Face scans reveal grim risks for anyone considering cosmetic filler

Oh dear...

It seems that filler has increasingly become the new normal, as dermal fillers have skyrocketed in popularity over recent years.

The effects include the restoration of facial volume and the smoothing of fine lines through the use of hyaluronic acid.

This liquid is typically injected into areas such as the cheeks, chin, temples, and lips.

However, it can also be used to refine facial shape and add definition, including in the nose, where it can create the effect of a 'non-surgical nose job'.

The usual risks of filler include some swelling and bruising, but there is also the more legendary risk of becoming so obsessed with the results that you keep going back for more. You might have heard the term ‘filler blindness’, which is when someone loves the look so much they forget when to stop.

However, now experts have found a secondary risk to the procedure that's much more serious than some gentle bruising.

Dr Rosa Sigrist told the BBC that her team at the University of São Paulo in Brazil performed an ultrasound on 100 individuals who had gotten a considerable amount of dermal fillers in recent years.

Dr Rosa Sigrist and her team observed cases of 'vascular occlusion', meaning that they uncovered the possibility of patients suffering blocked arteries underneath their skin.

This condition left some patients battling skin loss, blindness, and even a heightened risk of a stroke, all caused by damage to their blood flow.

While it is rather uncommon, the process of vascular occlusion describes filler being injected right into, or too close to, a blood vessel.

In less than half of the cases, the scans showed absent blood flow to several small vessels connected to both superficial arteries and those found deeper inside the face.

However, a third of patients showed an absence of blood flow in several major blood vessels.

As previously mentioned, this process can kill facial tissue, which could lead to a potential deformity and even trigger permanent sight loss.

Because of this, Dr Sigrist now emphasises the importance of aestheticians performing scans on patients while injecting facial fillers, particularly during nasal injections, since the blood vessels in the nose are connected to several critical structures in the head and brain.

"If injectors are not guided by ultrasound, they treat based on where the clinical findings are and inject blindly," she explained. "But if we can see the ultrasound finding, we can target the exact place where the occlusion occurs."