AFTER a few reports that people who have cosmetic fillers and got a COVID-19 vaccine later developed facial swelling, many people with fillers may be worried about the vaccine’s possible side effects. But experts say these reactions are exceedingly rare, highly treatable and certainly not a reason to avoid the vaccine.

The best data we have about these reactions comes from a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review presentation, which shows that two participants in a clinical trial who had cosmetic fillers reported temporary facial swelling within two days of receiving the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. A report of a third filler-related swelling reaction emerged during the FDA advisory panel’s meeting to discuss the Moderna vaccine prior to its emergency use authorization, STAT reported at the time. Crucially, people developed this swelling in the area of their face where they had received filler.

All of the reactions were treated with antihistamines or steroids, which is the normal course of treatment for this type of side effect, Mary L. Stevenson, M.D., said assistant professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology at NYU Langone Health. And, in fact, this type of reaction is rare but not unheard of in people who’ve had cosmetic fillers, she said.

“Other vaccines cause facial swelling too,” said Samuel Lin, M.D., board-certified plastic surgeon and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, including the flu vaccine. “It’s just a fact of the immune response reacting to things and causing swelling.”

Essentially, the COVID-19 vaccine ramps up your immune system in order to help provide you protection from the virus. Both the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines do this by using mRNA technology to teach your body to create its own version of the coronavirus spike protein. With that, your body can then create the necessary immune response to protect you.

But that immune response may put your body on high alert for basically any foreign material it could consider a threat, which in rare cases may include the material in cosmetic fillers. “If you’re stimulating the immune system and you have foreign material in your body, you can have a reaction to it,” Dr. Stevenson said. That’s why it’s part of her normal practice to delay fillers for a few weeks if someone is getting a flu vaccine, for instance, or if they have an autoimmune disease that’s flaring up.

If you get filler on a regular basis, Dr. Stevenson recommends waiting two to four weeks after the COVID-19 vaccine before getting your filler. If you’ve already gotten filler and are planning to get the vaccine soon, know that these reactions are rare and treatable.

That said, normal side effects of the vaccines tend to be more common and severe after the second dose. So someone who developed facial swelling after their first dose needs to discuss the problem with their doctors and be cautious to receive the second dose.

(SD-Agencies)