After months of speculation, Kylie Jenner has admitted her plump lips are the result of temporary lip fillers.
"I have temporary lip fillers. It’s just an insecurity of mine and it’s what I wanted to do," the 17-year-old says in an upcoming episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
"I’m just not ready to talk to reporters about my lips yet because everyone always picks us apart. I wanna admit to the lips but people are so quick to judge me on everything."
The recent social media trend #KylieJennerChallenge showed a lot of young women are prepared to go to extreme lengths to imitate the star.
"The most common lip filler is hyaluronic acid and this is not bad per se for the body as it is produced naturally but declines with age," says Dr Carolyn Berry, medical director and founder of Firvale Clinic.
"However with young people under the age of 18 years, there are other factors to consider."
According to Berry, young people often seek treatments for the wrong reasons. Some wish to boost low self esteem while others are simply following celebrity trends and not considering what suits their face.
She adds that in the UK, fillers are not properly regulated. What's more, young people may be less likely to go to a reputable doctor and more likely to seek out a cheap injection.
"This leaves them much more open to complications such as infection, or even death of tissue as poor technique can lead to injection into an artery and cut off blood supply to an area," she adds.
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Although there is no clear legal guidance on lip fillers in the UK, Berry says most good doctors will not inject anyone under 18 years old.
Dr Dennis Wolf, joint medical director at The Private Clinic agrees that 17 is "very young to be undergoing a cosmetic procedure such as lip fillers".
"At this age, the face is likely to still be changing - I have a policy that I don't treat anyone under the age of 21," he says.
"If patients come in that are younger than that, but over the age of 18, then I insist that they come with parents or a guardian that can lend support and help to take in the consultation contents, and even then, I would only consider seeing them for a consultation if the treatment they were seeking was for reasons beyond just pure aesthetics.
"For example, something like severe male gynecomastia, or other conditions which can have a detrimental psychological impact on a patient's wellbeing."
Wolf also insists potential patients have a second consultation a few weeks later, to assess what has been understood from the first consultation and to see if their thought process has changed.
