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: September 28th 2026
- Category: Body Contouring, Commentary
She came in to talk about her abdomen and mentioned the underarm almost as an afterthought. It is gland, not fat, and that one distinction changes the entire plan.
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- Posted on: September 28th 2026
- Category: Body Contouring, Commentary
She booked the visit for her abdomen. Partway through the exam she brought up her underarms, and put it like this:
Her: “I feel like I’m always flashing people.”
Here is the rest of that consult, identifiers removed.
The Abdomen
Her: Can you do my stomach too, but not a six pack?
Me: “So we can do the verticals. We can do it a little bit here. You don’t have a lot of fat, but we can plug it a little bit here, a little triangle here, and then go up and down. And then just remove a little here and use the J Plasma to tighten up the skin.”
The Underarm
Her: What is it? Can you liposuction it out?
Me: “So I will have to make the little incision here on the axilla, that I can get that tissue out, because it’s more like gland, it’s not so much like fat. So if I try to get it out with liposuction, it really doesn’t go away. So the best way, I mean, if you don’t want a scar, I can try to get it out, and I actually have an arthroscopic shaver where I can get the gland out, and then we just cut out the nipple on each side.”
Her: Will the scar show?
Me: “The scar goes in the axilla, you don’t see it. One of the side effects is that I remove some of the sweat glands. It would actually be right on the crease, so it would look like a crease. And then I would still have to do just a little cut to remove the nipple itself. No, it wouldn’t be a thick scar, just the size of the nipple, so it just looks like a little line.”
Her: How long, and how long am I down?
Me: “This would take probably two hours, general anesthesia, in and out, you can go home the same day. Recovery I would say is like five days, but nothing more, you can go back to normal activity. And then exercise usually in about three weeks or so.”
Her: Could we do it awake?
Me: “This would have to definitely be under general anesthesia.”
Me: “I have patients that have come and they’ve had it done and they’re like, oh, that was horrible. So this way we can be more aggressive, but we’re not worried about you being uncomfortable.”
The Takeaway
It is gland, not fat. That is the whole thing. Liposuction takes out fat cells, so it leaves this behind, and plenty of women have paid for that lesson. The tissue has to come out, through a small incision in the crease of the underarm, and any small extra nipple comes out through the same access.
Two hours. Home the same day. Five days to normal activity, three weeks to the gym. Fewer sweat glands on that side, which nobody has ever complained about.
I am a double board-certified plastic surgeon, a Mayo Clinic fellowship alum, and I teach plastic surgery as a Clinical Associate Professor at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.
Ready to Talk?
If your underarm has been bothering you longer than you would like to admit, let’s take a real look at it. Call the office at (915) 590-7900, text us at 1-866-814-0038, or book a consultation at drworldwide.com.
#StayBeautiful
@RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
- Posted on: September 27th 2026
- Category: Commentary
The website says board certified. Some of them are telling the truth. A surgeon on the five-minute check that settles it, why his El Paso practice sees more Canadians than Mexicans, and what a surgery price that is almost too good to be true is really telling you.
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- Posted on: September 27th 2026
- Category: Commentary
My office is a few minutes from the Mexican border. You would think the question I get most is about surgery in Juarez. It is. But the answer I give surprises people, so let me start with the map.
“About 70 percent of our patients are from out of town. At least 40 to 50 percent of those come from within Texas and New Mexico. Although we get patients that come in from Mexico, it is surprising that we get a lot more patients from Canada. Other places where we have a large draw from are Seattle and the Washington area, California, Florida, and New York. We also get a fair number of patients from the Midwest. I am proud to say that we’ve had a patient from every single state in the United States, from all of North America, and as far as Japan and Dubai.”
More Canadians than Mexicans, in a city that shares a river with Mexico. People who fly the farthest tend to be the people who did the most homework.
Now the price question, because it is the real one.
“I know many excellent surgeons in Mexico. And I can tell you that for most surgeries, top level surgeons in Mexico charge pretty similar to top US surgeons. The difference lies in that oftentimes anesthesia and operating room costs can be lower, as well as the cost of medications and supplies. So there may be a lower cost in Mexico, but not a very significant difference.”
That is the part nobody quotes. The surgeon’s fee, at the top of the profession, is roughly the same on either side of the river. What moves is the anesthesia, the room, the supplies. Small moves.
“When you see very significant differences, where the cost is almost too good to be true, it is because there is a reason to it, and somehow the costs are getting cut in places that may be essential to your care.”
“Of course, lodging during your recovery may be less expensive in Mexico than in the United States.”
So the hotel is cheaper. Fine. The anesthesiologist should not be. I wrote the line-by-line version of what to ask before, and it applies in Texas as much as anywhere.
Which brings me to the website problem. Every practice site in Texas says board certified. Here is how you find out in five minutes whether it is true.
“Patients can look up a doctor’s Texas medical license on the Texas Medical Board website, and they can see if it’s in good standing and any history the doctor may have.”
“But I think it’s more important to make sure that your plastic surgeon is board certified. You can do this by going to the American Board of Plastic Surgery website and looking up your physician, and they will quickly confirm whether the physician is board certified in plastic surgery or not.”
“On top of that, board certified plastic surgeons can be vetted even further by checking if they are members in good standing of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, The Aesthetic Society (formerly the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, ASAPS), and even the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.”
Texas Medical Board for the license. American Board of Plastic Surgery for the board. Then the three societies. A license proves the person is a doctor. The board proves what kind. If the second search comes back empty, you are done reading that website.
Run it on me, since I am the one telling you to.
“I am honored and proud to say that I am a licensed physician in Texas, New Mexico, Florida, California, Washington, Nevada, and Arizona. I am board certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and I am a member of ASPS, ASAPS (The Aesthetic Society), and ISAPS.”
Then there is the part after surgery, which is where medical tourism usually falls apart. Someone flies home on day two and the first problem shows up on day four, a thousand miles from the surgeon.
“The instructions are the same as for patients coming in from other states in the United States or from Canada. Depending on the procedure, I will give the recommendation of what time to stay in El Paso. For large procedures, it’s usually a minimum of seven days. For smaller procedures, they can travel as soon as two to three days.”
“We have several hotels that we’ve partnered with for accommodations for our patients. And we also have the ability to have nurse visits, and even 24-hour care can be arranged. Some patients choose to stay in an Airbnb for comfort, or many patients may have family that they can stay with, and that makes it even easier.”
Seven days. Not a suggestion. I covered the rhinoplasty version of the trip here already, and the logic is the same for a tummy tuck or a facelift, only longer.
Why do they come? I asked myself the same thing and this is the honest answer.
“I think patients come here because they realize the quality of treatments and care we provide at Southwest Plastic Surgery. They see that I deliver consistent results with significant body and face transformations. They are also impressed by the high number of five-star reviews. And I think that they also hear it from friends and family, as word of mouth.”
“I think they also appreciate the fact that we’re used to taking care of patients from out of town. So we’ve streamlined the process and make it as easy and automatic as possible for the patient, through our patient coordinators.”
The full guide, with the checklist table, the five directory links, and what each procedure costs in El Paso as of this writing, is on agulloplasticsurgery.com. The fees page has the current numbers.
Check the license. Check the board. Then ask what got cut.
Call (915) 590-7900, text 1-866-814-0038, or book at agulloplasticsurgery.com. #StayBeautiful
Find me at @RealDrWorldWide on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, @Agullo on X, or @AgulloPlasticSurgery on Facebook.
