Australian patients and doctors reveal cosmetic procedure horror stories as regulator AHPRA introduces new guidelines

The medical regulator is cracking down on the cosmetic industry after specialists revealed patients had gone blind, collapsed from anaesthetic overdose and developed nasty infections after treatments.

A year has passed since the medical regulator, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, reviewed the cosmetic industry.

The regulator's cosmetic surgery hotline, which launched in September 2022, has received 428 calls. The agency has also assessed 179 formal complaints.

Carly*, had to have multiple surgeries after a botched cosmetic thread lift procedure. This is when a doctor uses threads to pull skin back from the face.

The procedure was done during a training session for doctors and nurses. It left the woman with an abscess in her cheek, caused by infection. She then needed follow-up surgery to fix her appearance.

Amy* suffered significant burns, including large purple blistering, on her neck after intense pulse light treatment. Also known as IPL, the procedure uses light energy to target pigmented skin cells or hair follicles.

Amy said the doctor did not get her proper consent, did not test the product on her skin, used an incorrect setting and wouldn't stop when she complained it was hurting.

Another woman, Yasmine*, said her GP gave her filler injections despite her having mental health issues and being unhappy after 10 previous procedures.

A nurse was found to have changed her treatment notes after a patient with known skin conditions had a negative reaction to dermal fillers.

In the last year, 26 doctors have been banned from practicing cosmetic surgery, or have been restricted.

Currently, any doctor can market themselves as a cosmetic surgeon. This is expected to change, with health ministers across states and territories agreeing to ban unqualified medical practitioners from using the term.

A specialist plastic surgeon is trained and qualified to perform invasive reconstructive and cosmetic plastic surgery, and has a minimum of 12 years' medical and surgical education.

In submissions to that 2022 report, doctors spoke out about the damage they had seen in patients due to bad cosmetic procedures.

Retired Victorian anaesthetist Dr Grant Brace said patients have collapsed from having breast augmentation under local anaesthetic.

"[It] was almost certainly local anaesthetic overdose," he said.

Specialist plastic surgeons Dr Mark Ashton and Dr Anand Deva expressed concerns that patients were going blind after getting fillers in shopping centres and cosmetic clinics.

"Both our practices are now seeing an increasing number of patients, mainly women, who have been harmed physically, psychologically, emotionally, and financially by the consequences of their engagement with the [cosmetic] industry," they said in a letter.

Queensland-based Emily Bek said while working as a junior doctor in a hospital she saw multiple patients in emergency departments who had undergone cosmetic procedures in a private hospital.

"There were also multiple presentations of patients who had travelled overseas for cosmetic surgery, returned to Australia and then presented with horrendous wound infections," she said.

Retired reconstructive surgeon Anthony Emmett said he had "done secondary repairs on many patients who had cosmetic surgery performed by doctors who were poorly trained or not skilled.

"Sometimes the problem is a poor self-image in the patient's mind, and that needs correction rather than surgery," he said.

Another healthcare practitioner said a remote GP would prescribe cosmetic injections, which were then administered by unsupervised nurses in an entirely different state.

Clinical psychologist Dr Toni Pikoos, who specialises in body dysmorphic disorder, said around 13 per cent of patients undergoing cosmetic procedures have the condition.

Sufferers feel immense shame or disgust with parts or all of their body or appearance.

"In conversation with my colleagues, each of us have only received a handful of referrals directly from cosmetic practitioners for psychological evaluations," she said.

Many doctors expressed concerns about what they called misleading and aggressive advertising of cosmetic procedures, particularly through social media.

An agency survey found 30 per cent of patients who were unhappy with their experience found their cosmetic doctor through social media, and 42 per cent through an online search.

*not real names

The agency has now implemented stronger advertising rules for cosmetic surgery.

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