Thank you for your question. You’re asking your question can a bad eye injection be undone
and you’re describing your question that you had Restylane placed and now there are
bags under your eyes look worse. Well, I can certainly assist you with this question. I’m
a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and a fellowship trained oculofacial plastic surgeon practicing
in Manhattan in Long Island for over 20 years. I specialize in cosmetic rejuvenation of the
eyes and fillers such as Restylane is something I use every day in my practice. In addition
as specialist, I also get to see a lot of patients like yourself who come to have their
fillers undone because they’re not happy with the results. To begin with, it’s important
to understand what has happened and differentiate whether or not it’s a bad injection or versus
it’s a swelling as a result of the injection or whether it is displacement of the material
related to the injection.
What do I mean by this? Well, a lot of times when people have under eye bags and they’re
for whatever reasons averse to having surgery. They don’t want and they want to try a non-surgical
option and this is where filler does have some potential value but up to a limit. Now
in those situations someone can come and have that type of situation and then have too much
volume or make their eyes more puffy. In those situations we use an enzyme called hyaluronidase
and hyaluronidase is an enzyme which dissolves the filler. Once it dissolves a filler, there
can be some fluid as a reaction to the response of the treatment and then that fluid goes
away. That’s one case scenario and that’s a way to undo the filler.
Now if for any reason that filler that you are – the reason where you have the bags
under the – are on the cheek area more than the under eye area, if the filler was placed
there and if it was placed superficially, then the same solution is also applicable.
You can use hyaluronidase and you can literally see the material disappear as you’re doing
the treatment. You inject and you massage and it goes away and it’s very impressive
how much you can get rid of it one treatment. Now if on the other hand this is more of a
reactive swelling or fluid, well then fluid is a matter of some circulation. Now if that
fluid lingers for a long period of time then it may not be – it may be that a couple
of things, maybe the materials place was very superficially or maybe for you, the fluid
is a response to the material and it’s just not the right material for you.
Again in that scenario, hyaluronidase can also be useful. I find that in a lot of times
there is a way to actually improve the under eye area without actually directly injecting
into the under eye area. We do a procedure called the Y lift and with the Y lift, we’re
using hyaluronic acid filler and Juvederm to restore structure in the face in a way
that restores balance. A lot of times people look at their under eye area as the focal
point of their concerns but when we restore structure in the cheek area, the jawline and
the whole facial volume in a way that makes them a look more angular, very often the under
eye area actually looks considerably improved. There are many ways to look at the situation
and that could be also an option worth considering.
Don’t let this one negative perception or experience collar you from doing or discourage
you from doing something else in the future. But I’d say that if the swelling lasts for
longer period of time, you are probably better off having the material dissolved and starting
from scratch and kind of figuring out maybe a different strategy. A lot of times people
come to me for cosmetic eyelid surgery after they’ve had a bad experience with a hyaluronic
acid filler because it made them swell some more, so maybe they were better off having
what’s called a transconjunctival blepharoplasty and fractional CO2 laser, PRP treatment which
is typical for what we’re doing in our practice to help people with under eye bags. But facial
aging is a complex process even though it’s based from very simple principles of sagging
and volume loss.
It’s really also an art in how to rejuvenate the face and look natural at any age. With
that being said, I think you should investigate this of course first with the doctor who performed
the procedure and then take it from there and maybe entertain some additional opinions
to get – to become more educated about your options. I hope that was helpful. I wish you
the best of luck. Thank you for your question.