Why we must put an end to the fillers free-for-all
WE OFTEN think of doctors dishing out pills willy-nilly. While sometimes there is over-prescribing, for example doctors giving out antidepressants when therapy might be more appropriate, every prescription that is written is carefully analysed and monitored.
Which is what makes the current situation with anti-ageing fillers all the more bizarre. Fillers are not and have never been a prescription item in this country, so just about anyone can inject them. Think about that for a moment.
While I, as a doctor, will have any antibiotic prescription I write audited and checked over by various layers of professionals, someone with little more than a few hours’ training (if that) can currently inject a substance into someone’s face that can dramatically alter their appearance.
Furthermore, if done incorrectly, the treatment risks a host of serious side-effects, including blocking blood vessels and causing death to parts of the tissue.
People just don’t realise that, under current rules, an aesthetic practitioner does not need any mandatory qualifications, meaning literally anyone can inject dermal fillers.
It beggars belief that this has been the case for so long.
THE current laissezfaire attitude to dermal fillers put the public at risk and there were finally calls for them to be made prescription-only.
At the very least, this would mean the substances used in fillers would be properly monitored and that a medical professional, such as a doctor, would have to be involved. It does seem bizarre that anyone can inject a substance into someone’s face in this country without any restrictions.
It’s not just the fact that it has the potential for life-changing consequences if done incorrectly, but actually my biggest fear is that in this wild west of cosmetic procedures, too often it’s being given to people who are inappropriately young.
I was horrified the other day to see an 18-year-old-girl in A&E (who had come in with an unrelated problem) tell me that she had just had her lips ‘done’. Unfortunately, she looked just like a blowup doll.
Why would anyone her age need what is supposed to be an antiageing injection? What she needed was careful counselling and emotional help, not some chemical pumped into her face.
I’m sickened that young women are even considering this, but what is truly horrifying is the thoughtlessness of the people doing it to them.
These sorts of procedures are wholly inappropriate. It’s easy to blame the cult of celebrity, where a face full of fillers is seen as part of a beauty regime.
Many fans look up to these famous people and want to emulate them, not realising that actually, ironically, they already have the youthful appearance these celebrities are chasing. But the buck must stop with the practitioners who are wielding the needle. By making it prescriptiononly, doctors would need to be involved and they are bound by strict ethical guidelines about who to administer these injections to. Doctors who prescribe in a reckless or unprofessional manner would be quickly identified and questioned. Those who are found to have breached guidelines or acted outside of the usual accepted practice would risk serious consequences. There are several layers of protection, with prescriptions monitored at a local, regional and national level. This is important because — while medications might be intended to help — inappropriate or incorrect prescribing can be dangerous, or even deadly.
Medications are powerful things and should be treated with care and respect.
Moving to a prescription model would lead to a crackdown on the cowboy practitioners by making our medical professionals responsible for dishing out the treatment.
YA NEW report by the Irish Heart Foundation has revealed that women in Ireland are waiting twice as long as men for a diagnosis of heart failure. This is yet another area where the health service is failing women whose health concerns have been overlooked in so many areas. This needs to change now.
ES, there are unscrupulous and unprofessional doctors and nurses. I know that, don’t get me wrong. But the scrutiny that exists around prescribing would mean at least some monitoring and it would mean patients would be required to have a sit-down, face-to-face consultation with the prescriber who would be duty-bound to explain the risks and benefits, just as they are with any other medication or procedure.
It strikes me as utterly bonkers that this industry has proliferated in the past decade without any kind of regulation in place.
While dermal fillers might be able to turn back the clock, it’s time that this industry was dragged into the present day.