In a spiraling series of TikTok videos posted over 72 hours, a U.K. woman documented her journey of getting her lip filler dissolved, except the procedure did anything but shrink the size of her lips. Instead, she essentially received the equivalent of a bee sting straight to the face. The saga, posted to the woman’s account, @berthecn, enthralled social media onlookers, accumulating a whopping 14.7 million views.
taken 4 antihistamines, hopefully goes down soon x
The reaction was so alarming that the TikToker decided to call 111, the non-emergency phone number for the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK, who subsequently “sent an ambulance out because it was deemed a potential allergic reaction.”
In the Accident and Emergency department, she explained that she “felt quite dizzy,” and “almost fainted.” The ambulance ride made one thing clear: This wasn’t just an unfortunate reaction—it was a real medical concern that required immediate attention. “It’s really scary,” the TikToker admitted in a clip, the reality of the situation hitting her.
seeing as everyone has made me panic
Once she arrived at the hospital, the woman was given IV steroids that helped reduce the swelling significantly after a few hours, but she also learned some shocking news. “I found out that the solution used,” she explains, “also has an enzyme that bees have in their sting. I’ve basically discovered that I may be allergic to a bee sting.”
This enzyme, hyaluronidase, is used in filler dissolver to break down hyaluronic acid, according to a paper published in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology on the safe use of hyaluronidase. (Hyaluronic acid is a substance that naturally occurs in the body and is often used in dermal fillers, as well as many skincare products, thanks to its moisture-retention and elasticity-boosting properties.) The authors say that “wasp and bee stings contain more than one allergen, including hyaluronidase,” adding that cross-reactivity (when the immune system confuses one allergen for another similar one) can be a factor in these cases.
Most people do not experience an anaphylactic reaction to fillers or filler desolvers, with the authors noting that the “risk is extremely small and is lower than the quoted 0.1-percent incidence,” including delayed reactions and secondary exposure.
The good news: Reactions like these, rare and frightening as they are, can usually be avoided. Patch tests are usually recommended when using a dermal filler dissolver that includes hyaluronidase in its formula, with a waiting period of 24 hours to catch delayed reactions. The bad news: Patch test guidelines aren’t always followed as recommended. In this case, the woman said that her patch test was administered just a few minutes before her appointment. Despite this, the woman isn’t eager to throw blame around for the incident. “I don’t want to fault this practitioner,” she said. “She just made a mistake.”
In an update posted to her account on June 30 (happily captioned with, “I have my face back!), the woman shared the lessons she learned and insights she discovered about herself through the debacle. She tells her audience the swelling in her lips from the allergic reaction is “almost fully dissolved.”
I have my face back!
Now, with her lips (almost) back to normal, she has realized she never needed filler to be happy in the first place, saying, “I probably had complete body dysmorphia, because when I look at my lips now, I actually think they are beautiful.”
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