Twelve procedures
Every clinic publishes the list. Almost none publishes who should walk away. Here you get both, for all twelve, along with the recovery time you should be planning your trip around.
How to read this page
The procedures below are grouped by the part of the body they treat. Two people with the same complaint often need different operations — loose skin and stubborn fat look alike in a mirror and are treated in completely different ways. That distinction is the one this page keeps making, because getting it wrong is the most common reason a result disappoints.
Recovery times are ranges based on ordinary healing. Yours is confirmed in writing after your assessment, and if you are travelling, it is what your stay is planned around.
Face and neck
Four operations that people tend to arrive calling by the same name. They solve four different problems, and only one of them may be yours.
Face and neck
Facial ageing is not one thing. Sagging tissue, excess eyelid skin, fullness under the chin and prominent ears are separate problems with separate operations. Skin texture — fine lines, sun damage, pigmentation — is not fixed by any of them.
A facelift repositions the deeper layer of tissue over the cheeks and jawline and removes the skin left over. It addresses sagging: jowls, a jawline that has lost its edge, deep folds beside the mouth. It does not change skin quality and it does not touch the eyelids or the forehead, which are separate procedures often done in the same session.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
Removes the fold of excess skin on the upper lid and, on the lower lid, repositions or removes the fat that creates under-eye bags. It is the procedure with the largest visible change relative to how small it is, which is why it is often the first one people have.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
A full neckline has three possible causes and each one is treated differently: fat under the chin, loose skin, or a lax platysma muscle showing as vertical bands. If it is fat with good skin tone, liposuction alone is often enough. If skin or muscle has given way, tightening is needed, and that overlaps with a facelift. This is the area where the assessment matters most, because the wrong choice produces a technically correct operation with a disappointing result.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
Reshapes prominent ears by recreating the natural fold in the cartilage and bringing the ear closer to the head. It is performed on children and on adults; the ear reaches close to adult size early, so it is usually possible from around the age of six, which is also when children start to be affected by it socially.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
Breast
An implant adds volume. A lift changes position. Many people need one, some need both, and telling which is which is done with a physical examination, not from a photograph. Current breast imaging appropriate for your age is part of the work-up either way.
Places an implant to add volume and improve shape. Three decisions drive the result: the size, which is limited by how much tissue you have to cover it; the plane, above or below the muscle; and the implant itself. Implants are not lifetime devices — at some point in your life, further surgery is likely, and any clinic that tells you otherwise is selling.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
Removes stretched skin, raises the nipple to its natural position and tightens the breast. It does not add volume; if you also want to be fuller, it is combined with an implant in the same operation. A lift trades scars for shape — the scars fade but they are permanent, and that trade is the honest center of this conversation.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
Inside the operating room
Every operation on this page is performed in an accredited operating room, with a titled anesthesiologist present from start to finish.
Body contouring
Liposuction removes fat. It does not remove skin, and it does not repair muscle. If your skin no longer retracts, or if the abdominal muscles separated during pregnancy, liposuction alone will make the problem more visible rather than less. This is the single most important distinction on this page, and it is what the examination settles.
These are also the procedures with the longest stay for patients flying in. Plan for 10 to 14 days in Guadalajara before you are cleared to fly home.
The clinic's flagship procedure. Fat is removed from the abdomen, flanks and back in one session — the full circumference, which is what the 360 refers to — working in both the deep and the superficial plane so that the shape underneath becomes visible. It is a contouring operation, not a weight-loss operation: the scale barely moves, the silhouette does. It demands more of you afterwards than ordinary liposuction, because compression and lymphatic drainage are part of the result, not optional extras.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
Removes the apron of loose skin below the navel and, in most cases, repairs the separation of the abdominal muscles left by pregnancy. That muscle repair is the part liposuction cannot do, and it is why some women who train hard still have a lower abdomen that pushes forward. The scar runs low across the hips, hidden by underwear, and it is permanent. Liposuction of the flanks is frequently done in the same session.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
For the inner upper arm that stays loose no matter how much you train. If the problem is fat with good skin tone, liposuction may be enough; if the skin has stopped retracting, usually after weight loss or with age, skin has to be removed, and that leaves a scar along the inner arm. Dr. Leal developed an arm suspension technique in November 2005 that he still uses in this procedure.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
Inner and outer thighs respond well to liposuction when the skin still retracts. When it does not — typically after large weight loss — skin has to be removed with a thigh lift, which leaves a scar in the groin crease or down the inner thigh. One thing worth saying plainly: cellulite is not treated by liposuction. Dimpling is caused by fibrous bands tethering the skin, and removing fat underneath can make it slightly more visible rather than less.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
Selective removal of fat along the natural grooves between muscle groups so that the muscle you already have becomes visible. It reveals; it does not build. If there is no developed muscle underneath, there is nothing to reveal, and the result looks artificial. It is also the procedure most dependent on what you do afterwards: gaining weight fills the same grooves back in.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
Combining is sometimes the better decision and sometimes the dangerous one. It is better when the areas are compatible in the same surgical position and the total operating time stays within a safe window: one anesthetic, one recovery, one trip. It is dangerous when it stretches the surgery beyond that window, because complication rates rise with time under anesthesia. The limit is set by your health and by the clock — never by what is convenient to book.
Worth asking about if
Split into two stages if
Buttocks
Fat is taken by liposuction from the abdomen, flanks or back, processed, and injected into the buttocks to add volume and change shape. Because the fat comes from you, the waist is contoured in the same operation, which is a large part of why the silhouette changes so much. Part of the transferred fat is reabsorbed over the first months — that is normal and it is accounted for in the plan, not a complication.
Usually a candidate
Reviewed first if
Why the number is what it is
The deaths are almost all caused by one mechanism: fat entering the large veins of the buttock and travelling to the lungs. That happens when fat is injected into or beneath the gluteal muscle, where those veins run. When fat is placed in the layer above the muscle, the risk falls dramatically.
This is why the plane of injection is not a stylistic preference, and why it is a fair question to ask any surgeon directly: in which layer do you place the fat, and how do you keep the cannula there? It is also why an accredited operating room and a titled anesthesiologist matter more on this procedure than on any other.
The other honest limit: the volume that can be transferred is set by your anatomy and by safety, not by a photograph. A surgeon who agrees to any size you name is not the safer choice.
If your route stays out of surgery
Sometimes the honest answer is that you do not need surgery, or that you are not ready for it yet. That answer is easier to give in a clinic that has somewhere else to send you.
K-Laser Room — six technologies
Morpheus8 and FaceTite, BodyTite, AccuTite, K-Laser Blue and Blue Lifting. They do genuinely different things — some tighten skin from below, some work on texture from the surface, some address small areas the others cannot reach. Which one applies to you is decided in the same assessment as the surgical options, not by whichever one is being promoted.
Dr. Leal is a K-Laser Blue speaker for Mexico and Latin America.
Longevity Hub — fifteen treatments
A medical spa directed by plastic surgeons: biostimulators, facial rejuvenation, non-surgical body contouring and regenerative medicine. This is where results are maintained over the years, and where people who are not candidates for surgery still have something worth doing.
The Boutique covers what you use at home before and after: compression garments, medical-grade skincare and pigmentation protocols, thirty products priced from $400 to $23,000 MXN.
Stated plainly
Every surgical procedure carries risk. These are the ones common to the operations on this page, and they are gone through with you in consultation before anything is signed.
Questions about choosing
Take the step
Consultations by video for patients outside Mexico, in your time zone.