KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian obsession with beautifying oneself via derma filler injections and thread lifts performed by unlicensed beauticians could open the door to a list of harmful effects, say plastic surgeons.
Done wrongly, the effects could lead to tissue necrosis or even blindness.
Plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr Lim Chai Leng said she had seen countless botched jobs in her years of practice.
“I get terrified when I see images and videos of unlicensed beauticians injecting dermal fillers and carrying out all sorts of procedures. People can be so ignorant.
“They (unlicensed beauticians) dare put their hands on these unsuspecting victims. On the other hand, those who seek these treatments are brave enough to do it even when there is so much risk involved.
“Poking needles into people without knowledge or training is dangerous, and they even have the cheek to say they use a numbing cream. A numbing cream doesn’t prevent infection.
“I have been in this practice for more than 30 years and I have seen enough botched jobs using injected substances, such as silicon, fillers and botox.
“They can cause complications. It is not good and becomes very difficult for the victims.”
Dr Lim, who served as Malaysian Association of Plastic Surgery president from 1998 to 2000, said even specialists, despite knowing the anatomy well, carried a degree of concern when carrying out injections on their patients’ face.
She said unqualified practitioners and a normal person would not know if they were inserting the substance or thread at the correct and safe location on the face, since they lacked knowledge, training and experience.
She said if one did not learn about facial anatomy, one would not know that it contained internal and external blood vessels.
If a person injected something into an external blood vessel, it could cause emboli, which would enter the internal blood vessels and possibly block the arteries supplying blood to the eyes, which would lead to blindness.
“Simple” procedures, she said, could not be mastered in a two-week workshop, but required years of studying medicine and training.
Dr Ruslan Johan of H-II Plastic Surgery Specialist Clinic expressed concern about women seeking a bigger cup size.
They choose to go for dermal fillers injected directly into the breasts. He said this practice was outdated and dangerous, and had caused a big problem in the United States in the 1950s.
“Injecting fillers directly into the breasts to make them larger is a big no-no. In the US, they started doing this in the 1950s and it caused a major problem when patients started developing granulomas in the breasts after a year or two. It’s like having marbles inside your breasts.
“This is why the plastic surgery industry developed breast implants into capsules, which is what we have now.”
Dr Ruslan said there had been cases in the country where the patients’ entire breast had to be removed due to infection.
The injected fillers, he said, were rejected as foreign objects by the body’s immune system, which “isolated” or encapsulated the fillers into granulomas, which looked like marbles in the breast.
He questioned the cleanliness of the equipment and safety measures taken by unlicensed beauticians.
The beauty products were also questionable, he said, noting that it was impossible for the beauticians and “experts” to obtain certified and ministry-approved materials and substances.
“I have a feeling that some of these products are not approved by the ministry, such as the fillers. Malaysia has become a dumping ground for these products.
“On top of that, these beauticians and people carrying out such procedures are not prepared when complications occur.
“Doctors understand the risks that could occur and how to overcome them.
“It looks simple if you just attend a class or watch a video. They think ‘I can do it’ and charge as much as a medical expert for consultation, if not more.
“But the people who do this are not medically trained and have no idea what problem it is going to lead to. It has come to the stage where people are risking their lives just to look beautiful.”
He said the industry was rife with stories of such fly-by-night businesses that had operators who had attended only two to three weeks of training.
Such programmes, he said, were usually conducted by foreign “beauty consultants” with no medical background, many from South Korea, China and Taiwan.
He said these illegal aesthetic clinics and beauty centres that provided invasive procedures would not only spoil the real industry and hurt people, but also ruin Malaysia’s health tourism reputation.