Please beware of Caroline Mills - she botched my face

PLEASE BEWARE OF CAROLINE MILLS AT THE FACE SURGEONS - Caroline is currently one of the lowest-rated Maxillofacial surgeons in the UK on realself.com. - Caroline has a track record of botching her patients' faces and severely impacting their quality of life. - In an attempt to deflect blame from herself Caroline is known to gaslight her patients explaining that their surgery gone wrong is “all in their heads” Before I get started with my experience, I think it is best for people to see the growing body of evidence of Caroline’s botched surgeries – take a moment to feel the pain she has put these people through.Botched Surgery Evidence
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Tips on finding a good Maxillofacial surgeon
- The best surgeons in the UK have (a) lots of realself reviews (b) over 4.7 stars on realself (c) BAAPS member. - Check the surgeons lowest-rated reviews on realself as well as their best. - Approach surgery like it has already gone wrong and this is your last chance to get it right – this mindset will help you find the right surgeon and avoid surgeons like Caroline. - I would personally recommend David Dunaway, Jonathan Britto and Samuel Mattine if you are seeking facial implants. - Please find the best Maxillofacial surgeons on this list (Caroline is near the bottom):
https://www.realself.com/find/...


My Procedure - I had suffered from hereditary dark circles where I lacked bony structure in my face I wanted to get some cheek implants that would restore some of the volume in my tear trough area. - I stressed to Caroline that I wanted something natural and subtle and was strongly opposed to changing my face dramatically. - I opted for Customised Cheek implants made from my 3D-CT scans which were the “gold standard” as Caroline put it. - The first design came back from the implants and they were considerablyy large. As a patient, you have a gut feeling what will be right for your face and I was extremely concerned by how big they were. - I had a feeling Caroline did not understand what I wanted even after explicitly telling her. - I made a PowerPoint and included pictures stressing that I wanted something natural, and I was determined to get this right the first time. - Caroline suggested I come to London to speak with her about the design. - I mentioned that the implants seemed too big, and Caroline confidently defended the implant’s size – this is strange as patient’s concerns before a surgery are very likely to translate to concerns after a surgery. - Caroline mentioned that (a) the 6mm projection (which is very large) was correct (b) I didn’t want to have something too small otherwise it wouldn’t be noticeable (c) the design would meet my specifications of looking natural and subtle. - My gut-instinct was still terrible at this point, but I am young, naïve and do not know a lot about cosmetic surgery and Caroline defended the designs so confidently that I felt she knew what she was doing – confidence however does not mean competence. - The surgery goes ahead it is medically successful (no major damage to my health or facial functions) Post-Surgery - 3 weeks later as my swelling goes down, I notice a weird bulge running down my face and my stomach drops as I begin to realise that what I am seeing is my implant protruding from my face. - At this point, I realise that the implant is malpositioned (not in the correct location) – my goal of getting a subtle surgery was shattered. I am worried sick so decide to tell Caroline what I have discovered. - Caroline calls me the next day: half of her face is in view on her webcam as if she is cowering and knows something is up. I explain to her that the implant is misplaced and her response to this shocked me. - Caroline said that the implant is not misplaced, she said that I am looking at my face too much and there is nothing there that she can see (I could clearly see the outline on my camera). She said it is all in my head and no one would notice what I am seeing, she continued by saying that my friends would not be vigilant enough to think I have had surgery so they would not be able to see anything – at this point, Caroline is deferring responsibility for any wrongdoing and tells me it will go away in a few weeks. - I am no expert but as the swelling goes down logically the implant is going to become more and not less obvious this was when I became very concerned about Caroline’s ability as this was clearly incorrect advice to give – advice designed to protect herself and not care for her patient. - At this point I feel like I have hit rock bottom. I was very specific about wanting a natural look and Caroline had completely changed my face with a completely fake contrived look. I cannot begin to describe what the feeling of looking at yourself in the mirror is like when the reflection is someone you do not recognise. Knowing how fragile patients post-op Caroline can be still decided to blame the patient – it is not uncommon for a patient to take their life in response to a botched surgery and Caroline should be ashamed of herself. - She had created more problems than I had to begin with. - When the reality started to sink in: the psychological impact of a dramatic face change, the realisation that I would need money for another surgery, money that I did not have, I began to feel suicidal for the first time in my life. - Caroline knows the impact a botched surgery can have as she has done it before yet she still went for what she knew best and tried to deflect all the blame on me. - In my low moment my family really pulled together and helped me. We agreed to get a loan from the bank and correct Caroline’s work. - I visited another Harley Street surgeon who confirmed that the implant was misplaced and they appeared very large. I had a CT scan done which confirmed it was misplaced. This was to categorically prove that the implants were malpoisitioned. - I organised an online appointment with a surgeon in the United States called Barry Eppley. He was absolutely shocked at the (a) size (b) shape (c) projection of the implants and said it looked like my surgeon might have no experience making custom cheek implants and even said I might be the first person she has experimented with. He could see no basis for her design and put it down to inexperience. I mentioned that I sent her an email saying they look too big and he said that is the biggest red flag with implants if the patient intuitions think they are wrong 9 times out of 10 they are wrong. - Implants are meant to replicate bony structures so ANY facial implant needs to be conservative and subtle otherwise it will be completely noticeable and will get worse as you age – Caroline seemed to completely misunderstand this point and acted against the cosmetic consensus. - I saw another surgeon from Birmingham who had dealt with Caroline’s botch jobs before and said the implants were “completely wrong” for my face. - I saw 6 surgeons in total from the UK and USA they all agreed the implants were far too big and the more experienced surgeons told me that from the designs it would