In recent years, many young people have turned to small medical procedures to correct any perceived issues with their appearance.
No longer just for wrinkles, customers are finding new ways to use fillers and other appearance-altering substances like Botox to slim their faces, correct dark under-eye circles, and achieve minimally invasive adjustments to their chins and noses.
In fact, according to CNN, the number of people 19 and younger using injectables to preserve their youth increased by 75% from 2019 to 2022, due largely in part to the impact of influencers and influencer marketing. Just like their Sephora counterparts, these young folks are trying to hold on to their physical youth for just a little longer or achieve an otherwise different appearance.
One woman on TikTok says she used filler in her under eye area to reduce the appearance of dark circles, which did work initially, but she believed that it had naturally dissolved over time, as she saw her dark circles return.
However, after noticing a difference in her face when she smiled, she concluded that her filler had not only not dissolved like she thought it would, but it completely migrated to a different part of her face.
In her video which has drawn over 635,000 views as of Friday, content creator Hannah Chody (@hannahchody) says she had to revisit her injector to fix the issue.
“I made the silly little decision a few years ago to get a little bit of under-eye filler,” she says in the video. I had always had hollow under eyes but it was an insecurity of mine since high school.”
She says the filler “looked good” for two years before it “went away.”
The TikToker says she first noticed the issue when her smile started to look a little different.
“All of a sudden, about a month ago, I noticed these two dimples under my eyes when I smiled below my actual hollow under eye,” she says. “I was like, what the f*ck is happening with that?”
Hannah says she reached out to her injector, Courtney, at Skin Spirit in Austin, Texas.
@hannahchody don’t touch the undereye bbs #undereyebags #injectables #filler #botox #aesthetics #teartroughfiller #plasticsurgery #prf #darkcircles ♬ original sound – Hannah Chody
“She was like, ‘Oh yeah, that just all migrated,’” Hannah recalls, pointing to her face. “You can’t see it because we just got it dissolved [but] it was all like a full-blown pocket right here.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @hannahchody via email regarding the video.
Is filler migration common?
According to Women’s Health, migration is not as common as TikTok makes it out to be. However, dermatologists share that some of the causes of filler migration may be too much filler, handling the area too much, or getting filler frequently.
Still, while “rare,” this didn’t stop several viewers from commenting on the video about similar experiences they needed to correct migrated filler that they thought had dissolved over time. Fillers can be broken down by hyaluronidase, a form of hyaluronic acid, that is both naturally produced by the human body and used to target and intentionally dissolve fillers.
“I started getting a huge lump under my eye after getting covid. It was my old filler (7 yrs ago – once!),” one commenter wrote. “Apparently immune system recognized it as foreign.”
“Girl… I had to dissolve my lips… 4 times.. 4!” another user said. “Injectors will lieeeeeee, ‘come back in 6 months for a touch up’… my new guy said filler never dissolves.”
“I got nose filler 5 years ago, it was supposed to last 1 year lol it’s still here as if I freshly got it done,” one said.
Others shared that their filler has stuck around longer than they intended, leading them to believe it does not actually fully dissolve.
“My nose filler hasn’t gone away and it has been 2-3 years since my last syringe,” one commenter wrote.
“I got nose filler 5 years ago, it was supposed to last 1 year lol it’s still here as if I freshly got it done,” another added.
“I got lip filler 2 years ago and I still have it… I dont mind it tho,” a commenter wrote.
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