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: August 29th 2026
- Category: Body Contouring, Commentary
We standardized the post-bariatric timeline over two decades. Then GLP-1s arrived and produced a different patient, on a different clock, with a different risk profile.
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- Posted on: August 29th 2026
- Category: Body Contouring, Commentary
Two consultations back to back on the same afternoon recently, similar age, a similar amount of loose skin across the abdomen and the arms. One had come from a gastric sleeve. The other had come from a GLP-1. I gave them different answers about when I would take them to the operating room, and the second one wanted to know why.
That question would not have existed a few years ago. For most of my career the phrase “massive weight loss patient” meant bariatric and nothing else: Roux-en-Y or a gastric sleeve, a year to eighteen months of steady loss, a plateau, a six month wait, then surgery. That sequence got standardized over about two decades, and it has held up well.
The GLP-1s have handed us a second population that does not slot into it cleanly, and I am not convinced the field has caught up.
What Deflation Does, Whatever the Route
The mechanism does not care how the weight came off. There is a rapid amount of weight loss, the loss of volume deflates skin that was previously stretched out, and that skin ultimately sags and creates contour irregularities.
Where it shows up is what patients are unprepared for. Everyone anticipates the abdomen. Far fewer anticipate that the loss in volume also creates breast ptosis, in men as well as women, and buttock ptosis, or that it turns up in the arms, the inner thighs, and the outer thighs in anyone prone to saddlebags.
Where the Two Groups Diverge
Timing is the real split. GLP-1 weight loss usually happens over three to nine months, sometimes a year, and those patients seem to plateau a little quicker and to be ready a little faster after they plateau, usually about three months. My post-bariatric patients wait six.
I want to be careful about how hard I state that three month figure. It is my current practice, not a guideline. GLP-1s have been around a lot less time than bariatric surgeries have, so the gold standard and timing of body contouring surgery for them is yet to be defined, and anybody handing you a firm rule right now is quoting themselves.
If I had to explain the divergence, I would point at magnitude. Bariatric patients still seem to have a greater amount of weight loss compared to GLP-1s, and that may be one of the differentiating factors. More total loss means more skin and more nutritional disruption, which happens to be exactly where the complication risk lives.
Where the Risk Actually Lives
Here is the part I think gets underdiscussed at meetings, because it is less photogenic than a before and after.
Post-bariatric patients are still at higher risk for wound complications than GLP-1 patients. This has been seen in recent studies, and it is not surprising. Bariatric patients do have more nutritional deficiencies, and they often have a much higher percentage of body weight loss.
So the preoperative workup is not a formality. We look at protein levels and protein intake before the surgery. We look at hemoglobin, to make sure the patient is not anemic. For these cases we are excising a lot of tissue, so there is a larger degree of blood loss, which usually requires a Cell Saver device to auto-transfuse the patient’s own blood loss, as well as blood transfusions.
A surgeon who is not thinking about protein and hemoglobin in this population before booking the room is going to meet those numbers later, at the incision, on day nine.
The Operation Is Bigger Than People Say
The gold standard is usually an abdominal procedure, a tummy tuck. But more often than not, because of the massive weight loss, it has to be extended circumferentially, so we can lift the buttock and the lateral thigh, reduce the lower back, and fix the abdomen at the same time. Add a monsplasty. Add a breast procedure, usually a full lift with an anchor-type incision, or a gynecomastia reduction in men. Then frequently a brachioplasty, a medial thigh lift, and excision of back rolls or lateral chest rolls.
Doing all of it in one sitting usually entails an overnight stay and a possible transfusion. Splitting it, in my hands, works best as upper body then lower body. Facial work, facelifts and neck lifts, gets staged in along the way.
Recovery scales accordingly, and this is where I see the most unrealistic expectations. A tummy tuck alone usually needs about two weeks. Combine procedures and we usually need at least three weeks to return to normal activity, and it can be six to eight weeks before any exercise. Patients budget for the tummy tuck number. Their bodies bill them for the combined one.
