A viral video of a male patient getting under-eye filler injections via the mouth has raised concerns about the safety of the unusual procedure.
Among the viewers raising these concerns are nurse practitioners, certified injectors, dentists, and other doctors.
The Instagram “Reel,” posted January 4, has been viewed 334,000 times and received just over 500 comments, 71 of which involve questions of risk, sterility, infection, and contamination.
In a subsequent video, the performing doctor, board-certified New Jersey facial plastic surgeon Dr. Ramtim Kassir, says it’s a procedure he has done for 25 years but is one he doesn’t use on every patient.
It’s safe, he also says, and there is a way to disinfect the injection pathway.
Injection experts and a dentist we reached out to feel otherwise.
Dr. Kassir, whom we failed to hear from, had responded to a couple of the comments on the video. “Sterilize with Betadine” he replied to a nurse injector asking about potential infections.
Old technique, adds unnecessary risk
A longtime injection educator shared with Surgical Times that the method shown is a “very old technique,” which, injection expert Lori Robertson, MSN, added “introduces unneeded risk for the procedure.”
Those risks include infection, biofilm, intra-arterial injection, infraorbital nerve injury, and intraocular injection, according to board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Christopher Khorsandi.
The purpose of the intraoral injection technique, according to a caption from Dr. Kassir, is to minimize and eliminate the chance of bruising. Bruising typically lasts about two weeks if under-eye filler injections are done percutaneously.
Technique shown is dangerous
Cosmetic dentist Dr. Jennifer Jablow, DDS, was one of the many aesthetic and medical professionals who raised safety/sterility concerns and commented on Kassir’s first video.
Her comment went unanswered and her concerns went unassuaged as the video went viral.
Dr. Jablow took to Instagram, Tuesday, to share her own warning of the risks involved. “I have to give my opinion on this viral video of doing eye filler through the mouth,” she writes. “Danger!!!”
Using Instagram’s“Remix” feature, Dr. Jablow’s response appears aside a portion of Kassir’s original injection video.
Guestering in shock, her voice can be heard, “This is just so dangerous because you’re introducing bacteria and biofilm. As a dentist I’m telling you, there is no way to sterilize the mouth. Doing filler like this is incredibly irresponsible. Going through the skin is different–you can sterilize it much better.”
We asked Dr. Jablow about Betadine, since it had been shared as the solution to creating the sterile environment needed for intraoral dermal fillers.
She confirmed that, despite the claims, it is “impossible to completely void the oral cavity of bacteria,” and that by injection, this bacteria can be introduced into the orbital area “causing devastating results.”