The Dangers of DIY Injectables: Why You Should Leave Injectables to Professionals

Some things are not worth the risk, and this holds true in DIY injectables more than anywhere else. Yes, it’s tempting to put matters into your own hands, especially when confronted with the promise of huge savings. But the pennies you will save do not outweigh the potentially devastating consequences — the grave errors that could lead to the exact opposite of the cosmetic effect you were aiming for.

There’s no shortage of notorious stories of self-surgery gone wrong. Hang Mioku, a former Korean model, became obsessed with plastic surgery, to the point that she injected cooking oil into her face. While subsequent surgeries were able to remove as much as 60g of foreign substance from her face, permanent scarring and disfigurement meant she could no longer restore her old face.

Despite these cautionary tales, there’s a growing community of beauty enthusiasts who dabble with DIY plastic surgery — much to the horror of doctors.

The Growing DIY Club

In cosmetic surgery, the DIY community is tiny compared to the millions of patients who have appointments with certified aestheticians. An article has seen a private Facebook group with about 10,000 members, who are discussing everything people should know about self-injections. But this community is growing, alongside YouTube tutorial videos that tout how easy it is to perform your own dermal filler or Botox injections.

No matter how extensive these discussions and tutorials are, laypeople simply don’t have the training and deft of hand needed to execute a safe procedure. In fact, even licensed professionals don’t perform injections on themselves — that’s how risky these procedures are.

Still, the allure of self-applied procedures doesn’t escape DIY enthusiasts. Their main motivation? The money that they will save if they skip the clinic. A person could easily save hundreds of dollars by purchasing a dermal filler online, buying a syringe, and injecting the substance into their faces.

This is worth repeating — your health is not worth risking for a couple of hundred dollars. Complications from DIY treatments include:

• Disfigurement
• Permanent scars
• Permanent blindness or impaired vision
• Infections
• Necrosis (death of tissues)
• In extreme situations, death

These risks also negate why you opted for DIYs in the first place; it is not cheap to fix or cure a complication from a botched self-surgery. It will cost you more than the amount you saved in the first place, not even counting the emotional turmoil and physical damage you have to go through.

When you go DIY, you have no guarantee about the authenticity and safety of the products online, and there are nuances in the process of injection that only a licensed professional could understand.

Doubting Authenticity of Online Purchases

In 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a formal warning about dermal fillers, telling users to never purchase them online. A handful of issues are at stake — the fillers may be fake, contaminated, or harmful. Either way, they might lead to disastrous consequences when injected into the body.

Some DIY enthusiasts perform a patch test, where they apply the substance on a patch of skin, usually in the arm, to determine if the skin would react negatively to the filler. But this method doesn’t reveal the full effect once the filler is injected into the skin. Plus, there is no way an average person could run lab tests to determine the safety of the products.

When you buy fillers online, you do not know what you are risking. Remember, negative reviews can be erased, and positive reviews can be manufactured.

In contrast, an appointment in a certified clinic like Vargas Face and Skin gives you the peace of mind knowing that the cosmetic injectable filler treatments are safe, sterile, and sourced from a reputable and licensed manufacturer.

The Lack of Medical Training

The facial anatomy is extremely complex. If licensed doctors doing demonstrations on YouTube make it look easy, that’s because they have extensive training (spanning over a decade), as well as years of experience in using the proper technique. They have done it countless times, so handling a syringe is as easy as wielding a pen.

In the hands of a non-professional, however, the syringe is dangerous.

Take Botox, for instance. The risk of side effects of Botox injections increases exponentially when administered by a non-professional. Botox works by paralyzing specific muscles, smoothing out the wrinkles on the face. If injected in the wrong area — the wrong point — your face might droop, leaving you with a disfigured or asymmetrical look. In grave cases, the toxin might get into a vital organ, causing difficulty breathing, speech impairment, and impaired vision.

You shouldn’t even trust people who, despite being unlicensed and unaccredited, have claimed to have done it on others with no damage. Such claims should be taken with a grain of salt.

Take a certain German Instagram influencer, for instance, who has been sentenced to four years in prison for conducting illegal cosmetic procedures. The influencer injected Hyaluronic Acid as a filler into the lips and noses of at least 35 women. During procedures, she disregarded basic sanitary measures, such as wearing gloves, wearing a surgical mask, and using disinfectants. Many of the women who hired her services complained of complications, such as swelling and dents.

When injectables are concerned, only healthcare practitioners should be trusted with the syringe. And in a sterile place, as well.

No matter how clean your home is, its cleanliness can’t hold a candle to a sterile clinic. These facilities undergo specialized sanitation procedures, using specialized sterilization products and devices, to keep the premises hygienic. A high standard of cleanliness minimizes the risk of infections.

Leave Injectables to Professionals

If there’s one thing cosmetic professionals agree on, it’s that injectables should be left to professionals.

When you schedule an appointment with an accredited clinic, you know that you are in good hands; you’re getting a safe and authentic filler, a professional will inject it in the right place, and the procedure is done in a sanitary place. Not only will you avoid risks, but you will also get the effect you desire.

Entrust yourself to the professionals at Vargas Face and Skin. Schedule an appointment today.