No-one is completely immune from a poor outcome: even the best of the best have their failures...they just have fewer than the others.
WHY ?
First of all, never forget that the doctor (or the surgeon) works on the living organism, which is to say a collection of uncontrollable parameters (why does such a medicament work miracles for one patient but make another ill? We cannot control everything)..
Reaction to the product
Not everyone reacts in the same way to the same product: some have more oedemas as they have a more reactive or more inflammatory surface or have bad drainage, others will have more bruising through a vascular fragility or roseacea or a tendency to bleeding, yet others have very powerful muscles needing a lot more botox, while it will be the opposite for others who are liable to experience freezing with weak doses of botox.
Anatomical variations
Even if the facial characteristics are universally the same, there are very real variations between patients in their muscular (some muscles have atypical insertions) vascular and nervous systems (vessels and nerves can sometimes have atypical routing). In addition, we cannot see what is hidden under the skin – the surgeon however can, during a facelift.
Patient error
The patient can also involuntarily (or deliberately, thinking to help) touch the treated area and create problems:
- The most frequent being botox which is moved so as to touch muscles which should not be touched, causing an non-aesthetic result (eyebrows or eyelids which sag, generally for some days or some weeks).
- Beaming smiles, or massaging the exterior just after injecting naso-labial folds can displace the product and cause an aggravation of the naso-labial folds.
- Too powerful massaging after the injection can cause haematomas or break down certain diminishing hyaluronic acids, or in this latter case, its effect.
No undesirable effects, but:
- The patient's requirements have not been understood, and the result does not match expectations.
- The practitioner has no artistic sense and the result simply is not attractive.
- The patient's requirements are not suited to his or her face (mouth too plumped up, apples of the cheeks too prominent) and the doctor has wanted to satisfy the patient, and the patient is delighted with the result even if, objectively, he or she is uglier!
Of course, our task is to anticipate, but sadly not everything is foreseeable. On the other hand, it is important to report problems so that the doctor amends his or her treatment in the next session.
A POSITIVE POINT:
In aesthetic medicine (provided resorbable products are used) these problems are temporary, but you should always talk about them to your practitioner, who will usually offer a treatment to shorten the duration of these side effects.
