‘We See One To Eight Botched Faces A Day’: A Worrying Rise Of Illegal Or Badly Done Botox In Malta
Cosmetic interventions like lip fillers or botox have become increasingly common in Malta, with thousands of women and men getting their faces done each year.
However, a rise of illegal or unregulated cases is causing serious worry in the medical community, as the upshot of botched jobs may not only ruin faces but have fatal consequences.
“I see between one to eight botched faces every day in the clinic,” one doctor and clinic owner, Charlotte*, told Lovin Malta.
Doctors part of the Aesthetic Physicians Association Malta (APAM) also told the newsroom that, as a whole (not by one single doctor), they see approximately one to eight botched cases a day.
Charlotte, who runs a popular and reputable place to get fillers done, explained that out of the 50 clients she sees daily, she would see at least one who would have some kind of deformity due to a badly done procedure.
These include infections, necrosis (the death of body tissue), face ulcers, and asymmetrical swelling.
In extreme cases, badly injected fillers in the face can lead to blindness and even death.
That being said, the people injecting aren’t necessarily doing something illegal, and so, some of these botched jobs are also the result of an unregulated industry.
Let’s explain.
Some derma fillers contain registered medicine in them, like Lycopene. This means that they can only be prescribed by registered doctors in Malta.
Once prescribed, it can essentially be injected by anyone but if anything goes wrong, the doctor will be liable.
This was explained to Lovin Malta by the Aesthetic Physicians Associations Malta (APAM) who firmly told us that “Botox is a prescription item”.
“Which is why it can be only prescribed by a medical doctor. Once the prescription is done, the doctor has to bear the full responsibility of that prescription. Like what happens in hospital when the doctors prescribe a medicine that’s then given by nurses.”
On the other hand, if the nurse does not follow a doctor’s orders and gives the patient the wrong dosage or medicine, then the doctor’s liability ceases.
In this case, if the nurse administers the Botox while the doctor isn’t there, it becomes extremely difficult to determine why or if something went wrong; for instance, whether the wrong dose was given or not. This makes it extremely difficult to determine who will bear the responsibility.
“Normally no doctor will bear responsibility for another person’s action.”
Meanwhile, in other countries, there are Nurse Practitioners or Nurse Prescribers, who, as per their title, can prescribe and inject botox and other dermal fillers – according to the specific national law.
However, this is not the case in Malta and people don’t really know this.
Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook have seen a huge rise in advertisements showcasing derma fillers, with patients booking appointments through alluring promises of before and after pictures without checking if the clinics or people administering the drugs can do it legally or not, increasing the risks of things going sour.
“The problem is people go two or three times even after getting botched. The word is really not getting through. We need to educate people and we need more enforcement,” Charlotte stressed.
Emails seen by Lovin Malta show that the calls for more enforcement by health authorities have mostly fallen on deaf ears.
Numerous reports of nurses and beauty therapists administering injections were forwarded to Superintendent of Public Health Charmaine Gauci, who promised to inform the nurses union to issue a warning.
Yet, there is a sliver of a silver lining. Sources have told this newsroom that two investigations into malpractice of people posing as doctors have taken place and at least two raids of clinics have occurred.
Still, with hundreds of videos circulating online and people administering prescriptions who are not listed on the medical council’s registrar of doctors, fears remain that the matter may only be taken seriously when patients’ lives are ruined.
Dr Jason Debono, the president of APAM, urges all patients who seek aesthetic medical treatments, such as lip augmentation with medical devices like fillers, to enquire about and make sure that:
- The person doing the treatment is a doctor registered with the Malta Medical Council;
- The doctor is experienced in the field of Aesthetic Medicine;
- The device/filler used is licensed in Malta and carries the CE mark and or has FDA approval.
This is the first of a series of articles on illegal and unregulated procedures.
Follow Lovin Malta as we unveil more in the coming weeks.
*The names in this article were changed.
Have you ever experienced a botched botox job in Malta?