You’ve probably heard the expression: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Well, that’s especially true for cosmetic treatments and plastic surgery − and it’s something doctors say they’re seeing more and more people learn the hard way, after seeking out cheap silicone injections on the black market or through other illicit means.
Dr. Josef Hadeed, a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, says he’s seen an uptick in patients this year who need corrective procedures after getting black-market silicone injected. Some of these patients, he says, got their injections abroad. Others got them at parties − sometimes in people’s homes or in hotel rooms.
In many cases, he says, the patients don’t even know what they had injected into their bodies. Sometimes it’s silicone; sometimes it’s some other substance.
“It almost sounds like something out of a movie,” Hadeed says. “Needless to say, it’s unlicensed, it’s unregulated, and now we’re starting to see some of the long-term problems and complications and effects of having these injections, which are illegal in a lot of cases.”
When black-market silicone injections go wrong
Hadeed first heard about black-market silicone injections about seven years ago, when Cardi B detailed her horrifying experience getting black-market butt injections. The rapper told GQ she got the injections in a basement without anesthetic and when she wanted to return for touch ups, she found out the woman who’d administered her injections “got locked up ’cause she’s supposedly killed somebody. Well, somebody died on her table.”
Since Cardi B’s story made waves, Hadeed says, he’s seen more people coming into his practice with similar, frightening stories.
Oftentimes, he says, these patients got their injections done years ago but are now seeing distressing complications.
The most common area for these injections, Hadeed says, is the butt, though he’s also seen them in people’s hips, lips and breasts. Complications from black-market silicone can include infection, migration of the silicone from one part of the body to another, chronic pain, disfigurement and, in some cases, death. Most of the time these issues can only be remedied with additional surgery.
“Once these complications happen, you could never restore somebody to looking to what they were like before they had the injections done,” Hadeed says. “So I tell people the best way to prevent these complications from happening is to not have it done in the first place.”
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Sometimes, he says, the silicone injected on the black market is industrial-strength silicone. Sometimes it’s not even silicone at all.
“It’s literally stuff you find off the shelf at a Home Depot,” Hadeed says. “It could be things like mineral oil, corn oil, vegetable oil. … A lot of times they don’t even know what it was that got injected into their body.”
‘If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is’
Some patients tell Hadeed they got these injections done at “filler” or “botox” parties. Some say they found out about the injections through word-of-mouth. Others traveled outside the country, seeking out injections abroad for a fraction of what they cost in the United States.
Dr. Benjamin Caughlin, a plastic surgeon in Chicago, says he’s seen patients in his practice too with similar stories. Overall, he says, getting any medical procedure done outside a medical setting is a bad idea.
“You really should not be doing filler outside of a medical facility, because of the risk,” he says. “You need all the proper equipment. As rare as it is, if something was to go wrong, you want to be prepared.”
Most people, Hadeed says, turn to black-market silicone injections for two reasons: They’re cheap, and they’re convenient.
But those two attributes, he says, should be red flags, not selling points.
“If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is,” Hadeed says. “You get what you pay for, and, if you’re paying for something that’s super cheap, it may look great right away. But then, sometimes, you develop these issues or complications.”
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What’s worse, many people who seek cheap alternative treatments on the black market end up having to pay more money in the long run, when they need additional surgery to treat the complications from these procedures.
“They went this route probably to save money, so they’re not, like, an independently wealthy group,” Caughlin says. “You feel bad for them. So it’s a hard issue to treat for a couple of different reasons.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cardi B, black-market silicone and why we haven’t learned anything
