A mother of two is warning young women about the dangers of lip fillers after botched injections left her with a ‘beak-like’ mouth and caused her lips to spread.
Nicole McManus, 30, admits she was “addicted” to the procedure, which is designed to add volume and shape to the lips, having had it done regularly for a decade.
But two weeks after her last treatment in June, Mrs McManus, from Lancashire, noticed her lips were ‘swollen’ — which made the stay-at-home mom feel ashamed to leave the house.
In desperation, she found another doctor who was shocked by the state of her face and told her that her lips had gone into necrosis – the death of body tissue or cells.
Nicole McManus had 1ml of filler injected into her cheeks and lips to celebrate her 30th birthday in June
The mother of two had been using fillers and anti-wrinkle injections for the past decade without any problems, but these injections caused her cheeks to swell and eventually her lips to
Ms McManus has now had all the fillers in her lips and cheeks dissolved, but she feels her cosmetic procedures have left her ‘disfigured and ruined’.
She said: ‘I just wanted to get it done to make myself feel a little bit better about myself. Then it became an addiction. I would say I was addicted. You look at yourself and think I’ll just get a little bit more in.
‘I had been using this practitioner for over a year and had had no problems until June when everything started to go wrong.
‘I wanted a glow-in-the-dark look for my 30th birthday, so I got my cheeks and lips done. But a few months later, they both swelled up.’
She was shocked by her bloated appearance on her birthday and refused to have her photos taken.
She said, “I didn’t want my picture taken. I didn’t take any pictures that day.”
Desperate, she found another doctor who was shocked by the state of her face and told her that her lips had gone into necrosis – the death of body tissue or cells
Concerned about a possible infection, she went back to her doctor who advised her to go to hospital, where they warned Mrs McManus that they would have to cut away part of her cheek. But two weeks later her lips also swelled up
When she noticed the complications, she went back to her doctor, who told her that the filler had been injected into the wrong place in her lips and cheek and that she had to go to the hospital.
She said: ‘I went to Preston Royal Hospital because I was worried and they thought it was an infection.’
Doctors had to cut away part of her cheek to prevent the infection from spreading further to her face.
She went home with a course of antibiotics, but soon noticed the swelling in her lips getting worse.
“I could barely drink,” she said. “I texted the nurse, begging for help. She wasn’t apologetic or concerned, she didn’t care.
“I was in so much pain. I looked like I had been abused. My lips were so swollen. I was so ashamed to walk out of the house. My upper lip looked like a beak.”
Mrs McManus then visited another doctor who told her that her lips were starting to ‘rot’ due to an infection.
“She saved my lips. She told me I could have lost them to necrosis (tissue death). My lips were starting to rot away.”
After Mrs McManus had a course of antibiotics, she visited another doctor who told her that her lips were starting to ‘rot’ due to an infection
Ms McManus says she suffers from ‘deformed’ lips and regrets ever having fillers
Necrosis, the death of body tissue or cells, can occur as a result of many aesthetic procedures, but is most commonly associated with the injection of dermal fillers.
If a filler is accidentally injected into a blood vessel, the blood and oxygen supply to the tissue can be cut off. The tissue can then die and eventually fall off.
A 2019 VICE UK survey of 51,000 13- to 24-year-olds found that treatments like lip fillers are becoming increasingly common.
More than half said they found procedures like lip fillers comparable to a haircut or manicure.
Ms McManus says she suffers from ‘deformed’ lips and regrets ever having fillers.
She said: ‘I have deformed lips. They are still bruised weeks later. I am ruined, I hate talking to people because of the way my lips look. They look horrible.
“Think twice before getting fillers. I should have appreciated my natural look. I regret what I had done because this is what I’m left with.”