5 Facial Procedures That Can Ruin Your Face & Your Life! | Dr. Shereene Idriss

Before you go and make the biggest mistake of your life, slow your roll. Buckle up nerds, because today we are breaking down the five top cosmetic trending procedures that are just not worth the risk. And I will explain why. But before I do so, like subscribe comment below. I am Dr. Shereen Idris, a board certified dermatologist whose focus is on cosmetics. And I just want to say a disclaimer. This video is truly about my professional opinion. With over 12 years of clinical experience and as someone who has treated over 10000 patients, I see patients five days a week in my practice focusing on cosmetics. And I have seen it all from the good, the bad and the very ugly. And therefore you do not have to agree with me for this video, but this is a video that is open to discussion. And it is also a video in which you must understand that there are going to be exceptions to every rule. I am doing this because a lot of people go in blind, quite literally, where they do not ask questions, they do not ask questions as to who is treating them, they do not ask questions as to what are the risks. And, and a lot of people can be taken for rides. And I want to make sure you have all the information you need to make the decision that is best suited for you. So starting with number one, this is one that I've been very vocal about, liquid rhinoplasty, non surgical nose jobs where injectors are injecting dissolvable fillers, hyaluronic acid based fillers like Restylane or Juvederm into your nasal bridge or the tip of your nose to hide any lumps, bumps to make it appear straighter, to lift the tip up because they want a little bit of a button nose or you know, to have a more quote, unquote refined look. Let us take a look. This is a huge risk and here is why. From an anatomic perspective, your nose is the area of your face that is part of the midline of your face. The midline of anyone's face is the most dangerous area. One of those reasons is because your arteries come from the outside in and they tend to end in the midline. And so it's an area that has a lot of end arteries. And therefore when you are placing filler in this area, and let's say it gets into that artery, it can cause a vascular occlusion blockage on the filler blocking the artery. Okay? And if that happens, you can end up having skin death, also known as necrosis, that looks like this. Now a Lot of people are not very lucky and end up having permanent disfigurements. So it's something that I do not recommend. Now, is this something that happens often? No. Is it rare? Yes. But can it happen? Sure. And would I want to play Russian roulette with my own face? No. I actually, as a provider, had a phone call two years ago that I documented on Instagram stories where a patient called me on a Friday night, freaking out because she couldn't feel the tip of her nose. And I had to go back to my office, open the door, and had to treat her because she got treated elsewhere at a spa that wouldn't see her or help her reverse her complications, and told her, go see a doctor. So she ended up coming back to me so I could fix it. Lucky for her, I was available and I was able to reverse it. And so she did not have any permanent disfigurement. But it was a very scary moment for her to have to live for something that she was trying to do to make herself feel feel better about how she looks. If you guys follow me on Instagram, you may or may not remember when I went on a crazy rant. I'll try to find that footage and share it with you. I need to go on a rant. I need to go on a rant right now. My brain's about to explode. It's 8pm I came back to my office because I got an emergency phone call from somebody who I had seen, like, two months ago, calling in panic because she is having a vascular occlusion in her cheek. A vascular occlusion is when filler blocks your blood vessels and your skin can slough off and die. And I asked her, wait a second, two months ago. She goes, no, you never treated me. I actually decided to go to a Medispa. Not because I didn't treat her. Your prerogative. Maybe you can't afford it, fine. But go somewhere reputable where you're being treated by somebody who is board certified, somebody who is licensed, somebody, somebody with the right credentials. You don't know whose hands you're landing at on a Groupon deal. And it's your face, it's not your shoes. You get your shoes on sale, you do not get your. I got cut off. But you get your shoes on sale, you do not get your face on sale. And the reason I am losing my Shiite tonight is because the Medispa did not have an emergency line for the customer, not the patient, to call. So she ended up calling the emergency room. Who told her we can't take care of you? You should probably find a dermatologist. Losing my shit. If the Medispa or any place that looks hip or cool but can't afford the first two letters of the word inject in their name, you should probably think twice about a Groupon deal that you get before you get your face effed with. That's. That's all I'm gonna say tonight. The other reason why this is not a great idea is because it can lead to permanent vision loss. Some of the arteries on our nose have actual connections with the retinal artery in our eyeballs. And therefore, if you inject it into that artery and it goes back. There have been case reports of permanent vision loss. Again, is it something common? No. Is it something that can happen? Yes. Would I do it? No. For those of you who have had nose jobs, I have never had a nose job. But if you have had a nose job and you have a little bit of a defect left, go back to the surgeon who did your nose job and it is up to their discretion. But do not go to any other provider expecting to get filler placed to fix that defect. Because when you get a nose job, things move around under the surface of the skin, including those blood vessels, and the risk of an occlusion or something going wrong is actually higher. Not to mention the fact that there's scar tissue that's bounding down. So if you're putting filler and it's putting pressure now outside of the artery, it can collapse it from the outside, leading to a little bit of a tissue necrosis situation like this. If you have a nose that you do not like, just go ahead and get a nose job. Go, go see a surgeon. Figure that part out. There are surgeons for every budget, but understand that they must be board certified qualified and have had extensive experience