No, the Device Will Not Save You Here
I am one of the highest-volume Renuvion J-Plasma users in the world, so I am not the guy talking down energy devices. I will still say this without qualification: once the skin has been stretched out to a certain degree, it loses its elasticity and really does not react to radiofrequency energy the way healthy skin would. When the laxity is significant, the only option at that point is excisional.
That does not mean we may not have different tools in the future. As of this writing, that is the recommendation, and selling a massive weight loss patient a device package instead of an operation is selling them a disappointment on a three month delay.
Scars, and the Conversation Nobody Wants to Have
Most of these scars can be hidden by normal clothing. The circumferential body lift hides under swimwear or underwear. Some do not hide well: the arm lift is the obvious one, and so is a vertical abdominal scar, the fleur-de-lis, or an extended medial thigh lift with its vertical scar running from the groin to the knee.
Oftentimes patients are willing to have these scars because of the amount of excess skin in those areas, and ultimately they will feel better in clothing than not doing anything at all.
That is the trade, stated out loud. Balancing pros versus cons, benefits versus risks and scars. It requires a full consultation with a conversation about expectations, and if a surgeon has not had that conversation with you, you have not had a consultation. You have had a sales meeting.
Where I Am Coming From
Double board-certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, Mayo Clinic fellowship-trained, Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, and a Castle Connolly Top Doctor for thirteen consecutive years. I have written the full patient-facing version of this over on Agullo Plastic Surgery, with the timelines laid out in a table.
Ready to Talk?
If you have lost the weight, whether by surgery or by prescription, and you want a straight answer about when you are ready, come in with your labs.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online at agulloplasticsurgery.com/appointments. #StayBeautiful
@RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
Cross-links
- Full patient guide on agulloplasticsurgery.com: “When Are You Ready for Body Contouring After Massive Weight Loss?” (link once live)
- Practice version on swplasticsurgery.com: “Planning Body Contouring After Major Weight Loss at Southwest Plastic Surgery” (link once live)
- Posted on: August 28th 2026
- Category: Cost and Value
I put my fees on my website where anyone can read them, competitors included. Here is the number, and here is what the cheap quote is really cutting.
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- Posted on: August 28th 2026
- Category: Cost and Value
I put my fees on my website, where anyone can read them. Competitors included.
That decision gets questioned, and the questioning usually comes with a warning attached. So let me start with the thing I am supposedly not supposed to say out loud.
As of this writing, a mommy makeover, which includes a tummy tuck, liposuction, and a breast procedure, ranges from about twenty-five thousand five hundred to forty-five thousand dollars. If we add a BBL, that becomes an extreme mommy makeover, ranging from about thirty thousand to fifty-five thousand dollars. Prices are subject to change, and you can always find my updated fees at agulloplasticsurgery.com/fees.
That took one paragraph. In this field, that paragraph is unusual, and the reasons it is unusual are worth your attention.
Why the Range Is Wide, and Why That Is Honest
A twenty-thousand-dollar spread looks evasive until you understand what sits inside it. These are not tiers of the same operation. They are different operations.
The final cost really depends on the exact combination of procedures, the number of liposuction sites, and whether we are using Renuvion J-Plasma, BodyTite, or FaceTite anywhere on the body. It also depends on the type of breast surgery, whether it is an augmentation, a breast lift, a breast lift with augmentation, or a breast reduction, and whether or not we are using mesh support with GalaFLEX or DuraSorb.
The surgery also depends on each patient’s physique, which may make the procedure longer or shorter, and that can increase or decrease the anesthesia and operating room time.
On the tummy tuck side, it depends on the type of abdominoplasty, whether it is a mini tummy tuck, a standard abdominoplasty, an extended tummy tuck, or a circumferential tummy tuck. It is important to note that I perform the triple plication internal corset on all the different types of abdominoplasty, so this benefit does not go away.
The Arithmetic of Combining
Patients often ask whether they should split the procedures up and pay over time. It sounds prudent. It costs more.
When you combine your procedures into one surgery, you share one anesthesia, one operating room, and one recovery, and I can perform it all safely in a single setting. The main savings comes from the time in the OR and anesthesia. The first hour of anesthesia in the operating room is the most expensive, because it includes all the equipment necessary and all the setup for a routine surgery.
