One beauty myth we believe should be retired: “Getting fillers means you can’t have surgery.”

By Dr MJ Rowland-Warmann

BSc BDS MSc Aes.Med. PGDip Endod. PGCert MJDF RCS (Eng)

I’m Dr MJ Rowland-Warmann at the Dr MJ Clinic and the beauty myth I’d like to retire is this:

“Having fillers means you can’t have surgery”

This is not true at all.

You can have fillers for many years and still be suitable for surgery later in life.

At the Dr MJ Clinic we treat thousands of patients a year with injectable treatments. I also teach injectors advanced procedures at the <a href="https://smileworks-hub.co.uk/">Dr MJ Aesthetic Hub</a>. Many of them are the right age for surgical interventions like facelifts or blepharoplasty.

Treatments like <a href="https://www.smileworksliverpool.co.uk/services/sculptra-liverpool/">Sculptra</a>, Radiesse and hyaluronic acid fillers do not magically preclude patients from having surgery later on.

When injectables are done right, with appropriate anatomical knowledge, skill and restraint, there is no reason a patient should not be suitable for surgery if they choose it.

“Fillers injected into the correct anatomical planes rarely cause problems if a patient later wants surgery.”

Surgeons sometimes oversimplify - or even dramatise - what is actually a very complicated topic and is absolutely unique to each patient. They are referring to poorly performed filler and some comments have been taken out of context and many patients now believe filler injections mean no surgery. In fact, it’s badly placed filler in the wrong planes and in the wrong places, excessive volumes, some permanent fillers or poorly managed complications that are the problem. In these situations surgery can become more complicated and more difficult.

But this is very different to saying patients who’ve had fillers can’t have surgery. If this were true, very few patients would be suitable for surgical intervention at all.

So when we hear statements like, “fillers ruin your chances of surgery later in life” it is important to understand this is misleading. It shifts responsibility away from surgical limitations, expectation mismatch, natural ageing and skin quality, and places it onto the patient. It frames these issues as patient fault, which is not fair or accurate.

Here’s what people are rarely told:

A facelift does not restore facial volume

A facelift does not improve skin quality.

For those things non-surgical treatments are essential. Dermal fillers, biostimulators (sculptra) and high quality, medical grade skincare all play a role in looking young and fresh later in life.

These injectables do not make patients less suitable for surgery.

They do not obstruct good surgical work and they do not make anatomy unknowable.

“Injectables change the starting conditions not the destination”

Non surgical and surgical disciplines should work together for the benefit off patients, not compete with one another. Injectables improve skin quality, restore volume and stimulate collagen production. This can significantly enhance surgical outcomes.

“Holding out for a facelift and looking tired, unhappy or older than you feel, just in case you might one day want surgery is nonsense.”

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