Beauty industry leaders have called for anti-wrinkle treatments such as Botox and filler injections to be categorized as high-risk procedures in a push to end the ‘profits over standards’ culture.
Proposed new government regulations state that only qualified health professionals will be able to perform non-surgical Brazilian butt lifts (BBLs), while clinics will have to meet strict rules to obtain licenses to offer fillers and Botox, the American brand for botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT) injections.
There have been numerous reports of unscrupulous practitioners administering injectable cosmetic treatments, leading to dangerous complications. Non-surgical BBLs, which are not regulated, are one of the most high-risk procedures. They involve injecting filler into the buttocks to make them bigger, rounder or lifted.
Plans for tougher government rules are subject to public consultation and must go through parliament before being introduced.
Lesley Blair, chief executive of the British Aesthetics and Cosmetology Association, and Victoria Brownlie, head of policy and sustainability at the British Beauty Council, urged ministers to implement the regulations as soon as possible.
In evidence to the women and equalities select committee in October, Blair told MPs that the delays were putting pressure on the NHS, which had to deal with a growing number of faulty procedures.
He said: “We have people working under the radar. For me and Victoria, being in organizations where we have very high standards and qualifications, that’s very frustrating because we have people out there operating who put profit before standards, which is really, really scary.”
Warning of a “black market” for injectable treatments, he added: “People are buying all this stuff from overseas and we don’t know what’s in it. You hear about high levels of rat poison and different things and different injectables and so on.”
During the parliamentary session, Brownlie called for all injectables, including lip, BoNT and facial dermal fillers, to be classified among the highest risks in the government’s new categorization of non-surgical cosmetic procedures.
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Under the proposals, these treatments would be categorized as either green, orange or red. Procedures considered to be green would be considered to have the lowest risk of complications and could be performed by all professionals provided they meet an agreed standard.
Amber treatments will be judged as medium risk and could be administered by non-healthcare professionals, but will be licensed and “relevantly supervised” by a licensed health care professional.
Those classed as red would be considered the highest risk and therefore restricted to being provided only by supervised healthcare professionals, with this category falling under regulation by the Care Quality Commission, the health watchdog.
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Brownlee said she and Blair’s organizations had expressed a desire for injectables to be categorized as “red” in their responses to the government consultation, although she admitted she was “aware” ministers were unlikely to comply.
He told MPs: “Very different levels of supervision should be required for an injectable and for someone who administers a prescription-only medicine, for example.”
Supporting Brownlee’s argument, Blair explained the complications that can arise from such treatments. “To put it basically, if you’ve had an injection, if you’ve had a filler, you can have a blockage in the artery if it goes wrong, and then you need prescription-only drugs to break it up,” he explained.
“That might be one of the problems. That’s why we need somebody with the right credentials to be the overseer of that. That needs a much, much higher level of oversight than, say, if somebody was going to do some kind of peeling.”
Brownlie warned that the “Island of LoveThe result leads to them booking such procedures, which were previously only accessible to celebrities and the wealthy, but have become more common.
“Seeing these types of people doing these types of procedures on TV created a situation where more people wanted these types of treatments,” he said. “It was a race to the bottom of more and more practitioners filling a void of need from people and a race to the bottom of cost and price.”
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Blair suggested that one solution to curbing the rise of young people seeking cosmetic changes was to share the risks of the procedures more widely. “I have pictures on my phone that I show to young girls who go in and get lip fillers from completely disintegrated lips. I show them what it’s like,” she said.
“Some of them haven’t gone now to do it. Something like that, just to educate people about what can go wrong. One of the side effects or potential complications of lip filler is blindness, because it can migrate into the eye. Do they know that? Probably not.”
Karin Smyth, the health minister, told the committee that the government wanted to push the introduction of the high-risk procedures regulations as soon as possible and would consult on them early in the new year.
