NSW plastic surgeon warns against cheap lip filler injections

A doctor says lips injected with so much filler they look distorted are proof young women are suffering with body dysmorphia – and some social media influencers agree.

A leading plastic surgeon has warned shopping centre lip filler injection clinics are preying on social media obsessed young women and are producing clients with “bizarre looking faces”.

Prince of Wales Hospital Craniofacial director Dr Mark Gianoutsos said cheap credit services like Afterpay was also fuelling the abnormal sized lip trend which was first inspired by the likes of Khloe Kardashian but had become ubiquitous with Instagram influencers.

Kylie Jenner in 2011. Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty

Kylie Jenner inspired the trend.

“You can see the results of that when you walk down the street and see what I would argue are people with very overfilled lips,” he said.

“It is often bizarre looking faces and appearances … I think it is a degree of body dysmorphia but it is largely social media driven.”

He warned unscrupulous operators were providing lip filler services to people who did not need them with any counselling about having injections.

“Particularly in the filler market, there are a lot of people who are driven to have injections and people who go and put it all on Afterpay in the shopping malls,” he said.

“There are elements of that which are predatory on people who do live their lives through other people’s social media accounts.”

But telling image obsessed women they do not need any more filler in their already fat lips can be tricky, another industry insider said who owns more than 20 injectable clinics around Sydney said.

“The ones who have body dysmorphia we usually spot out through our culling process. We don’t like to treat them, they’re addicted to the stuff,” he said.

“They are problematic clients because they want those really massive lips. We try and talk them out of it and then they get upset and go somewhere else.”

Psychologist Janine Rod said she had numerous patients who suffered with body image issues which she said came through social media because of the saturation of images which are edited beyond recognition of the original person.

Former Married At First Sight contestant Natasha Spencer said she has had botched lip fillers and didn’t realise at the time she looked distorted. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“Abnormal has become normal because our sense of what is normal is so skewered,” she said.

“Their views are so distorted and then they look at their girlfriends who are all doing it so it becomes normal.”

She also said parents were unwittingly fuelling their image issues.

“They are mimicking what their mothers and older siblings are talking about,” she said.

Influencer and former reality TV star Natasha Spencer, 27, had complications from lip fillers procedures a few years ago and was glad she stopped having the procedure.

“I had botched lip fillers four years ago and looking back, I really wish I stopped sooner because I ended up looking distorted,” she said.

“I think there’s definitely a lot more pressure than there was when I was younger.”

“Instagram is also adding to the pressure with their use of filters because a lot of people are going to plastic surgeons with photos of themselves with a filter on, trying to achieve that look.”