Dermal filler risks, explained honestly.

Common, and short-lived

Expect some of: bruising, swelling, tenderness, and occasionally a small firmness you can feel (not see) while the product settles over the first days and weeks. These are the ordinary costs of putting a needle in a face, they resolve on their own, and aftercare instructions cover them. Plan social downtime around the under-eyes especially, where bruising shows most.

Uncommon, and usually correctable

• Asymmetry that persists after settling, adjusted at review.
• Lumps or nodules that don't soften, usually managed by massage, time, or dissolving.
• Migration, product sitting outside where it was placed, associated with overfilling and poor technique, corrected by dissolving.
• Late swelling episodes, an uncommon immune response that can appear months later, managed medically.

The common thread: hyaluronic-acid filler is dissolvable, so most cosmetic problems have an exit. The honest limit, and this clinic's standing line, is that the filler dissolves, not every complication does.

Rare, and serious

The complication that matters most is vascular occlusion: filler entering or compressing a blood vessel, starving tissue of blood. Untreated, it can cause tissue damage, and in the worst documented cases, where vessels connected to the eye are involved, sight loss. It is rare, and it is the entire argument for doctor-led treatment: prevention through anatomical technique, recognition within minutes, and immediate treatment, with dissolving agent kept in the room, never ordered in. Ask any clinic, anywhere, what their vascular occlusion protocol is. A good one answers instantly; a dangerous one asks what you mean.

Who shouldn't be treated, or not yet

• Anyone with an active skin infection near the treatment area, treated after it clears.
• Anyone acutely unwell, or with certain conditions and medications that need weighing first, which is what the medical history at consultation is for.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding, deferred as standard practice.
• Anyone whose expectations filler cannot meet. Being told "no, and here's why" is a safety feature, and it happens here regularly.

What a safe clinic looks like

A doctor doing both the assessing and the injecting, not "oversight" from another room. Premium, UKCA/CE-marked product with a name they'll tell you. Volumes and prices agreed with you before anything is opened. Dissolving agent on-site and an emergency protocol they can recite. Aftercare with a direct contact, and reviews as standard, all of which is simply how this clinic is built. Individual results, and side effects, vary; the consultation is where your personal risk picture gets assessed properly.