Anti-aging jabs put concrete in face

Thousands of innocent customers are being lured by the promise of a quick fix to plump up sagging cheeks and fill in facial lines. There are more than hundred “filler” products in the market claiming to be an immediate answer to the ravages of middle age. They can be injected by any beauty analyst. Many centres advertising the products use doctors to inject them but that has not prevented everlasting facial damage.

Some women have spent up to £3,000 on the original treatment, and many thousands extra in fruitless operations to get the substances removed. Growing numbers are being referred for Britain’s National Health Service reconstructive surgery. Many of the compounds freeze like concrete after they have been injected. Others move around or “granulate” under the skin.

Most of persons affected assumed they were victims of one-off instances where things have gone wrong.

A few have been paid by clinics to keep quiet about disfiguring bulges on their faces. A handful have taken lawful action but for most it has been impossible to verify whether the damage is the outcome of the product or botched process.

The first organised victims gathering is taking place at a London hotel. It is hoped more than 30 women will attend to begin a drive to persuade the government to regulate the beauty treatment business.

“It has been a total nightmare”, one of the first people in Britain to have Bio-Alcamid, a cosmetic filler, injected into her face. I have been left with a lump the size of a ping pong ball in one cheek.

Bio-Alcamid is produced in Italy but a spokesperson for the British distributor insisted that the problems were the result of poor injection technique.