in this area before you make your decision. Additionally, from a personal subjective opinion, I don't recommend nose fillers because or non surgical nose jobs for an aesthetic reason. As the filler sits in the nose, it lingers. The nose is not a mobile part of your face that moves a lot, that can metabolize it easily, etc. And therefore what can happen, it can sit. And as it sits, I have personally seen this on some patients. The bridge of your nose starts to look wider and you end up looking wider over time, especially those who go back to get filler placed quite regularly and you end up looking like this character from either Star wars or Star Trek. Case closed. Moving on to number Two. Mini or preventative facelift is this trend that people need to be considering getting a facelift as early as their early 30s. And this is one that has become now overhyped on social. You will see plastic surgeons leading the pack on this, really leading this trend. And unfortunately, I'm just going to say this whether I like it or not. Social media's algorithm is based out of fear. And what I truly hate is particularly men prying on women's insecurities, putting down what they've done to try to help themselves by saying, what you've done is, and what you need is something really permanent for your full face starting at a young age, so you don't get older and look shittier faster. And that is something that has been perpetuated over the past year on social. Now, when you look further at these plastic surgeons, some of them are really qualified and they do beautiful work, but they also offer a lot of the non surgical methods that they are shitting on or poo pooing at their offices. And so they're talking out of both sides of their mouths. Preventative facelifts starting at a young age is probably right for a very, very, very, very, very small percentage of people. A percentage of people who have either exaggerated bone structures that are very, very narrow and thin, weak muscle structures, or they're just genetically really predisposed to being very, very loose or they've lost a lot of weight. It's one of those exceptions. Is it? For someone like me, who's now 41, Should I have had it done at 35? My answer is going to be no, absolutely not. Do I love this? No. Do I need a full facelift? No. Could you get maybe a platysmaplasty where you tighten the muscle just so it's a little bit firmer? Because I have a weak platysmal muscle. Yeah, sure. But that's not a preventative facelift. So let's get that straight. For them to talk you guys into lifting your face from here, from here, from here, lifting your eyebrow, maybe getting even now a blepharoplasty when they're cutting that excess skin around your eyes at a young age when you do not have hooded eyes to begin with is overkill. Do not believe in getting a facelift at 30. And I'll also mention this, each time you get a facelift, your face will shrink. They take off fat. Because what a facelift normally entails is loose skin in which to get rid of fat, cut out the excess skin and pull back when you're getting a preventative facelift, you do not have necessarily excess skin. They're just pulling your skin and tightening it and in the process probably taking off some fat to get a stronger pull, which might be unnatural for your face, especially at this stage of life. Considering that your face is going to shrink when you do a facelift, keep in mind that if you do it at 35, 38, you're going to need another one by the time you hit 45, 48, 10 years later, and then another one at 55, 58 and maybe another one at 65, 68. So now we're into four facelifts over a lifetime. What is your face going to look like by the time you hit your 60s? You are living with this for a very long time, hopefully. So think of it as a long term road and not just a point in time. And really try to draw that path out to help yourselves as you age. It is about finding yourself somebody that you can age with. I call it like an aging coach. I didn't know what to call them, but a dermatologist who's focused on cosmetics or a plastic surgeon who does mini invasive or an injector or somebody. Okay, that's why I said aging coach who can help you age as you go along and who's not going to be afraid to tell you you need to get surgery now or you know what, let's try doing a couple more things. If in six months to a year and a half we're still unhappy, we'll go down the road of going down the consults with plastic surgeons, understanding our options. But do not be pressured or fooled into believing you need a facelift in your 30s. Number three, I hate this trend. I thought it died. It kind of died. It kind of came back. I don't know where people stand but buccal fat removal, this is one where people are taking off these fat pads right over here. I'm just going to say one thing. As you get older, it's your face or your ass in terms of plumpiness, if you got a good ass, your face is probably good. If you knife some junk in the trunk, if you're holding on to some little bit of cushion, your face is probably going to age better. If you're very, very skinny and frail and petite, you're going to lose your face as you get older. It's kind of part of the game. I mean, it's unfortunate. Don't kill the messenger. I mean, look at ozempic face people, right? If you are Prematurely getting rid of the cushion in your face at an age where that cushion is still at the place where it should be and it has not yet dropped or sagged or anything, you're, you are going to look gaunt faster and you're going to look older in the process and just off. So do not consider buccal fat removal. It is absolutely irreversible and it is very hard to fix with filler. It ends up becoming like a Bermuda Triangle that doesn't hold onto filler correctly. It is one of those things where you just buy yourself a new problem. I think when you are in your 60s and you have that buccal fat that is hanging and you're getting a facelift lift, sure, the surgeon can reposition it, place it, etc, play with it, but give them the option to have that fat so they could play with it in your face as you're getting a facelift. Not to mention, when I am doing my thing with fillers, I work around the buccal fat to try to minimize the appearance of it. And I play with the height of your face so it ends up looking much smoother and less down and overall on your face. I don't know how else to say you kind of play with the height, lifting your face, etc, you not really lifting. It's an optical illusion