Plastic surgery is not a d-i-y proposition, no matter how simple a procedure may seem. Expert plastic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Kenkel weighs in on the dangerous trend.
An ill-advised beauty trend is on the rise in the down economy: do-it-yourself injectable filler kits that you can buy on the Web. But doctors say self-injectable facial fillers are bad for your health.
A rising number of people are interested in changing how old they look – or simply how they look – through homegrown plastic surgery. Plastic surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Kenkel of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas recently explained that those who want the effects of facial fillers should seek out qualified doctors.
Kenkel pointed out, this can lead to unwanted lumpiness in the face, or even an infection. And through these cheap cosmetic shortcuts, a person can very easily cause damage that costs more than professional cosmetic surgery to reverse.
“It is critical to seek out a board-certified plastic surgeon or dermatologist to ensure that the material being injected is authentic, that the proper amount is being injected and that fillers are injected in the proper location to avoid unwanted consequences,” Kenkel told United Press International. “It ends up being far more expensive and problematic to fix complications when something goes wrong. There are so many options – from skin care to laser treatments to injectable regimes – that will give you the appearance you want safely and cost-effectively.”
In the spring of 2009, The Plastic Surgery Channel reported on one example of unsafe home injection, when 43-year-old Bronx resident Siordaliza Pichardo died after a friend injected her thighs with silicone during an attempted body contouring procedure. The friend was a cosmetologist with no license or any other qualification to perform cosmetic injection. A day after the home procedure, Pichardo visited a nearby hospital, complaining of dizziness, vomiting and breathing problems. Soon after, she went into cardiac arrest and died. This is an extreme example of what can happen with unsupervised cosmetic injection, but it stresses the need for medical supervision.
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