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Lip Filler and it’s Myths

Every cosmetic procedure carries their own myths. Here we address the ones found with lip filler treatments, also known as lip augmentation.

“People will know I have had lip fillers”

It’s easy to search “celebrity lip fillers” and be bombarded with an array of over-injected stars. Enough to want to make you stay away from a needle. The truth behind the pictures is that dermal fillers can look natural (some people just prefer it not to). With ease, a trained medical practitioner can give a subtle hint of volume and shape to your lips, producing the desired outcome.

We advise you to have an understanding of what you want to achieve from the treatment. Listen to your practitioners advice (they do know best after all!).

Most importantly, work with the face you have. There is no point turning up to an appointment thinking you will be coming out as Angelina Jolie. You will come out as you just with better lips!

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“A foreign substance is being injected into my face”

This is not the case. There are many brands out there used for dermal fillers, all promising to give a fuller look. Look for the brands containing Hyaluronic Acid. A natural substance found in our bodies. The injections containing this simply reintroduce it into our bodies. This stimulates our natural hyaluronic acid to work hard in providing a fuller, plumper look.

At Cosmetic Courses we work with Juvederm. A leader in the dermal filler market. Their fillers contain no unnatural substances, just a big old dose of a synthetic version of our bodies own hyaluronic acid.

“Only people with thin lips get fillers”

The most common use for lip fillers is to plump out thinner lips. Although they can do much more than that. Fillers can contour your mouth, define a cupids bow, hydrate dry lips & add symmetry to your face. The possibilities are endless…

“I’m too young/old for fillers”

Fillers are known for the anti-ageing qualities. The hyaluronic acid triggers collagen in the skin to rejuvenate the chosen areas. As well as this it’s also enhancing the area, adding volume.

Many celebrities of all ages use fillers as part of their beauty regime. From Jennifer Aniston preventing ageing to the infamous Kylie Jenner lips.

“My lips will feel strange afterwards”

Another popular lip filler myth. Apart from the swelling after your treatment (which can last up to a day). Your lips will feel back to normal. Some patients even forget they have had their lips done unless they look in a mirror!

“When the filler wears off will my lips be even smaller than before?”

Filler top ups can be done after the previous treatment has dissolved. You can stop having lip fillers completely without any side effects. Your lips will return to their natural size, they won’t be smaller than when you first started having treatment. The hyaluronic acid introduced by the injection will dissolve slowly over time leaving you with your natural lips.

“Lip fillers are irreversible”

As long as you have hyaluronic acid based dermal fillers, the effects will not be permanent. As discussed above, your body naturally breaks down the filler over time. Along with this, if you are unhappy with your results there is always the possibility to instantly dissolve the filler using a substance called Hyalase. This is almost always unnecessary but gives you the peace of mind that there is an option to reverse the filler if required.

Lip Fillers at Cosmetic Courses

before and after lip filler

Cosmetic Courses is the UK’s leading cosmetic training provider offering high quality lip fillertreatment at a third of the high street cost. As a model you will be in the capable hands of our experienced aesthetic trainers as doctors, dentists and nurses are taught the art of lip augmentation.

If you’re interested in becoming a model for lip filler treatment at Cosmetic Courses then register your interest here and someone will be in touch to discuss the details with you.

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Project Dynamite set to explode dermal fillers industry?

We know we’ve missed a trick. By rights we should have written about PRP Therapy (a.k.a ‘Vampire Facelift’) last week, being Halloween and all.

But we’re not going to make the same mistake twice, and miss another opportunity to integrate our blog with something topical.

So this week, with the sound of fireworks ringing in our ears, we’ve decided it’s a good time to talk about Allergen’s new initiative to change the public perception of dermal fillers. It’s Project Dynamite.

About Project Dynamite

Industry leader Allergan recently decided to explore the public’s attitude to dermal fillers. Broadly, the goal was to understand people’s motivations for seeking filler treatment, as well as the reservations they might have about fillers.

They conducted extensive research, speaking to 2,000 women of all ages to gauge their opinions about dermal fillers. The findings have now been circulated, and Allergan are convinced they will revolutionise the marketing efforts of clinics and practitioners when it comes to fillers.

Here are the 3 most significant findings of their research, and what they could mean for you:

1. When women refer to filler treatment, the majority use “facial fillers” rather than “dermal fillers”

This is an interesting one, and the implications are simple. As medical professionals, we may be more inclined to refer to “dermal fillers”. But it’s important to speak the same language as your patients. When referring to the treatment on your website, brochure and any promotional materials, it is probably better to refer to the treatment as facial fillers if you don’t already. This will make your website more easily found, and your communications more relatable.

