When it goes wrong
Complications, correction, liability, complaints and the routes to redress that actually exist.
What to do when a cosmetic treatment goes wrong
The first 48 hours determine both the clinical outcome and, later, whether anything can be proved. Here is the order to do things in.
Who is liable when a cosmetic treatment causes harm
Practitioner, clinic, prescriber, product manufacturer. Cosmetic treatment spreads responsibility across several parties, which is convenient for everyone except the patient.
Filler complications, and who is actually able to treat them
The serious risk of filler is vascular, and managing it depends on recognition and speed. Ask who would treat it, with what, and how quickly.
What can be reversed, and what cannot
Reversible, wears off, permanent and surgical are four different things, and they are routinely presented to patients as one.
How to complain about a cosmetic practitioner, and to whom
Different bodies handle different failures, and sending the right complaint to the wrong body wastes months. Here is the routing table.
Reporting a cosmetic treatment problem to the MHRA
The Yellow Card scheme takes reports from patients, not only professionals, and it covers devices as well as medicines. Very few filler incidents are ever reported.
This article contains no commercial links of any kind. No affiliate links, no sponsored placements, and no links to any clinic, practitioner, brand, product or retailer. Nobody paid for it, nobody previewed it and nobody outside the editorial team saw it before publication.
This publication does not name, rank, rate or review any clinic or practitioner, because it has assessed none of them. Our funding is set out in full on the about page and in our editorial standards.
Nothing here is medical or legal advice. Speak to a qualified clinician about your own circumstances, and to a solicitor about a claim.
When the rules change, we will tell you
One email when a law or a regulator's guidance changes in a way that alters what you should check, and when a new article is published. No treatment offers, no product recommendations and no clinic suggestions, because we do not make any.