The rising demand for non-surgical cosmetic procedures has increased the number of people administering fillers and other treatments at incredibly low prices. This might sound like good news; unfortunately, it is far from it.
Non-surgical cosmetic procedures are costly for excellent reasons. The expense involved in using quality products, providing exceptional service and meeting the necessary safety requirements is significant. To meet these costs, quality practitioners have to set their prices accordingly.
To offer ‘cheap fillers, ‘ shoddy practitioners are unlikely to invest in any of the above. Moreover, when offering cheap treatments, the cost of provision must be minimal for profit.
The Product May Be Imported
Cheap (and fake) dermal fillers are freely available online, often from China, where there are no manufacturing standards. Purchasing cosmetic products from outside the UK may be illegal. The only way for an injector to know that a product is authentic and approved by the UK health authority (MHRA) is to order it directly from the manufacturer or an authorised distributor. These imports faceless government scrutiny than those that have met the strict requirements of MHRA.
Anything imported illegally and bypassing the authorised supply chain means we have no idea how it was handled, transported, or stored. And when improperly stored, the products can degrade and lose their efficacy.
The Injectors May Cut Corners
Practitioners who do not invest in research, training, the environment they work in, care standards, and protection should things go wrong are an accident waiting to happen. In addition, there are risks involved in non-surgical cosmetic procedures, and without the necessary safeguards in place, side effects and complications are more likely to occur.
Some cut-rate injectors operate by doing work at or below cost in the hope that you’ll stay on later at full price. But others curb their losses by overly diluting the products, minimising their effect and possibly increasing your odds of infection. In addition, fillers can be contaminated when taken out of their native syringes.
Some unscrupulous practitioners save half-used syringes of filler to inject into the same patient (or worse, another patient!) later. However, reputable doctors consider filler a single-use item and charge accordingly. In addition, recapped leftover filler can degenerate over time, making it harder to inject or possibly causing lumps at the site.
Inexperienced and Lack Skills
Bargain-basement injections can signal inexperienced practitioners looking for practice. That is yet another reason so many practitioners can undersell. Those injections often are not done by cosmetic doctors but by people with less training.
The Product Could be Fake
While less pervasive than unapproved imports, imitations are also on the rise. What is in these products is anyone’s guess. However, authorised tests have shown that some fake products do not contain any active ingredients. At the same time, some were found to contain too high a concentration of the active ingredients, making them highly dangerous.
Furthermore, these fake products may have been made in an environment lacking sterility, quality and safety assurance.