of lift, but it just helps to play with overall dimensions of your face. So I wouldn't recommend buccal fat removal at all. And a lot I do not talk about celebrities ever. I don't like to comment anymore on anyone's face because you never know if they're going to walk into your office. But you just see a lot of headlines about a lot of these people and it's just not cool. But they're not wrong that they don't look great in the process. Number four, and this is one where we had a lot of comments. The Internet came after me for masseter Botox. They had their opinions. People were really mad at me for saying that masseter Botox is something that I just would not do. And I understand that masseter Botox can help for people with tmj, but this is where we're going to talk about nuance. And this is where the exceptions really matter. If you are somebody who has a narrow bone structure and you grind your teeth and your masseters are slightly enlarged, do not get masseter Botox because if you do your masseters and you Botox them, you have a higher risk of jowling because you do not have the bony Structure to support your face. I tell patients, even if I do inject their masters, they need to get a night guard. If you're someone who has a narrow structure, you must get a night guard, okay? It's no longer a nice to have. It is a must have. And I do wear a night guard at night. And it has absolutely helped with the tension headaches, the tmj. There was a point in my life where I could not open my mouth. In med school, I had to bite a sandwich like this because I couldn't go. I couldn't open it. It was so tight from all the stress and all the grinding. But the night guard has absolutely made a huge difference in my life. If you are someone, though, who has a really strong jawline, your bone structure is strong and wide. Good for you. You're probably going to age better. And that's why men tend to age better than women. Again, I'm generalizing, but it's because they have stronger bone density and their structure is wider and firmer. But if you are a person who has a strong jawline, your bone structure is strong and wide and your masseters are bulging and you're like the Hulk or Popeyes on your face. Go ahead and botox it. You will tolerate it. Because your bone structure is wide, you are much less likely to jowl, and therefore you did not buy yourself a new problem. So this is one to be discussed through a cosmetic lens. Because, yes, there is a medical reason why you're getting treatment, but the cosmetic implication can be far worse on the psyche. When you start jowling and you look like shit and you're like, why did I do this to myself? So that is why I do not necessarily recommend masseter Botox. And number five is kind of a duo. It is your under eyes and your lip filler. I know it's controversial. Hear me out. I do inject lips with filler, but I do not inject all lips. Additionally, there's different frameworks of lips. There are lips that are thin when they are dynamic. Okay? When you are smiling and you don't smile like this, but you smile like this, it kind of rolls in this kind of lip that looks like this at rest, but like this, and you smile, probably should get Botox instead of filler because your muscle is strong and it's rolling in. If you have someone at rest who has lips like this, but then you smile and it goes like that, that's not necessarily lip filler. That might be Botox from here to lower the gummy Smile so that you can now sigh like this. But if you are somebody who at rest is like this, yeah, we can do lip filler, but we do not do lip filler all at once. The amount of filler it will take to recreate the shape of your mouth is going to be a little bit over time, substantial in the sense of 2 to 3 mls. Some people inject 2 to 3 mls in one sitting. I think that is wackadoo and crazy. Your lip cannot take that volume all at once and hold on to it. Your lip has to slowly accommodate for that volume. So when I try to build a lip up with filler, I do it very slowly, injecting very little slowly over time, every eight weeks over several visits. Okay, probably maximum half a syringe over several visits. And then there comes a point where filler will linger, like I said, and you probably don't need an injection for several years. Will not migrate to look like that poofy look that people talk about when they're talking about lip fillers. I have never done lip fillers. I've done PRF on my lips because as I was getting older, I started losing density right here. And I didn't think it needed filler. I just wanted to strengthen the density of my tissue. So I injected my own blood once in my upper lip this past January, and I do think it made my lip firmer. That is an option if you're not interested in lip filler. Now, the under eyes are somewhat the same as the lips, slightly different in that it really depends on your bone structure. How high is your orbital rim versus how low is it? And if your orbital rim, the bony rim around your eyeball is low, you cannot get under eye filler. You will have a bubble there and then you will think you look normal until you realize you don't. And when you want to break it up, you're going to sink the in and you're going to hate your life and it's going to cause a lot of psychological issues. So for the under eyes, I'm also very, very conservative. And I'm very, very, very discerning in who I treat and who I do not treat because it comes with potential complications aesthetically and anatomically. And you have to make sure that the person is the right fit anatomically for the filler, but less is more. Always, always, always. If your injector decides not to use the whole syringe, do not be upset by that. Do not force them to use the whole sy paid for it. It doesn't matter. You want to make sure that you look good versus what you're paying. Etc. Okay. And there you have it. The top five and a half trending cosmetic procedures that I don't necessarily stand behind. It is a little bit longer. I felt like we needed to go a little bit more in depth. I could actually talk way longer than what I just did about all of this. I hope it was helpful. I hope it helped to open your eyes and to kind of think of the questions that you should be asking before you go in for these procedures. Because it should be a discussion not just with me, but with the provider that you're picking to do these procedures with. With that. Have a beautiful Saturday. As always, leave your questions below and I will catch you guys next.