Therefore, when you do everything in one surgery, you only have that one first hour. Whereas if you break it up into two or three surgeries, you have the cost of that first hour two or three times. On top of that, you also do not have to spend on medications two or three times, or the body moisturizer, scar creams, and lymphatic massages.
Staging is sometimes the right medical decision. It is almost never the cheaper one, and I would rather patients choose it for the actual reason instead of a financial one that does not hold up.
What Is In the Fee
The quoted number covers the surgeon’s fee, the operating room, anesthesia, garments, the preoperative and postoperative vitamins and supplements, SinEcch and Bromelain for bruising and swelling, Skinuva scar cream, Elastin moisturizer, Exparel for long-acting pain control, a BBL pillow if the case needs one, every lymphatic drainage massage, and every postoperative visit.
Really, the only thing you are responsible for is picking up your prescription medications at the pharmacy.
I list all of that because unbundling is where the number gets played with. A practice can advertise thousands below mine and take it all back in anesthesia, facility, garments, and massage, billed as they arrive. By the time the patient adds it up, she has already scheduled.
The Cheap Quote Is the Expensive One
I always feel like when things are too good to be true, they usually are.
If a price seems far below what everyone else is charging, you have to ask what is being cut, whether it is the surgeon’s experience, the accreditation of the facility, the type of anesthesia, or the follow-up care. With a mommy makeover, you are not just paying for the operation, you are paying for safety.
Unfortunately, I perform a lot of revision surgeries for procedures done by other surgeons from around the United States and Mexico. I can tell you that the cost of revising a surgery here is far greater than the fees for the initial procedure. And the final results are usually compromised, so the patient will not obtain their best possible result, the result they would have had if it were done correctly the first time.
Read that last part again, because it is the whole argument. Not that she pays twice. That the ceiling comes down permanently, and no price comparison she ran will ever show it.
What I Do About Affordability Instead
The alternative to a cheap operation is not an unaffordable one. It is a payment structure.
Making a mommy makeover affordable is something we take seriously, so we offer several financing options, including PatientFi, AlphaEon, Cherry, and CareCredit. Beyond those, we also offer direct financing through the practice itself, where a patient can make payments toward their surgery ahead of time. This lets them schedule their procedure around a timeline that works for them, paying gradually and at their own convenience. And of course, patients are always welcome to use a credit card, pay in cash, or finance through their own bank or another institution.
Insurance covers none of it, because it is cosmetic. I would rather a patient take eighteen months to pay for the right operation than six weeks to pay for the wrong one.
Back to Why I Publish
The warning is always the same: post your prices and you become the cheapest-wins option. I think it does the opposite.
Patients shop on price because nobody will give them one. Hide the number and price becomes the only thing she can actually compare, so it becomes the only thing she uses. Post it and the conversation can move to what is included, who is operating, in what facility, and what month three looks like.
Roughly sixty percent of my patients fly in. Canada, Seattle, California, New York, Florida, plus the drive markets across Texas. A woman flying home to Seattle on day five cannot absorb a surprise invoice, and she certainly cannot absorb a facility that turned out not to be set up for her case. For that practice, transparency is not generosity. It is the only version that works.
The Credentials Behind the Opinion
Double board-certified. Plastic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. Clinical Associate Professor of Plastic Surgery at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, where I teach the residents. Castle Connolly Top Doctor thirteen years running.
None of that makes my price the right price for every patient. It does mean that when I tell you where the corners get cut, I am not speculating. I am describing operations I have been asked to go back and fix.
#StayBeautiful
Ready to Talk?
If you want a number for your case rather than a range for everyone’s, that is what a consultation produces.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book online. Current pricing lives at agulloplasticsurgery.com/fees.
Follow along: @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
Related reading: The patient-facing line-by-line breakdown is at What a Mommy Makeover Really Costs on agulloplasticsurgery.com. Procedure details are on the Agullo Plastic Surgery mommy makeover page and the Southwest Plastic Surgery mommy makeover page.
