Now many are done by the filler at home

During a medical conference, a question produced a dizzying answer: Have you ever seen patients who have made the injections alone at home? When the question was asked to aesthetic medicine conferences in the United States and abroad, almost all the hands in the room got up. “There is talk of 50-60 doctors at the first conference and hundreds in an international conference,” he says Theda KontisMD, Facs, the plastic and reconstructive facial surgeon with double certification that conducted the informal survey. (Kontis is also president of theAmerican Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery or AAFPRS). “There are many people who make themselves sunglasses.”

The phenomenon could be defined as the soft belly of aesthetic medicine: unknown brands that sell God only knows what in syringes to any client online. Dr. Kontis learned about it last autumn, after a colleague asked her to help take care of an emergency room patient who had tried to make a filler at the lips in the house. Dr. Kontis explains that the patient’s needle had hit “the main artery of the lip, which had interrupted the flow of blood and therefore could have lost the lip”.

More sessions for the hyaluronidase (an injectable product that dissolves the hyaluronic acid filler) saved the patient’s lips that he said he had purchased the online filler. At that point the doctor went on the internet and discovered that everything could be bought. Neurotoxins with strange commercial names, stuff I had never heard of, not the usual protocol, “says Dr. Kontis. The frightening thing are the doubts that arise: «What are these products? Where do they come from? The fillers are Really based on hyaluronic acid? Are they sterile? People shouldn’t do it. It is extremely dangerous ».

Dr. Kontis informed the FDA. “I contacted the FDA and said that these products are everywhere and that people make themselves self -injections,” he said. Although Dr. Kontis has not received an answer from the FDA about a plan to face the problem of do-it-yourself fillers, he noticed that “Amazon It no longer sells the fillers as before – the fillers cost $ 20, 60 dollars on Amazon ». This led her to think that the FDA took some measure. “If you are looking for on Google ‘Injectable Filler’, there are still some things that appear, but not as many as before,” says Dr. Kontis. “So the FDA did something to remove the main products from the hands of the patients.”

«But even without Amazon, it is still possible to easily buy online injection. I have young patients who are very attentive to social media, they see [qualcuno che si inietta da solo] On Tiktok and think: “I’ll try to do it too”, “he says Laura Garcia-RodriguezMD, facial plastic surgeon certified in Detroit. He treated several complications due to do -it -yourself injections, including a marble dimensions of marble size due to home lip injections gone badly – “it was a horrible -looking ball every time he smiled” – and “a dead nose” after a liquid rhinoplasty. (Liquid rhinoplasty is also known as non -surgical renrateoplasty and provides for the use of a filler to temporarily remodel the nose: it is possible to find it in the treatment menus of some certified doctors, but other dermatologists and plastic surgeons do not practice it due to the potential of serious complications such as blindness). “The patient found himself with a wound of the size of about ten centimeters on the tip of the nose, up to the cartilage: that dead fabric does not go back,” explains Dr. Garcia-Rodriguez. The woman had gone to Ebay and bought her fillers from Türkiye. “Another patient went to Atlanta and got the lip injections from a friend at his house: he was not a professional doctor,” says Dr. Garcia-Rodriguez. “The syringe was dirty or the lip had not been clean quite well, because the lip injections caused the infection of the prostheses to the cheeks, which had to be removed”.

It may not seem, but these patients were lucky, as they were curated by a certified plastic surgeon. Some people who delight with do-it-yourself injections have difficulty finding a doctor if and when things go badly, he warns Anil shahMD, Facs, facial plastic surgeon with double certification in Chicago e New York City: «You have injected yourself alone, and this point is a huge responsibility. The other risk for doctors is that someone has already said that he will not necessarily follow the advice of the doctors, but he will do what he wants ». In his study, Dr. Shah saw “several patients, unfortunately” who tried to inject the substances. “People tend to think it’s beautiful, until it becomes”. And then they end up in his study. “You can see many things in the lips that seem obscene, like visible lumps: that’s not how a normal lip should appear,” he says. «The worst patient I saw has injected something on the forehead – you never know what is on the internet – and the entire right side of the forehead was dark, purple and painful. It was a vascular problem: the area was deprived of oxygen for a week. Sometimes the nerves return, but sometimes not. You can ruin your face permanently, how to completely disfigure ».

Where do you buy the Intattable Online?

