Dissolving fillers carried out by someone else:
This page is intended to help by providing honest and professional advice in the event of a problem following a filler treatment carried out by someone else.
If you have had fillers by someone else and you are experiencing a medical problem like an increase in pain, redness, swelling or have lumps which hurt or areas of numbness, you must urgently seek medical help from the practitioner who treated you or if not, your GP. This is most important. I have a duty of care those those I treat but it is very complex if I am unsure of what treatment could be causing complications.
I have been asked many times to help in the case of unsatisfactory filler treatments carried out by someone else. If it is not a medical issue, the first question, and really the essential issue, is that if you have any concerns, then you should return to the practitioner who carried out your treatment for them to resolve your problem. If this is not possible, I would want to explore the reasons.
- Can they dissolve fillers? Do they have insufficient knowledge or training to carry out corrective work? If not, this is a great concern as if they are willing to carry out the treatment and accept payment, they should accept responsibility. Many practitioners these days call themselves medically trained when they have received some training in medical matters. It tempts vulnerable people into treatments when they do not have full information about what risks they are undertaking. It does not mean they will care if you have problems. This does not make them medically qualified.
- Why are you reluctant to return to your practitioner?
- Have they already told you they cannot or will not help? If they are medically qualified, they have a duty of care to help you.
As a Registered Nurse, I would like to help. The sad reality is that to become professionally involved in someone else’s work has a host of potential problems.
To become involved with a person who has expressed unhappiness with aesthetic treatments can mean becoming involved with someone with an unrealistic goal, who may always feel unhappy with the outcome. These days, sadly, due to the sensitive nature of people, I have to be super cautious and weigh up the risks to that person, myself and my business. I will explain:
The reason you are unhappy with the results could purely down to feeling disappointed with the results in which case your unrealistic expectations of the treatment may be the problem.
- Initial effects can include unevenness due to swelling and the effects will settle with time (this could be weeks)
- Changes to facial appearance can be shocking and you may be over-reacting or people around toy are over-reacting
- Sometimes what we want is not possible
- It may be that you will never feel happy with your appearance
This is the reality and the weights of the dilemma. .
This situation is complicated.
If I am asked for help in an appearance based problem with a filler treatment, I will be thinking through the processes below. There are stages to go through before a correction treatment:
Is this a medical problem?
Has the filler caused circulation problems, infection, allergy, swelling, pressure or other physical concern? As soon as I intervene, I become responsible for the whole treatment. I have a duty of care if I treat. If I am helping you after a treatment which has become medically complicated, I will hopefully be working alongside whoever treated you in the first place and we can share some responsibility. I can equally refer you on to NHS medical services with advice.
Is it an appearance problem?
If this more about how the treatment appearance and is not medical, I need to weigh up various options to decide whether to offer you an appointment. The following points are under consideration in the case of appearance concerns after treatment.You will have to appreciate that I will not know the difference if you say your cheeks are much larger than they used to be or that your face is “different” as I am only meeting you for the first time. Some treatments need quite a few weeks to settle and it would be inappropriate to intervene before a reasonable time has elapsed to assess the final result.
What products were used?
You may or may not know, may not have been told or have been told only vaguely. This question is important as the dissolving must be a specific product. While most fillers are made from hyaluronic acid (HA), some are not. Some HA fillers contain more buffer (BDDE) and some have larger particles of HA or have additional substances mixed in. Some are made from other compounds which are not hyaluronic acid based. It all depends on brand. I can only use a specific solvent on a specific product (HA). I cannot risk injecting you with something which may cause a negative reaction. In this industry, some people will use cheap fillers. They may even believe their supplier is legitimate, but counterfeit products have found their way into the market and are very sophisticated. I always have a known provenance for all of my fillers as I only order from pharmacies and can therefore tell where and when they are made and that they are fully traceable, trusted, tested and quality assured.
Was the technique used properly carried out?
I will need written notes from your practitioner to confirm which product and brand was used and when. How much was injected and how will also need to be ascertained. I need to ensure that you have had a straight forward treatment with an HA filler with an appropriate and correct technique. It’s also important to know that your medical state was good before and after treatment and that you did not have any medical or psychological complications after the treatment.
Hyaluronidase Treatments:
If I then proceed to dissolve an HA filler using Hyaluronidase, I will need to patch test for allergy as there is a (very small) risk of (severe) allergic reaction. This is more likely if you have an allergy to bee stings. Hopefully, all will be clear to proceed and the filler can be injected with a satisfactory reduction in volume which you find agreeable.
Further questions:
“What if you are still unhappy?”. Do I try and keep correcting the initial and subsequent problems? What if you have an adverse reaction to my treatment? Certainly, if you feel that you have ended up with more problems than you started with, I, as “last in” become liable and accountable for all of your problems. If you remain unhappy with your first filler treatment, or the final result isn’t how you hoped, it becomes my problem to fix. If you are unwell, it is my problem to fix. Even though the initial problem was down to a treatment carried out by someone unknown to me, I become responsible for the final outcome.
You are welcome to be seen for an assessment and I will talk through the treatment but I cannot always offer help.
The other alternative is to wait it out. HA fillers last months but degrade with time.
If you would like to discuss, please contact by call / text 07887808680 to book an appointment.
Please be aware that there may be a waiting time of a few weeks and that treatment will not be carried out on first contact for the above reasons. There is also a charge of £300 for Hyalase treatments. (which can be multiple).