OVER THE past couple of years, doctors and campaigners have reported an increase in ‘bogus’ nurses and amateur beauticians performing unsafe treatments from their kitchen or lounge.
As a result, they say more patients are suffering from parts of their lips becoming lumpy or disproportionate in size, infections, ulceration or necrosis (when the lip tissue dies and goes black).
Anyone can buy hyaluronic acid gel and inject it into someone’s lips. This is because there are no laws in the UK that regulate people who carry out non-surgical cosmetic procedures, such as lip fillers.
The Professional Standards Authority runs a Government-backed programme called Accredited Registers which lists trusty professionals that treat their patients safely.
Here are eight ways to ensure that everyone is in safe hands:
1. Everyone should always chooses a safe practitioner from one of the Accredited Registers – www.professionalstandards.org.uk/find-practitioners/practitioner/non-surgical-cosmetic-practitioners
2. Professionals should ask for the patients’ age, full medical history and discuss all risks before agreeing an injection.
3. Nobody should pressure a patient into having lip fillers done there and then. Patients need time before making a decision.
4. Ask for copies of before and after photographs. It’s a good idea to have photos of the patients smiling and frowning, too.
5. Patients should note down which hyaluronic acid product is being used for their lip fillers as well as the clinician’s name.
6. Patients should ask the person giving them lip fillers to show them the hyaluronic acid in its unopened packaging, before injection.
7. There should be no problems in booking a follow up and asking about treatment of any complications, if they occur.
8. Never agree to have lip fillers done at homes, at ‘parties’ or exhibitions, or in places that aren’t clean and clinical.
