery.com. For the LED program at the practice, see the version on swplasticsurgery.com.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online at agulloplasticsurgery.com. #StayBeautiful.
@RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
