Janice Dean, 46, is a senior meteorologist for the Fox News channel. She hasn’t been on the air for several weeks and it’s not because she’s avoiding various grabby men at work, although she’s likely dealt with that like so many other women at that channel. Dean published a first person essay detailing a bad laser treatment she had to fix crepey skin under her neck. It was supposed to be a simple outpatient procedure with an easy recovery time but instead left her with half her face swollen and a lopsided smile. It sounds like a nightmare, especially for a person who works in the media. She wrote that she was convinced to get the treatment after seeing how great Christie Brinkley looks at 63, although it’s not like Brinkley has admitted to getting it. Dean gets Botox regularly and hoped that this treatment, called “fractora” and billed as regenerating collagen, would do the trick for her neck. Instead she had a bad reaction to it which affects approximately 1-2% of patients.
Every time I would see my doctor would ask if there was ANYTHING he could do with my neck. I’ve had a bad relationship with my neck since I was little. There are weird lines around it like a tree trunk -– they’ve been there since I was a baby.
But now at age 46, I’ve started to notice excess skin gathering like an accordion in the middle. So now along with being able to count the rings around my neck to guess how old I am there’s also some crepe paper attached to it.
My doctor told me there was a procedure that’s fairly new, but it’s changing the game in cosmetic surgery. It’s called “fractora,” an outpatient procedure done in the office that takes under an hour and that regenerates your natural collagen and tightens that old skin.
How long would this miracle laser treatment last for? Five years or longer… What about the downtime?
About 5 days. All right!
The kids have their school break coming up — I was going to take the time off anyway to be with them. Perfect!…
The doctor comes in and performs the procedure. My husband picks me up and doesn’t say so at the time, but later tells me that I looked terrible. Especially the left side of my face. My head is bandaged and so is my neck.
I get home and my kids look a little scared. “What happened mama? Why do you look like a Q-tip? Are you OK?” Yes, boys. Everything’s fine. I just had to go the doctor for a little thing with my neck. This bandage will be off tomorrow and I’ll be fine. But for now mama has to lie down.
The left side of my face was puffed out like a chipmunk. I followed the doctor’s instructions and elevated my head and took more Tylenol to minimize bruising.
The next day I took off my bandages. The left side of my face was still very swollen and I was finding it hard to talk out of that side of my mouth. I couldn’t chew properly. Well, maybe this might help me lose a few pounds too? Nervous giggle.
I had the email of my doctor’s assistant and typed: “Hi there. Just wanted to know if it’s normal that one side of my face is very swollen and it’s really challenging to talk. Could you ask the doctor?”
She emailed back and said to send some pictures – one smiling, one normal, one with a pursed mouth like I’m pouting.
My bottom lip had looked like it had vanished. My smile was lopsided. I started looking stuff up on the internet.
Yikes. Close the computer.
Then I looked at the possible side-effects on the sheets I had initialed before the procedure. Fourth one down: Nerve injury, marginal mandibular nerve palsy, inability to depress lower lip, temporary change in smile or facial expression.
Yes, this looked like what I might be experiencing. I was suddenly mad at myself. Why didn’t I read the fine print? Why did I just gloss over these many side effects without asking questions? How many times do we glance through pages of paperwork without fully reading it and nonchalantly sign on the dotted line? This was on me.
I went in to see the doctor. I took my husband with me who was trying to hold back his anger. The first question is: “Will it come back?” My doctor says, “ Yes. 100 percent.” How long? “Well, we’re not sure. But a few weeks. We can fix it a bit with Botox. You can probably mask it with makeup.” But what about the fact that I can’t speak certain words? And my lopsided smile? “Well that will resolve itself eventually.”
Lately I’ve been thinking about this: If I could choose between having a smooth neck or getting my smile back to normal, there is no question. My smile means everything to me.
They say the eyes are the window to the soul. I disagree. My smile is my window.
I was near tears. This is not what I signed up for. Darn it.
My husband Sean asks the doctor what the percentage of patients was that this happens to. Answer: about one to two percent.
Wow. I wish I was that lucky when it came to playing the lottery.