2. There’s a stigma attached to having fillers, mainly for two reasons – people are worried about them looking unnatural, and they don’t fully understand the treatment

It seems that many people need access to much more information about fillers. This represents a great opportunity for you. Fact sheets, Q&As, FAQs, videos, before and after photos, case studies, testimonials – all of these will mark you out as a great information resource. People are hungry for information on filler treatment, so use your website and social media channels to give them plenty of useful information and assuage their fears.

3. Women today feel more positive about ageing, and ageing well is more important than looking young 

Of the women Allergan spoke to, only 20% said they wanted to look five years younger. However, 41% said they wanted to look fresher and more radiant. This should be reflected in your marketing messages. Focusing more on the idea of fillers helping women look good for their age rather than looking younger will resonate more with your potential patients, and reflect the way they feel about themselves.

Cosmetic Courses are one of the UK’s most established training providers for medical professionals looking to enter the aesthetic industry. For more information on our dermal filler training, please contact us on 01844 390110 or email [email protected].

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Concern expressed over failure to implement Keogh recommendations

BAAPS President Rajiv Grover has spoken out over his concern that recommendations made to government months ago are not being implemented – a view that is echoed by much of the aesthetic medical industry.

In April of this year the final Keogh Review report was published and presented to government. In it, recommendations were made that the administration of non-invasive cosmetic procedures such as Botox and fillers should be carried out by qualified medical practitioners alone. At the time the review found the current deregulation of dermal fillers a “crisis waiting to happen.”

Now, six months after the recommendations were made, there has still been no action to tighten regulation within the industry which Grover deems to be “shameful”, adding:

“I like to hope that something will improve (however) there have been reviews before and none of them were taken up.”

The British Association of Dermatologists reaffirms his view and has responded in kind to the so-far lack of parliamentary response on the matter. In a statement spokesperson Deborah Mason said:

“When things go wrong with dermal fillers clients do not go back to their beauty therapist but seek help from dermatologists. This may give the false impression that these procedures are safe to those not medically skilled to deal with or understand the risks.

“We would like to see specific training in these procedures for medical and non-medical practitioners.”

The Department of Health has responded to the criticisms in a statement, stating:

“The government agrees with the principles of Sir Bruce Keogh’s recommendations and we are considering the report carefully and will put our detailed response to parliament shortly.”

Cosmetic Courses offers aesthetic training to qualified medical professionals from centres in Buckinghamshire and Manchester. Call us on 01844 390110 for details.

 

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IHAS register in the UK – will it help reduce Bad Botox practice?

IHAS is the regulation authority for Botox and non-surgical treatments launched by the UK government.

This is supported by a website – “Treatments You Can Trust”.

Under this  voluntary scheme, clinics can register with the IHAS organisation and are then regularly assessed and audited.

Says Mr Adrian Richards (Expert Cosmetic Surgeon and founder of Cosmetic Courses training centre), “Whilst I think regulation is certainly necessary in the industry, my main concern with the IHAS is that it is voluntary.

This means that some clinics will register and others will not, without it being mandatory for any clinic to register.

The paperwork required to register is very extensive and time consuming, and there is a significant cost to a clinic to register.

The government budget for publicising the IHAS scheme is relatively small and I am by no means sure that it is sufficient to adequately publicise the scheme to the general public.”

Mr Richards’ concerns are therefore that the scheme is:

(1) time consuming and costly;

(2) voluntary; and

(3) may not be publicised well not enough to the general public to gain general acceptance.

Cosmetic Courses hope that Mr Richards’ concerns are proven wrong.

Only time will tell whether the IHAS regulation scheme will be an effective way of policing the Botox and Dermal Filler market in the United Kingdom.

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Cosmetic Courses join the Big Beauty Therapist Botox® Training Debate: Should Beauty Therapists be allowed to Inject?

Back in March, The Consulting Rooms’ Ron Myers reported on the medical aesthetic industry’s “hot” controversy: should Beauty Therapists be allowed to inject Botulinum Toxin and Fillers?

Traditionally, as at Cosmetic Courses National Training Centre, training in botulinum toxin and dermal filler treatments has been the exclusive domain of the medically qualified. Cosmetic Courses lists surgeons, registered nurses, opthamologists, doctors, dermatologists, dentists, dental hygienists, dental therapists and certain paramedics amongst its accepted delegates; no mention of Beauty Therapists, despite the hundreds of calls a year from eager candidates.

