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The new face — the hyaluron beauty hype

42:34

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May 21, 2025

Hyaluron has been used with increasing frequency, as social media normalizes lip injections. In Germany, this beauty industry procedure may only be carried out by doctors or alternative medicine practitioners – professionals who understand the risks.

Beauty procedures are often advertised on social media with ‘before‘ and ‘after‘ pictures. Alessa Book from East Frisia in northern Germany first learned about lip injections from one of these ads. She says she feels prettier with a fuller upper lip. She goes to a doctor for her hyaluronic acid treatment - a treatment that costs 300 Euros. The market for aesthetic surgery has grown rapidly. However, some offers are questionable -- and can have serious health consequences. The police are often called in to investigate people who are not authorized to perform such procedures. This film reports on hyaluron, an active ingredient caught between misuse and normality, whose triumphant advance is changing the faces of more and more people.

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