You may have seen a few bits in the news about the government finally introducing a new licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, but sadly they don’t see it as anything urgent and it’s likely to take years. Meanwhile, we are still one of the only countries to have almost no regulations in this sector. This means that literally anyone can perform injectable treatments after a few hours of bogus training, or no training at all.
Complications that can arise from injectables range from haematomas, infections and allergic reactions to vascular occlusions (this is when a blood vessel gets blocked by an injectable filler and if it’s not recognised and treated immediately will lead to necrosis and death of that area of skin). So not only does your Practitioner need to have a solid knowledge of their facial anatomy in order to avoid a vascular occlusion, but they need to be able to recognise, diagnose and manage the complication straight away. For a vascular occlusion this involves using a prescribed medication that needs to be administered immediately. How would this be available to someone who cannot prescribe? And that’s assuming they actually recognise the complication.
When I see videos on social media of non-medical people performing ‘Russian lip’ procedures, I squirm at the technique which is literally just asking for a vascular occlusion. These poor girls that are being persuaded to have this procedure by some crazy ‘trend’ are risking permanently disfiguring their faces. I feel sad for them and our society which is encouraging them to do it. So why on earth won’t the government prioritise this?
A simple thing that would undoubtedly help the situation would be to make dermal fillers prescription-only (as botulinum toxin is) but the government have rejected this – why? Links with big pharma companies?? I can’t be the only person to be wondering this!

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