Unlike, say, black-market butt augmentations, there aren’t many serious side effects associated with dermal fillers nowadays. Provided you’re not allergic to your injectable of choice, the chances of a negative reaction are slim. The worst case scenario is usually that you’ll experience a little bruising or some redness that’ll go away in a few days. Nothing a few Tylenol and an ice pack can’t handle.
That said, no cosmetic procedure is ever truly risk-free. The Daily Mail reports that Nong Guang, 41, of Thailand, received fillers two years ago to reduce the appearance of wrinkles on her forehead. Guang claims to have felt something was amiss shortly after the procedure — she describes a “soft and squidgy feeling” to the touch — but she didn’t seek professional medical help until earlier this month, when she started experiencing severe pain in the area.
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What doctors at the Teeraporn Clinic in Bangkok found was a massive infection on Guang’s head. “It hurt a lot and I could move it around under my skin,” Guang says of the lump. In order to combat the infection, surgeons made a small incision in the top of Guang’s forehead to provide an exit route for what ended up being a significant amount of thick, oozing pus.
(If that brief description alone already has you gagging, then you should absolutely not watch the very graphic video of the removal process. Go take a walk. Make some coffee. Adopt a rescue dog on Petfinder.com. It doesn’t matter — just don’t watch the video below.)
“The patient came to us after having the filler injection surgery in her forehead,” a spokesperson for the clinic where Guang sought help said. “This had become infected and her forehead was very soft and left marks when it was touched. We removed it and made her forehead look beautiful again.” Fortunately, Guang is doing just fine after the removal. But us, on the other hand? After watching that video, feeling "fine" is not in the cards.