Side-By-Side Pics Of Celebs Who Dissolved Their Filler For Health Reasons

Dermal fillers are a convenient way for people to plump up their lips, reduce hollow areas under their eyes, and make fine lines vanish. However, there are certain things you should know before getting facial fillers. Although there are different brands of fillers on the market, all of them are gel-like substances that are injected under the skin to counteract the body's natural age-related loss of collagen. Once in place, fillers add instant volume. There's little downtime when you get a filler, and no invasive surgical procedures.

Fillers are eventually reabsorbed, but the process can take up to a couple of years depending on the type of filler used. In the meantime, patients occasionally decide that they don't like the results, including for health reasons, and get a pro to inject a product called hyaluronidase to cause the filler to break down. Within seven days, the filler and its effects disappear.

Not everybody loves the way their filler treatments make them feel. In an interview for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Dr. Sara Dickie noted that some people choose to dissolve fillers for personal reasons. But she added that it's a decision they can't reverse since "it is hard to be very specific with dissolving," and that she "tell[s] patients that they should consider dissolving filler as all or nothing." Indeed, a number of Hollywood celebs who previously had fillers ultimately had them dissolved.

For reality TV judge Simon Cowell, the impetus to jettison his filler came when he realized his looks had changed too dramatically. In 2022, he told The Sun that he saw an image of himself and thought he was unrecognizable. He also said that his young son laughed at how he looked, which pretty much sealed the deal.

Cowell showed a tremendous sense of humor during his reflection on how he looked, using the term "horror film" when describing what he looked like pre-dissolving. Nowadays, he seems to have traded in his fillers for healthier behaviors, including better eating habits and regular hydration.

As a teen, musician and influencer Bhad Bhabie started getting fillers. At the time, she mentioned on a now-removed Instagram post that she got lip filler, stating (via E! News), "I'm only 18, why would I get full facial reconstruction surgery when I don't even know how I'm gonna look when I get older?" But when she reached 21, Bhabie was singing a different tune about fillers. On another now-deleted Instagram, she claimed that filler "makes you look so much older" and mess with the lymphatic drainage system (via E! News). Experts say fillers can lead to puffier faces if they're not correctly and judiciously applied by trained professionals.

Reality TV celeb Blac Chyna became a member of the "filler dissolver" club when she went fresh-faced in 2023, as an act that might well be called self-love. That year, she uploaded an Instagram video of herself getting all the fillers in her face dissolved, saying that she was "so happy" about having the removal procedure. What made Chyna take them out, along with the silicone injections in her chest and butt? Per Allure, Chyna simply felt it was time to remove them, although she made a point of saying she wasn't anti-filler.

Actress Kristin Davis said that her experience with fillers was "bad" during a candid discussion with The Telegraph, noting that she'd been "ridiculed" by people on the Internet because she tried fillers. Ultimately, she had the fillers dissolved in 2021 (per Us Weekly). One reason Davis turned to fillers in the first place was because she felt she was expected to look like she was still in her 30s. (Davis is in her 60s and has been very open about her different medical conditions, as well as being a female celeb who has opened up about thinning hair.)

At first, Courteney Cox didn't think her fillers made her look any different. But as she admitted on the Gloss Angeles podcast, "You look in the mirror and go, 'Oh, that looks good,' you think, and you don't realize what it looks like to the outside person." Once Cox realized her fillers were distorting her appearance, she took action, acknowledging that she's "actually just older." (While Cox has called fillers her biggest beauty regret, she is also one of the many celebs over 40 who regret their young tanning days.)