We’ve always advised the most careful consideration possible when selecting and having cosmetic plastic surgery. Probably the most important consideration of all – procedure, down time, location, price, and recovery — is the careful selection of the surgeon. Make sure he or she does the procedure you want at least weekly.
Now, new reports about some facial fillers being injected into the forehead indicates your vision and good health can can be at risk in rare cases.
Researchers at Seoul National University College of Medicine studied the records of 44 patients whose main blood supply to the eye, the ophthalmic artery, had become blocked after facial fillers were injected around the eyes or into the forehead.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared fat, collagen-based and other cosmetic facial fillers for use in the mid-face like the cheeks or filling in the much maligned nasolabial lines, the deep creases running from the corners of the nose to each corner of the mouth. But injecting those fillers into the forehead or near eyes is actually an off-label use.
According to the Korean researchers, problems start when facial fillers are injected into the forehead or too closely around the eyes, trying to mask wrinkles or fill deep skin folds. The study indicates that some of the filler can find its way into smaller blood vessels and then flow into the eyes’ arteries, blocking the blood supply and obscuring vision.
(Read more about the Korean facial filler study.)
While those dreaded events rarely happen, writer/researchers reporting in the physicians’ journal, JAMA Ophthalmology urge cosmetic plastic surgeons and dermatology surgeons to warn their patients of the possible side effects before going ahead with facial fillers injected into foreheads or around the eyes.
(Read more about facial fillers.)
More problematic, according to the Korean researchers, is the use of patients’ own fat as facial fillers. We have always advised that fat injections into the face are not quite ready for prime time in facial cosmetic surgery.
(Read more about the problems and considerations to keep in mind using patients’ own fat as facial fillers.)
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