Lip filler horror
Risk of lip fillers
Take a Break
Michelle wanted to look her best for her 40th birthday and the magical once-in-a-lifetime trip to New York with her husband. When her friends went to a filler party - where a group of friends go along at the same time to have fillers or botox at a discounted group rate - she decided to give it a go.
She wasn’t concerned about the risks as she was familiar with the woman doing the work, and her friends had been without issue.
But Michelle’s treatment went wrong, and she suffered a vascular occlusion, which is a rare but serious risk of lip fillers. Symptoms can include swelling, pain, infection and scarring.
Read on for her story, below, which appeared in Take a Break, or scroll down for screenreader friendly text.
Lifting the mirror, I studied my face closely. My skin wasn’t as clear as it had once been, and little wrinkles lined my top lip.
‘Shall I have my lips done?’ I asked my husband, David.
‘You look lovely are you are,’ he said, ‘but if that’s what you want…’
It was October 2018 and we had a dream trip to New York planned for my 40th birthday that December, and I wanted to look my best.
All my friends had their lips done regularly with a local nurse turned beauty therapist called Sarah*, so along with three of the girls, we made a group booking.
Sarah gave us a £25 discount each, bringing the cost of having fillers to just £100 per person.
We went along to her house. Soon it was my turn and Sarah set to.
When I got home, I noticed the right side looked a bit bigger. I returned a few days later, and Sarah said, ‘Just give me one minute and I’ll fix it right up.’
Sarah injected a little more filler on the left hand side to even it up.
Within seconds, my lip began to bruise. Sarah reassured me it was normal and to give it a few days for the swelling to go down.
But by the time I’d driven home, I was in terrible pain.
David took one look at me and said, ‘Oh my god, what have you done?’
The pain was so bad, I couldn’t eat, had to drink through a straw and cancelled all my hairdressing clients for the following week.
I stayed home, too embarrassed to go out. Sarah reassured me what had happened was normal. I went to see her and she lanced the lump on the right hand side with a fine needle, and massaged it to spread the pocket of filler.
It didn’t work. The left side was bruised and sheer agony.
‘It’s an occlusion,’ she told me, looking sheepish. She’d accidentally injected the filler straight into my vein, blocking it.
But she’d come highly recommended by my friends, so I trusted her advice to give it a bit more time to resolve on its own.
I put my make up on, tried my best to disguise the damage to my lips and took my daughter Leah, 5, to soft play one afternoon.
There, another mum did a double take at me, and elbowed her friend.
‘Look at that woman’s face!’ she said tactlessly.
As the pair whispered, I grabbed Leah and left, bursting into tears as soon as I got to the car. I went back to work and clients asked suspiciously what had happened to my face. I lied, telling them I’d taken the dog for a walk in the woods and fallen over.
It was so embarrassing, and eventually I told everyone what had really happened.
In New York, I wore caps, scarves and zipped my coat up as high as it would go to hide my lip.
Months passed, and I didn’t go back to Sarah, though I learnt she wasn’t a nurse.
The pain took a long time to fade and the solid lump of filler remained. I learnt to live with it, but one day, I thought: why should I?
I contacted Lipology, and went to their clinic where a highly skilled practitioner carefully used filler to even up my lips.
Afterwards, I didn’t have any bruising and couldn’t believe the difference.
Now, I’m much happier with my lips, but I wish I’d never had them done in the first place. I looked fine, just as I was.
*Sarah’s name has been changed for legal reasons.
Vascular occlusion
What is it?
It’s a rare but serious risk of having fillers. Symptoms can include swelling, pain, infection and scarring.
Why does it happen?
Filler is injected accidentally into a vein, or causes compression of an artery.
Can it be treated?
A solution can be injected to dissolve the filler.