A British national register of accredited practitioners who provide non-surgical cosmetic treatments received 87 complaints from people in the Republic of Ireland last year.
Save Face UK, which established a register of practitioners who provide treatments like Botox and dermal fillers received 2,824 complaints overall in 2022 regarding unregistered practitioners, and 87 of those complaints came from Ireland.
The majority of those complaints concerned dermal fillers, an agent injected into lips or other parts of the face and body to make it appear enhanced or plump.
There is no register or organisation like Save Face UK in Ireland.
Director of Save Face UK Ashton Collins said it gets complaints from people in Ireland "when they don't have anywhere else to turn".
"If you have treatment with a regulated healthcare professional then of course you could complain to their statutory regulator, but the problem that we see a lot of is that people have treatment with non-healthcare professionals," Ms Collins said.
She said that unregistered and untrained practitioners are "unaccountable" and what happens most often when things go wrong is that the practitioner will close their doors and fail to respond.
"Over the last five to 10 years, this industry has grown exponentially," Ms Collins added.
"It's worth about £4 billion in the UK and it's only getting bigger."
Ms Collins said it is a lucrative industry that gets major exposure on social media and this coupled with lax regulation creates a space for "unscrupulous practitioners and untrained practitioners" to enter the market.
The advice from Save Face UK is to only seek treatment from a doctor, nurse, dentist or prescribing pharmacist.
In Ireland, anyone can administer dermal filler - it differs from Botox which can only be prescribed and administered by a doctor or dentist.
Dermal filler can be bought by anyone and they do not have to have any training on how to inject it.
People can purchase dermal filler on Alibaba.com for around €30 per syringe and these have the CE mark, which means they conform with EU safety standards.
The Health Products Regulatory Authority in Ireland regulates dermal fillers in so far as making sure the product on the market here meets regulations.
The HPRA encourages the public to get in touch to report adverse incidents, but it is the lack of regulation around exactly who is injecting the dermal filler that is the concern for plastic surgeons and dermatologists, who often see patients coming to them to rectify a botched job.
"I've even heard of young girls even ordering filler themselves on the internet and injecting into themselves," said Professor Caitríona Ryan, Consultant Dermatologist at the Institute of Dermatologists.
She said that Ireland is no different to other European countries when it comes to a lack of regulation.
"Dermal fillers are a medical device," Professor Ryan said.
"There's much less legislation around it because it isn't a medicinal product and that's the same throughout Europe.
"I don't think we have any lesser regulation around that and it's very difficult for the Government to do anything about it."
Professor Ryan said there are lot of different complications that can happen upon injecting dermal filler, and for that reason she said, it needs to be administered by medical professionals, as these are the people who can handle any complications.
"If we do need to dissolve a filler, it is only a prescription medication called hyaluronidase that can break it down," she says.
People working in cosmetic medicine "feel strongly" that the only people who should be able to use the dermal filler are those who can treat the complications as patient safety is at risk, Professor Ryan said.
"Our big concern is the safety of the general public and often it's younger women," she added.
"It’s this population who will go to the places that don't have a medical professional administering the product, especially because they can't afford the mainstream places."
Prof Ryan said she has seen an increase in the number of people coming to her, looking to get their lip filler dissolved, usually because they do not like the outcome.
"The funny thing is often that they don't even go back to where they got it done," Professor Ryan said.
"Even though they're unhappy because they know they shouldn't be there in the first place.
"Often it’s because the types of centres that they have it done in don't have the ability to administer the hyaluronidase in the first place."
In a statement to RTÉ News, the Department of Health said it is working with the HPRA in considering the current regulation of dermal fillers in Ireland and further consideration may be required in relation to this regulation in the future.
'My lips had started to go slightly lumpy'
Rebecca Cuskelly is a 28-year-old Tax Adviser living in Dublin. She was 20 years old when she first got filler in her lips.
"That’s something I have continued to get done," Ms Cuskelly said.
"I have filler in my cheeks as well. I've had a few non-invasive collagen treatments put into my skin and then I get Botox done on the regular."
Ms Cuskelly has nearly 16,000 followers on TikTok.
Among the videos of shopping hauls, and 'get ready with me’ she often shares videos of cosmetic procedures like getting her lip filler injected.
More recently she shared a video of the procedure of getting her lip filler dissolved.
"My lips had started to go slightly lumpy, and when I got it done, they literally went back to how they were and I couldn't get over it and I was actually really happy with them," she said.
Ms Cuskelly was influenced to get her lips filled in the first place after seeing other people on social media with larger lips.
"When I did first get my lips done, there was like always a slight bump there in it, on the top of my lip," she added.
"That never really went, no matter who I went to next, it just was always there. So, the only way to get rid of that was to like dissolve them completely."
However, Ms Cuskelly says she didn’t return to the person she got her first syringe of filler from after the bump appeared.
"I didn't go back to the person. I actually never went back there again," she said.
"Looking back on it, I definitely would not have checked if they were a doctor, which is something now which I do check because you can get filler done literally anywhere.
"I think you can go down to your hairdressers nearly nowadays and get filler done.
"I do think once you get one thing done, then you want to get another thing. But you do have to remember to just stop yourself."
