The face of T. pictured last month after she endured a third operation to remove silicon from her face at a Ho Chi Minh City hospital

A Ho Chi Minh City woman is calling on authorities to crack down on beauty salons that offer to inject “artificial fat” into customers’ faces and chests.

Meeting with reporters last week, 49-year-old T.’s face was swollen with stitches on her forehead and under her eyes and nose. She could barely open her eyes.

She said she had just undergone surgery to take out silicon injected into her face by a hairdresser in District 5.

T. said she came to Minh Chau Hairdresser in February 2005 on a recommendation from a friend.

Owners of the shop, located in a tiny room on Nguyen Duy Duong Street, said they could beautify her face without surgery.

The hairdresser used a large syringe to inject a thick liquid substance that she called “artificial fat” into T.’s forehead and below her eyelids and nose.

T. did not know the chemical was silicon, she said, adding that the service cost her VND2 million (around US$115).

She said the injections initially took some 5-6 years off her face.

But beginning in 2007, wrinkles and lumps appeared in her face, T. said.

She went to a hospital where doctors said silicon had been injected into her face. They said T. needed an operation to take out the substance or she would have to live with the lumps forever.

In September that year, T. visited another hospital but doctors refused to treat her problem, saying that removing the substance would be too dangerous and that her face would be misshapen after any surgery.

The lumps grew larger and harder so T. then visited a clinic where a French doctor said her condition was serious and that he did not dare take out the silicon.

At the end of 2007, doctors at a private clinic removed the silicone surgically and performed a facelift for more than VND42 million ($2,400). However, around 30 percent of the silicon remained in T’s face.

After the surgery, her face swelled and she suffered pain for months. She then underwent another surgery to treat the pain and take out more silicon.

Despite the two operations, a portion of silicon remained in her face.

T. surfed the Internet looking for remedies overseas. A Singaporean hospital said they could operate to remove the silicon for $30,000, but did not guarantee that all the substance would be removed.

T. said she became desperate to remove the rest of the substance and fell into a depression, crying herself to sleep most nights.

Last month, she endured another operation at a public hospital.

She said doctors took out more silicon from her cheekbones, eye sockets, nasal cavities and other areas of her face during a two-hour procedure.

“I endured terrible pain,” she said.

Surgeons said silicon still remained near her nasal bones and could not be taken out as it would damage the bones, T. said crying.

Dubious service

The Private Medical Clinic Management Bureau at the municipal Department of Health said Minh Chau was not licensed to perform plastic surgery.

Staff at the salon said they offered services to beautify clients’ breasts and faces by injecting “artificial fat,” installing artificial cartilage to lift nose bridges and others services.

An employee said a cubic centimeter (cc) of “artificial fat” cost VND100,000 ($5.7) and “each breast would need at least 50cc to look naturally beautiful.”

She said the procedure takes two hours and is painless as the client is given anesthesia.

The staff said the “artificial fat” was made in the US and had been proved safe in many experiments.

But Dr. Le Hanh, chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Society of Cosmetic Surgery said the “artificial fat” was in fact liquid silicon, which he stressed had been banned for use in all but a very few cosmetic surgery procedures.

Source: Tuoi Tre