Here's an idea: maybe give a second thought to those injectable dermal fillers you've considered dumping money into recently. According to Saving Face founder Carol Bryan, going into any aesthetic medical procedure without doing some serious research can result in potentially debilitating physical and emotional consequences.
Bryan was left "disfigured and blind in one eye" after getting fillers in 2009, the Daily Mailreported. The fillers were reportedly injected into the wrong part of her face, causing severe forehead swelling. The physical damage, Bryan said, eventually became so daunting that she became a "recluse" for more than three years before her daughter convinced her to take action.
Bryan took her story to the controversial CBS series The Doctors this week, revealing photos of the fillers' alleged damage and cautioning others to take her lesson to heart. "My story is a cautionary tale for anyone going blindly into an aesthetic medical procedure without knowing about the doctor's training or what materials are being injected into their face," Bryan said. "Today, after everything I have experienced, there is nothing more important to me than dedicating my time to promoting and advocating for safe practices in aesthetic medicine and supporting those who have suffered from complications and/or disfigurement."
Thanks to the assistance of Dr. Reza Jarrahy from UCLA, Bryan was able to undergo a series of surgeries to repair portions of her face and has launched Saving Face in an effort to give legs to her "life's mission" of preventing anyone else from enduring the same battle. The organization, an initiative of the Face2Face "healing" organization, aims to help potential facial procedure customers by advocating for safe standards and practices.
"We are so proud to partner with [Bryan] as she embarks on this important mission to both support those who have experienced facial disfigurement from a procedure and educate the public on how to avoid such complications," Karen Scuilli, Face2Face's Executive Director, said in a press release Thursday.
