Annoying and unsightly bumps after receiving dermal fillers
Dermal fillers are on the rise, but with increasing popularity and people opting for cheaper and often ill-experienced administrators, comes an increase of risks and side-effects like lip filler lumps. Beauticians, make-up artists and unskilled nurses who inherently have little or no medical knowledge venturing into medical aesthetics. They attend a one day “demonstration” or even watch a few YouTube videos then jump on the band wagon treating unwary and “customers”.
Here at Castleknock Cosmetic Clinic, we are seeing more and more unfortunate individuals presenting to us with irregular lip filler lumps following a bad lip augmentation by a rogue operator elsewhere. It’s not uncommon for patients to have distortion or contour irregularities of their facial skin in the immediate period following dermal filler injections. In the vast majority of patients this is usually related to either localised tissue trauma, swelling or bruising and may take a few days to resolve. With good injection technique, long term bumps should be rare. Lumps and bumps only occur in less than 1% of treatments.
Unqualified Operators
Unfortunately, in unskilled hands these lumps, bumps and areas of hardness may be related to uneven injection of the dermal filler or superficial injection of a filler intended for deeper application. Although hardness can happen with any filler, more commonly they are caused by too much of the filler being injected at one point in the skin. Hyaluronic acid dermal fillers tend to absorb water which can accentuate the problem, specially in the lips where they’re noticed as lentil sized beads.
If the bumps persist, they can be treated. In some cases gentle massage will address the problem. In other cases removal of the offending dermal filler will be requires and that when I see patients presenting to me for correction. Removal of dermal fillers irregularities can be accomplished by either manual extraction using a specialised instrument or by using the enzyme hyaluronidase to dissolve the material.
In Summary:
Once the treatment settles lumpiness should not be felt. Persistent irregularities don’t tend to go away on their own. They need to be managed. If the lumps are due to misplaced or encapsulated hyaluronic acid then there is a chance they can be treated successfully. First the cause of the lumps needs to be established through medical assessment and evaluation.
What to do if you notice lumps after my dermal filler injections?
Infection needs to be ruled out. Contact your treating doctor to assess if antibiotics and other treatments may be required.
If you can only feel the lumps and not see them, then don’t panic, because simple massage should take care of the irregularities.
If you can see the lumps, keep an eye on them and if they don’t disappear in 2 weeks then seek our help at Castleknock Cosmetic Clinic.
Removal of lumpy dermal filler:
It could be possible to manually remove the offending dermal filler:
Physical removal by a specialist extraction needle.
Injection of a dermal filler dissolving medication called Hyaluronidase / Hylase.
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