Big Mistake: Restylane in Lips from Different Doc: Uneven Smile, Strange Lumps

Hi Sally Ann,

Sorry to hear about your misadventure in injectable land.  Unfortunately bleeding and hematomas can occur even with the best injectors.  There are some precautions that can be undertaken to help minimize bruising that an experienced injecting physician will use. 

If you are concerned about your upcoming television appearance, please email a photo, I will evaluate it, and then contact you.  It is not necessary to travel back to your original injecting physician, there are many experienced and skilled experts here in Los Angeles who have experience with actors, actresses, and those in television and film.  It is important to choose your injecting physician most carefully, choose one with artistic vision.

Good luck and be well.

Dr. P

Encino, Beverly Hills, CA

Hi Sallyanne.  You have a few options.  First you can do nothing and hope that with messaging that the unevenness will go away and with time the bruise will dissipate as well.  

If you want to be more proactive, you could of course get the injections reversed as you suggested and this will return your lips to the way they looked before. You should be able to do this where you are or at your normal injector's office.

Finally, we use pulsed dye lasers in cases that involve deep injection bruises.  If treated within 2-3 days of the initial injections, the bruises usually resolve within another 48 hours.  Good luck.

Be patient, swelling and bruising after fillers will resolve. If you truly were uneven before your treatment, and the doctor had to inject more in 1 area, that area will swell more. Bruising can also cause an area to swell more and therefore make you look uneven. I always warn my patients, during their treatment, not to judge their results during the week after their treatment, as swelling and bruising can alter appearances. As for your TV appearance, most swelling and bruising resolves by 7-10 days. If you still look uneven by 7 days after your treatment, you could have hyaluronidase injected into the plumper side, it usually takes less than 24 hours to dissolve Restylane or Juvederm Ultra.

SallyAnne

The biggest concern I have for you is the lack of a balanced treatment.  The bruising could be hidden with make-up and lipstick.  However when the upper lip is primarily treated, it will look too big relative to the lower eyelid.  This will make you look like you have had filler-it's a bad thing.  Considering you are going to be on the air in 10 days, this is a circumstance where I would recommend enzyme to take out volume and a short course of corticosteroids to reduce swelling.  The product Collagen was one that could be used the day before a red carpet event.  The Hyaluronic acid fillers are not at all like this.  If you are in Los Angeles, call my office to be assessed to see if these measures will be helpful for you.

Greetings SallyAnne~

Fortunately or unfortunately, we are very familiar with situations like this.  I really feel that the best way to go in cases like this is to dissolve the material that is there and start from scratch.  It can be quite difficult to say the least to fix someone else's mistakes and rather than chase them with more product and potentially make them worse we are better off just starting anew.  Waiting for the product to dissipate on its own may take a considerable amount of time and result in it resolving in an uneven fashion as well.  After dissolving, we usually wait a few days to reinject and the begin again with a conservative amount.

Good luck~

Dr. Grant Stevens