The logic behind this is strong. To date, the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services’ (IHAS) Treatments You Can Trust Register has refused to provide quality assurance accreditation to cosmetic injectable providers who do not fall into the above job fields. This is typical, Cosmetic Courses Coordinator Rachael Langford confirms, of industry attitudes generally. Insurance is very difficult to obtain to train non-medical delegates in cosmetic injectables and, in our experience, a Beauty Therapist is likely to have a very tough time finding insurance to set up their business afterwards. As Ron Myers points out, the manufacturers and major suppliers themselves of these products do not support their use by non-medically qualified practitioners, which surely speaks volumes.

Many Beauty Therapists are keen to come on botox® training courses, however, and very vocal about their rights to become Medical Aesthetic Practitioners. In such difficult times of economic recession, practitioners from all backgrounds (Myers acknowledges) ‘want to generate an income from this evolving market segment’. As Dr. Phillip Dobson points out,  technically there is nothing illegal about a Beauty Therapist administering botulinum toxin (if a doctor or dentist has signed the scripts for them) and dermal fillers, so long as they do not mislead their patients into believing that they are medically qualified; it all comes down to patient consent. Many Beauty Therapists who telephone Cosmetic Courses argue that they have a better understanding of the skin than, say, a dentist and a number of them have already attended anaphylaxis or resuscitation training. They claim that there is too much “superiority” and “snotty remarks” in the industry and they may have a fair point; even amongst those who are accepted to inject, some Cosmetic and Plastic Surgeons still frown upon Dentists and Nurses who do so. Now an organisation called the CTIA (Cosmetic Treatments and Injectables Association) has been founded to challenge the exclusion of Beauty Therapists from cosmetic injectables, on the understanding that all practitioners should be inspected regularly for quality.

Yet as Dr Samantha Gammell, President Elect of the British Association of Cosmetic Doctors (BACD) maintains:

“A one day training course does not provide non-medically qualified ‘therapists’ with the depth of knowledge required for these types of treatments nor the understanding or skills to deal with the complications that can occasionally arise from them. The public needs to protect themselves by demanding to be treated in a safe medical environment by a competent, well trained cosmetic doctor or a suitable healthcare professional who makes the patients interests his or her first concern. It may be cosmetic but it is still medicine.”

Whilst Cosmetic Courses sympathise with the frustration of Beauty Therapists, founder Mr Adrian Richards emphasises that we fully support the BACD. “At the end of the day,” says Mr Richards, “dermal fillers and botulinum toxin are injectable substances that can cause harm. We believe they should only be used by trained medical professionals with the appropriate training. This is why we set up Cosmetic Courses, to offer the highest standards of training and make every effort to ensure that the safety of patients is of paramount importance.” The Cosmetic Courses team are looking into possible alternative training options for Beauty Therapists rather than injectables, so that they can still support their enthusiasm for the Medical Aesthetics industry…more on this coming soon!

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The Pros and Cons of the Cosmetic Treatment Craze

Cosmetic treatment technologies continue to evolve, making beauty easier and cheaper for women to attain. This is good news for women seeking to appear younger, particularly because research has shown a correlation between attractiveness and career success. And since today’s non invasive treatments are less costly and require less recovery time than surgical procedures, more and more women are climbing on the cosmetic treatment bandwagon. But these newer treatments are temporary compared to traditional cosmetic surgery, requiring recurring visits to cosmetic treatment providers, and costs and time invested can add up. Also, experts worry that the growing fad may have societal repercussions in which younger and younger women are turning to cosmetic treatments in order to feel acceptable. And finally, little studies have been conducted to determine the long-term effects of non invasive treatments.

It’s true that cosmetic treatments are getting easier. Where cow-sourced collagen formerly required skin testing, human collagen and Botox now require no skin test. The treatments are quick and easy, with virtually no recovery time. When compared with traditional cosmetic surgery, fillers and injections are much more affordable, costing hundreds of dollars instead of thousands of dollars. But since these treatments are not permanent, women must routinely have the treatments repeated. And experts say that the non invasive treatments are simply postponing the traditional plastic surgeries, such as eyebrow lifts and face lifts. In the end, women may pay more than if they had opted for the traditional surgery in the first place. Also, traditional surgery has a longer history, so side-effects and long-term effects are well known by doctors.

But many argue against the growing fad altogether. Younger women are undergoing non invasive cosmetic treatments than ever before. Books such as “Bodylove: Learning to Like Our Looks and Ourselves, A Practical Guide for Women” by Rita Freedman and “Midlife Crisis at 30: How the Stakes Have Changed for a New Generation – And What to Do About It” by Lia Macko and Kerry Rubin address the negative repercussions that this fad has on society. Women see celebrities and even their peers undergoing treatments, and they feel like they don’t measure up. Indeed, studies have shown a correlation between career success and attractiveness, so it may be that the trend is already irreversible. Cosmetic enhancements may be no different than any other technology taking over the globe. Once we go there, it’s hard to turn back.

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