Dr. Kayle discusses DIY fillers for sale, and whether or not they are safe to use
The availability of counterfeit fillers for purchase online, coupled with social media video tutorials that make it look easy to inject them on yourself, is one of the most dangerous trends in the cosmetic industry.
One of the biggest risks of purchasing fillers online is that you can never know exactly what you’re going to get. While the products you see online look legitimate, very often they are either counterfeit products that are adulterated with silicone or they are expired fillers.
When something goes wrong with doctor-injected dermal filler, such as blocked vessels or even just dissatisfaction with the resulting appearance, clinicians inject an enzyme called hyaluronidase to dissolve hyaluronic acid. But if a filler is based on something other than hyaluronic acid, it will not be able to be dissolved by the enzyme. Very often, such fillers are made from silicone, which can only be surgically removed.
Another downfall of these DIY fillers is that you have to know how to correctly inject it. Whilst DIY YouTube tutorials and social media posts can make it seem easy enough to do on your own, it is not the case. Injecting fillers or Botox is remarkably complex and requires intensive knowledge of tissue behaviour and anatomic relationships within the face. For example, the central area of the face is in direct communication with the vessels that feed the brain. This means there are a lot of things that can happen when a DIY injection goes wrong. Aside from a lumpy and uneven result you could also inadvertently inject into a blood vessel, which can lead to permanent scarring, skin necrosis (also called skin death) and even permanent blindness. Given these risks, I would say avoid DIY fillers at all costs!
