
As it becomes easier and easier to access anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers in chain clinics, via mobile set-ups and in beauty salons, it is also becoming more common to see adverse outcomes with some of these treatments.
This is in part due to inexperienced and new injectors often being left on their own after brief training stints, and equally, injectors being guided by the latest trends on social media - be it big lips, tear trough fillers, highly structured faces by way of "snatched" jawlines and cheeks, and more.
Watch: Check out Mamamia contributor Alisha Bhojwani's experience with tear trough filler. Post continues below.
As a result, it is becoming more common now than it was five-plus years ago, to see more patients coming into a clinic wishing to discuss more filler, sometimes to hide "bad filler" or to even dissolve filler gone rogue.
In almost every case, the reason cited is either that the injector kept telling them it was normal and to wait it out without offering the option to dissolve, or occasionally, that they were told there was nothing wrong.
Equally, we are beginning to see filler that has been in place for years at a time, after being told by companies that it only lasted six to 12 months, and would need top-ups to stay viable every six to 12 months.
Over time, some of this filler accumulates by being added to every six months - or in very mobile areas such as lips and around the eyes, it moves (i.e. migrates) into different areas.
Think of how mobile these areas are - the way the muscles around the eyes move when we blink, smile, close our eyes; or the way our lips move when we smile, talk, sip through a straw, kiss...
Or even in cheeks, how filler might move when we laugh, smile and regularly animate our faces. Over time, in some of us, for reasons we do not fully understand, the filler does not integrate as we are told it is meant to. Instead, it is pushed by small, repetitive muscle actions, to areas it does not belong.
When this happens, we may see it as a 'shelf' or 'moustache' above the lips. Or as lumps or waterlogged areas under the eyes or even around the cheeks.
Occasionally, if the wrong type of filler is used in an area of the face, it can lead to a puffy appearance, or conversely, a highly structured look in an area that does not need it - for example the cheeks. This can lead to a "peanut head" appearance in the temples, which look hollow by comparison.