PA Real LifeA woman from Bristol left with ‘huge blue lumps’ on her lips after a botched filler treatment is now warning others to do their research.
Sarah Najjar, 34, forked out £300 for lip fillers in 2016 after becoming self-conscious about the supposed prospect of her lips thinning out in her thirties.
The dentist longed to possess the ‘pillowed pouts’ she had seen on other women who had undergone such treatments, however her results were far from what she had anticipated.
PA Real LifeSarah was left horrified after her lips became swollen and lumpy, covered in ‘huge’ and ‘rock hard’ blue lumps.
Sarah recalled:
My lips swelled up after I had the filler injected, which I initially thought was normal – but after a week you could see all these huge blue lumps and they felt rock hard.
You could see them when I was talking. I was so self-conscious. I was in shock at what I ended up going through for what I’d thought was a simple procedure.
This was Sarah’s very first cosmetic procedure, and she admits to having done very little research prior to her appointment.
PA Real LifeSarah has since had to cough up an additional £700 to have her dodgy filler removed, more than twice the price of having them put in.
Furthermore, the traumatising experience has stayed with Sarah, and she now wants to urge others about the potential dangers of such treatments:
As a result, I decided to train in facial aesthetics to understand what had gone wrong – but now, I also want to help other people looking to get fillers done to make sure they understand the risks.
I get so many women coming in for corrective work after getting botched fillers, and they always say the same thing – ‘I went somewhere cheap’. But you have to think, it’s cheap for a reason, and it ends up costing you far more to fix it.
PA Real LifeSarah is greatly concerned by the rise in people with no medical training administering fillers into the lips of their clients. Furthermore, all too often procedures are performed in non-sterile, non-clinical environments.
Sarah said:
It’s worrying the amount of unqualified people now doing dermal fillers. Beauticians don’t necessarily go through proper medical training – they just learn from each other – and can’t prescribe medication if needs be, or deal with complications.
Make sure ask to see to a practitioner’s portfolio so you have an idea what their work is like and what to expect of the treatment. Doctors and dentists train for years and years, yet there are people going on one day courses claiming to be able to do the same thing.
When they’re charging low fees for work too, you have to ask yourself why. How cheap is the filler they’re using? You can easily buy it online for as little as £35 a millilitre – and that’s not something I’d put in my own face, let alone my patients.
A 2017 statement from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) states dermal fillers are still unregulated in the UK, meaning ‘anyone wielding a syringe can order them off the internet’.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.