The boss of a Nottingham cosmetic clinic says more needs to be done to prevent people ending up with botched botox treatments after buying kits online.
Mark Mirfin, director of the Love Your Skin Clinic, High Pavement, spoke after a number of patients contacted the business for help after injecting themselves at home.
Home kits have been on the market since around 2010 but a rise in demand has led to more people developing problems from self-treatment.
And there are calls to tighten existing regulations on those who provide non-surgical kits and procedures to the public.
It is scary, to be perfectly honest with you
Mr Mirfin said: “It tends to be fillers, they may have had something put in where they are not happy, the filler has moved, or something else has happened and it doesn’t look good.
“We’ve even had people phone us up who have administered botox themselves that they bought online. Now that is scary to be perfectly honest with you.
“Sometimes on rare occasions we’ve had people phone up before they’ve done it wanting advice on how to do it.”
Botox or botulinum toxin (botox), is a non-surgical cosmetic procedure to make the skin look smoother, or make marks on the skin less obvious.
DIY kits including needles sell online for less than £100, but experts say the treatment is dangerous without proper guidance.
Mr Mirfin added: “If there’s a problem then what happens? There’s no background, there’s no medical knowledge behind them to help the patient after the treatment should their be any adverse side effects.”
The NHS has produced a guide to anyone thinking of having botox treatment.
