Beware of the Botox! Complaints over non-surgical cosmetic procedures hit record high

Complaints about non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as Botox have reached an all-time high, campaigners say.

Save Face, a national registry of practitioners and clinics, received 2,824 complaints last year.

The figure, including treatment complications, is a quarter higher than in 2020.

The wave of complaints has raised concerns about the lack of public protection as a new industry licensing regime is introduced.

Members of parliament want the policy to be introduced more quickly.

Under current rules, an aesthetic practitioner in the UK does not need any compulsory qualifications. It means that anyone can follow a course and then perform filler treatments.

However, calls to speed up the regime were rejected by the Ministry of Health and Social Care in February, sparking fears it would take up to three years for the regulation to take effect, according to The times.

This is despite the fact that the number of complaints to Save Face has increased significantly, from 2,436 in 2021 to just 2,083 in 2020.

Derma fillers – which can cost in the region of £200 – made up 69 per cent of all complaints by 2022.

The procedure involves injecting a substance, usually hyaluronic acid, into the face to fill in wrinkles or make lips and cheekbones appear larger or more defined.

Its popularity has skyrocketed in recent years as women strive to look like celebrities like Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, raising the concern of pundits who fear Britons are falling victim to a largely unregulated cosmetic aesthetic industry.

One case, cited by Ashton Collins, director of Save Face, involved a woman who received an anti-wrinkle injection but was suspected to have been given an unregistered product, resulting in serious complications.

“People think I’m exaggerating when I say this, but she literally had to have half her face removed,” she said, adding that infections had “eaten away at her tissue and nerves” — requiring multiple surgeries.

Carolyn Harris, Labour’s co-chair of the multi-party beauty and well-being parliamentary group, said: ‘If it’s not well run, if we don’t give people the right education, if we don’t give the right accreditation and licenses to people who are well qualified, then it is potentially life-threatening.’

Ms Collins said parliament’s calls for the regime to be implemented in July were ‘unrealistic’.

But she said protections could be put in place in the meantime and urged the government to “put in place a proper awareness campaign for anyone considering undergoing these treatments.”

Ms Collins added that it could also be a mandatory requirement for practitioners to have malpractice insurance – which she said would mean that if something went wrong, rather than shelling out thousands of pounds to correct it, it would be covered for compensation.

Professor David Sines, Executive Chairman of the Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners, agreed that the July deadline was not possible given the amount of work required.

He said it would “always take two very busy years” to get it done, which would mean a launch date of 2025.

In addition to complaints, Save Face handles dozens of cases each year of people who have not had a face-to-face consultation before receiving botulinum toxin injections – which is a legal requirement. Botox is the best known brand of botulinum toxin.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Social Care said: ‘Following a series of positive discussions with stakeholders, we intend to conduct our first consultation this summer on the procedures covered by the licensing scheme.’

It comes after a MailOnline investigation last month revealed that British beauty clinics were offering Botox in illegal cosmetic lotteries.

It turned out that a dozen clinics were running online raffles inviting Britons to buy tickets for as little as £5 for a chance to win treatment packages worth up to £650.

Campaigners have called on a clinic to stop offering raffles and sweepstakes for treatments, especially those involving prescription-only drugs

Simply Aesthetics London has a dedicated webpage for its monthly ‘Beautiful Raffle’

Campaigners accused those running the lotteries of using “dangerous tactics” to encourage Britons to undergo such treatments, including for prescription-only drugs.

They warned that offering cosmetic procedures as prizes may downplay them and their potential consequences.

And recent research has suggested Botox injections can impair the ability to recognize the feelings of others.

In a study by University of California scientists and researchers from Botox makers AbbVie, which looked at happy and sad faces, participants who had the anti-aging injections had altered brain activity in areas related to emotion.

Each year, about 900,000 Britons undergo Botox injections, which involve injecting a substance called botulinum toxin into areas of the face, such as the forehead and around the eyes and mouth. This procedure relaxes the muscles under the skin by blocking the nerve signals that cause them to contract, smoothing out wrinkles.