Dean explains that she’s understandably had embarrassment and shame about this, which she realizes was caused by her own vanity. She’s since received a lot of support after sharing her story with friends and colleagues. She writes that “It happens a lot more than we hear about” and that she wants people to be aware of the risks. Honestly I was disappointed that she didn’t include a photo of what she looked like with half her face swollen, but she’s so image conscious that was probably too personal for her. She does include some more recent photos on her Facebook page, one of those is below, and you can’t really notice any damage to her face.
As I often mention I’m getting up there, I’m 44, and I’ve considered getting injectables so many times. I’m scared and these type of stories help me put it off just a little longer. I’m at one of those “ass or your face” impasses now in that my face is looking drawn. There are worse problems, like having half your face swell up for weeks and being ashamed to leave the house. I can’t imagine.
I don’t have any shade for her. I’m glad she told us this story — you’re right, not enough peoole talk about the side effects and possible complications of some of these procedures, so I imagine when it happens to you it can feel really isolating.
Now if she would just leave Fox News…
Kathy Griffin wrote a piece on her experience after lipo (I think), and it was horrible. It was so frightening! Her body wouldn’t urinate. I remember that was like the first time it clicked that people take crazy risks when they go in for plastic surgery!! (Although I think lipo is particularly dangerous)
She got sepsis. Total nightmare scenario from a medical procedure.
I don’t understand the motivation to do this, truly.
When you sign up for a medical procedure you know it can go wrong AF and it’s scary but you have to do it to be healthy. For beauty though, why take the risk? The consequences can be so damaging.
Also, there is a lot to be said about being creative with the cards you are dealt with in the beginning of the game, I find.
Cosmetic enhancements that don’t involve surgery are not permanent, so even if something goes wrong it typically resolves itself, as in this case.
I have been botoxing, filling, lasering and peeling for 15+ years and I’ve never had an issue.
I am not an expert in these procedures and particularly the ones you mention. The only thing I mean is that when there is the slightest risk, even ephemeral, that it could go wrong, I’m off.
I’m with you Megan. I do it all and everything has always been perfect. The risks are higher driving a car… a 1% chance of problems is not going to stop me.
>Cosmetic enhancements that don’t involve surgery are not permanent,
Not true. I’ve read horror stories from women who got laser/IPL on their faces, it was done for too long or at a wrong setting and burned deep layers of their skin. All the subcutaneous fat disappeared and they literally had skins like 80-year-old ladies. I’ve seen pics, there’s a forum dedicated to victims of laser damage. Here is an example, it’s not nearly the worst I’ve seen though. One woman actually killed herself as a result. https://www.realself.com/review/do-not-do-fraxel-ruined-face-burns
Yikes! I feel bad for her. Yes, vanity, but c’mon, it’s impossible to escape the pressure unless you are made of the strongest stuff (which I know I am not).
I got laser hair removal and it didn’t work at all, which put me in a small percentage, too. Not sure what. I’ve been annoyed about it for years, but at least I wasn’t disfigured! I would have thought her procedure pretty safe too.
ME TOO! I’m the perfect candidate…super pale, dark hair….after dozens of treatments I had no hair at all…for a few months. Then back to where I started. Apparently I’m one of the rare “my hair folicules re-spawn” people too. Weep.
So scary. I’m glad she talked openly about this, hopefully it will make more people think twice. I have always hated my neck, too, and now that I’m 50 the skin really is sagging in a dismaying way. I once asked y dermatologist if anything could be done and she just shrugged and said no and that I unfortunately had the type of skin more prone to sagging.
I guess I should give her credit for not trying to push any type of surgical or injectible solution. My own solution is to wear scarves a lot, which in Chicago does not seem too crazy since it’s cold so damn much.
Celebitchy! Don’t do it! I’m sure you look fine! I’m 51, 44 is nothing! My advice, which you may already be following, is sunscreen sunscreen sunscreen. Use the kind with zinc and reapply often. I like Blue Lizard. I also go a little crazy in the summertime with hats and parasols, seriously. I’ve been really diligent about it for the last 15 years or so and it is paying off.