Now you are wondering How it is possible that someone sells injectable online And that people can buy them without having a medicine degree. This occurs outside the regulated channels and “the injection purchased [in questo modo] they are often counterfeit and can involve serious health risks, “he says Susan C. TaylorMD, Faad, dermatologist certified in Philadelphia and president of theAmerican Academy of Dermatology (Aad). “The worrying increase in counterfeit injection represents a serious threat to patient safety.” Furthermore, to buy an injectable drug approved by the FDA, which is a subject to a medical prescription, a medical license is needed, he explains Heather FaulknerMD, Facs, MPH, plastic surgeon with double certification in Atlanta and president of the patient security committee of the ‘American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). The drugs not approved by the FDA, such as the injectable ones that can be found online, “cannot be sold or legally administered in the United States”, says Dr. Faulkner.

Even if the FDA did not respond to the commentary request from Allure On the sale and online purchase of non -approved injectable products at the time of the press, he warns against the use of these fillers and neuromodulators directed to the consumer, also in a declaration on FDA.Gov entitled Dermal Filler Do’s and Don’t for Winkles, Lips and More: «The FDA warns of the purchase or use of filler for lips and face sold directly to the public. They are not approved by the FDA and can be contaminated by chemicals and infectious organisms … do not inject dermal fillers or feathers without needle ».

But in reality “can you buy everything you want, and who will persecute us?”, Says Dr. Kontis. It is more common that someone wants to inject a filler at home rather than a neuromodist, adds the doctor, because the filler tends to be more expensive to obtain professionally, so there is a greater incentive to do it alone, and it may seem less intimidating, since it is not a toxin. “Neurotoxins, whether you believe it or not, are not so dangerous,” says Dr. Kontis. «If they are injected in the wrong point, they paralyze a muscle that becomes inactive. Filler can embolind [ostruire] a blood vessel, and they are lost tissues without blood influx, also along the line: if you inject around the nose, The product can go backwards in the artery [che porta al] Heart».

A blocked coronary artery can cause a heart attack. In other cases, The interruption of the blood supply to the tissues can “lead to disfiguring complications, including permanent blindness, necrosis (death of the skin), scars and potentially death», He says Shari MarchbeinMD, certified dermatologist in New York and clinical assistant at the New York University School of Medicine.

“It is clearly crazy that a layman acquires a product on the street and if he injects him in the face, expecting a different result from a disaster,” he says Min S. Ahnplastic and reconstructive facial surgeon with double certification in Boston.

How did you get to do it yourself in the world of fillers and botox?

Why should anyone risk? And how did we get to this point? «Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube»Says Dr. Kontis. “There was a lady who made videos on YouTube to show how it was injected. That video has been deleted [poco dopo] that I warned the FDA ».

In addition to these “tutorials on the injection”, there is the fact that We live in an era in which the medical procedures were probably demeddiicalized. Ours is a culture made up of advertising signs of medical centers, botox -based parties and swollen faces everywhere, from cinematographic screens to the files of the supermarket coffers. It is not surprising that the injections may seem more a routine maintenance (such as a face treatment or a new lip gloss) than the medical procedures that are actually. We have reached a point where people are so eager to appear in a certain way – and so unaware of the seriousness of the injectable – that they are willing to use a syringe on their lips and chicken legs by their own. Based on her personal experience, Dr. Kontis understands it well. “I feel better when I do injections: I like my appearance,” he says. And when something makes us feel better, it can be difficult to resist: “So if people cannot afford it, they will try to find another way”.

For now, Dr. Kontis and her colleagues are trying to make patients know the dangers of DIY injections. In a declaration issued to AllureASPS underlines that “Although these treatments can be defined in the least invasive, these are still real procedures with real risks“And” encourage patients to give importance to their security compared to any perceived savings “. AAFPRS daily reminds patients to entrust their face to qualified plastic surgeons, and on its website it has a service of search for doctors. The Aad “strongly advises against people to perform alone injectable cosmetic procedures: these injections are medical procedures”, says Dr. Taylor, underlining that the Aad also has one Medici search tool «Members dermatologists [che] They have the largest medical training to avoid complications and provide patients with the best results to patients ».

“We will not be able to convince everyone,” says dr. Kontis, “but the fact that it is less available than a few months ago, for me it is a huge change: perhaps it will improve”.