It ain’t pretty: botched Botox on the rise in country’s youth

Just as the new school year gets underway, the Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) has warned about a five-fold increase in complaints resulting from failed cosmetic treatments involving Botox and other dermal fillers.

The IGC received 175 reports of failed treatments, up from some 35 per year in the preceding years. The skyrocketing numbers, they say, are largely due to increased demand for the procedures among youth looking for fuller lips and less wrinkles and a surge in places providing them.

Young people, IGJ inspector Rosemarie Jansen told broadcaster NOS, were especially vulnerable to cutthroat rates among providers who often lack the mandatory qualifications to provide them. That “lowers the threshold for young people, precisely because they do not have much to spend,” she said.

Some 67% of the complaints involved a practitioner who was not legally qualified or lacked the necessary medical competence.

In the Netherlands, a doctor is required to be present when a patient receives such cosmetic treatments, something which is lacking in the proliferation of places offering them.

The botched procedures have led to swelling and drooping eyelids, lip inflammation and allergic reactions. The ICJ says the number of complaints is likely unreported due to the shame many young people feel about getting cosmetic work.

Fillercheck.nl

To help combat the problem, the IGC, along with Tilburg University and the consumer platform wiemooiwilzijn, have created fillercheck.nl, a website where those seeking cosmetic treatments can go down a four-part checklist that gets them thinking about the treatment, lets them find out if their provider is qualified and, says the IGC, help them recognize red flags.

The Inspectorate is taking their message via pop-up clinics disguised as cosmetic treatment centres to students in Amsterdam, Nijmegen, Zwolle and Breda this week and next – just in time for university introduction weeks.