be highly likely any patient would reject the implants. - I went to see Caroline about a month later it was clear as day the implant was not in the correct position, at this point I was horrified to discover her realself reviews and felt so ashamed of myself for letting someone like her touch my face. I went to her at this point to see what she was going to say bearing in my find I have irrefutable evidence of its misplacement. - After waiting an hour I saw Caroline. - Caroline was smirking and said “have you seen any of your friends yet or are you still hiding from them”. She had treated the issue like some joke and showed no duty of care. - Caroline did admit it the implant was out of place and said “oh that is really annoying”. She followed that up with give it a couple more months and it might go away – she was hoping I would go away as an implant will not go back into position, again dreadfully unscientific advice designed to protect her interests. - She suggested if it still bothered me, she could put some filler or fat in my face to balance out the crease that had formed down the malpoisitioned implant or worst-case scenario she could put me under and shave the implant. Never once did she say to take them out or reposition it. - All the other surgeons had advised me to either (1) get them removed or (2) replace them with much smaller implants because I could have sagging if they were solely removed. - At this point I had lost all trust in Caroline instead of admitting to her mistakes she wanted to fill my face with filler which would have made me look even more unnatural than I currently looked – at this point it was genuinely dangerous to stay under her care. - As the months went by the malpositioned implant was causing me pain to smile and I needed to get them out – which costs a lot of money. - I wrote an email to Caroline’s office saying how disgusted I was at how they had treated me (more to follow about their service which is just as bad as Caroline’s cosmetic skills) and that I was writing a formal complaint for which I had significant evidence to back up my claims. - Caroline who had never once emailed me back (to the point I thought her email might be deactivated) gets back to me with two emails immediately – again this is completely self-serving. - In length, she says how sorry she is and says she will free up her slots to potentially get me in, prior to this she had said I must wait 6 months which is long enough in her mind for a patient to “move on” from their issues… but they never do. At this point I knew it was completely disingenuous and she was trying to act in her own self-interest to make sure she doesn’t receive any more complaints the level of fake care in her email made me think she had been here before and didn’t want to face the consequences of another complaint. - We organise to have a skype to discuss a potential surgery ( I assumed it was free) this was more to see if she would be willing to pay back her surgeons fee and not to have her touch my face. There was a very real chance she would make things a lot worse. - I waited half an hour on the skype call – she doesn’t show up. - She had mildly disfigured my face, completely changed how I looked, given me no aftercare, tried to gaslight me and laughed at me trying to avoid my friends because I was very anxious about how she made me look…and she didn’t show up true to her character. I had paid £13k for her to potentially derail my life and she did not care one bit. Revision surgery - I ended up paying another £19k which includes the multiple consultations I had, the scans and the surgery. - On top of this surgeons are very reluctant to operate on someone else’s patient and some even think you are crazy and won’t get involved at all – this is all the very real consequences of letting Caroline botch your face. - The surgeon had said the screws Caroline had used were too small and didn’t secure the implant down so the one that was malpositioned was in fact not secured to the bone which created a crease down the side of my face. - On top of this my eyelids had been very “battered” by Caroline and now one of my eyelids is not fully functional and could require a 3rd surgery. - However the massive implants were removed and significantly smaller ones with placed – I look like my old self and I am happy with the natural look a good surgeon has given me. - This surgeon replied to every email, gave me his personal number, was very involved in the whole process, continually asked questions to ascertain what I wanted and even called me unprompted after surgery to see how I was doing and have a chat. Caroline has no connection with her patients and quite frankly does not care about you, you are just revenue to her. I went from having one of the worst surgeons in the UK to one of the best and the process couldn’t have been more different. - You must seek the best and actively avoid the worst Caroline is undoubtedly one of the worst surgeons in the UK. Service and Care - The Face Surgeons are so unprofessional at one point I thought they were an elaborate scam I actually googled to check if they were. - They can take weeks to reply to an email, there was no direct phone service so you are in complete limbo awaiting a reply. - Caroline made me wait every time I visited. It was normally 30 mins at least before you see her. - She is very brash and overconfident she gets you in, doesn’t say much and then awkwardly announces that the meeting is over – I mistook this for ability at first but it is complete incompetence. - At one point her receptionist candidly told me to find another surgeon – she obviously knew what Caroline was capable of but I was naïve and I mistook this for Caroline being popular which made me want to seek her services more. - She is not thorough in her assessment and you are just another paycheck to her. - After surgery my aftercare was non-existent I had to ask doctors on realself about my swelling because she didn’t get back to me for two weeks – she simply doesn’t care about you. - My new surgeon gave me his number and responded whenever I had a question Caroline alienates you and makes you feel so detached from her care. - He also had 3 full-time staff who get back to you within hours and you can call any one of them should you need to. Last comments - I write this review for the sake of anyone that is thinking about getting surgery with Caroline. - To anyone who is reading this and has been affected by Caroline I am so sorry you had to go through that and hope you found happiness with another surgeon all we can do is be honest and warn people of what Caroline is capable of. - Caroline has no empathy and will continue to do this as long as she gets customers there are so many great surgeons who deeply care about their patients you will not find this with Caroline - There is significant downside risk with her and very little upside reward. You are gambling with your face and your life. - If I did not have my family to support my financially god knows what might have happened to me and you should be very scared of what might happen to you. - You have been warned.