All that said, I don’t mean to be bossy. Whatever you want to do, I’m sure we all support you.
Haha! I tell my kids moisturize, moisturize.
Thing is, when you get old it’s not the huge things that give it away. It’s the small things: the hands, the spots that start appearing, the eyes change shape, the whole body changes. Even if you fill in some areas, it always shows to me. On tv, you see it around the eyes, neck, the arms, etc. It’s just not the same thing as BEING young.
Even if you wear sunscrean or moisturiser, you age. And embracing it is an exciting adventure I find.
You know the series Frankie & Grace on Netflix? Who looks better? The answer, I find, says a lot about how one embraces old age. Personally, I find Jane Fonda’s looks a bit sad and not appealing at all. And when I see her in cosmetic ads, it really really infuriates me.
With my caveat that Humans are NOT buildings, I recently renovated my 100 year-old building for work and learned a lesson about cosmetic surgery. The work we did on the building was cosmetic and it really illustrated what you are saying.
First we updated the lighting and HVAC. Once done, the previously-acceptable wallpaper looked too drab to keep.
Then we stripped wallpaper and painted…and the floor (which we wanted to replace but thought could wait) was horrific in comparison.
Then we got new carpet in the offices and hardwoods in the common areas…and the bathrooms (had hoped to push back a year) were laughably, embarrassingly out-of-date and out of place!
So, too, when a person does their botox and the eyes need a lift, which they do …and the lips look too thin. So they plump the lips. And then the face looks fresh but the neck and boobs look out of place. It’s an endless project!
I’m only 42 (in June) and realize that I haven’t started the real aging that will challenge my decision not to use cosmetic surgery yet, but I hope I can feel good with whatever I choose. I appreciate this woman’s coming forward to share her story.
I agree. JF’s appearance, especially her weird eyes, freaks me out on that show!
@Embee, I’m here for your construction metaphor!! It made me lol…
Thanks Embee, this is so true! I painted one wall and suddenly our ceiling looked so dirty.
Embee I love your construction metaphor and I think it’s quite accurate. Look at the people that can’t stop w just one procedure.
Sure…it is a bit of vanity…but she presents the weather on one of the most sexist channels out there. Unlike CNN, the women on FOX are chosen for how good they look. It is a matter of time she gets dumped for looking her age so I understand why she did this.
That’s so true. I have never NEVER seen a female weather person that was over their late 40’s or the slightest bit overweight, even though our channels are full of male weather persons that are rotund and/or clearly pushing 70…
Tina Fey has the revelation in BossyPants that something happens to a woman’s mouth after she turns 40, and it is so true. I notice that my mouth is uneven and my lips kind of cock to one side. I have loose skin in my face and there is the obvious puffiness of my eyes. I need more fat in my face but I haven’t committed to injectables– yet. I feel like a lot of women don’t always look more youthful when they get injectables, but more like they are an aging and have a lot of money. There are so many products and procedures out there, I wouldn’t even know where to start.
that’s the thing, isn’t it? You don’t exactly know WHY you look “aged,” you just do. I’m 46 and I don’t see lines but I look “old.” I don’t know what to do to fix that…
It really depends on the doctor. My doctor’s approach is that you should look good for your age. Trying to look younger than your age never works.
Sandra Tsing-Loh wrote that “at 42 the wheels come off.” She is right! Until that I looked about the same, now everything changes very fast.
you can do myofacial therapy to strengthen around your lips.. My daughter has been doing it for a bi-lateral tongue thrust (she sticks her tongue out past her teeth, which creates a lisp), and a borderline tongue tie. But her myofacial therapist has us both working to strengthen our lips (we each put a button between our lips but in front of our teeth – they are attached by a string and we have a tug of war with our lips).
Be careful- that sounds like it will give you purse-string creases around your mouth like a smoker would get.
yuck! thanks for the warning @NtSoSclBtrfly.
Yeah myofacial therapy has been tried by MANY proponents and while it is good for people that need to do it (like your daughter) as far as aging? Yeah it actually increases it. Any facial movements done repeatedly result in lines. Frown a lot – frown lines, smile a lot – smile lines, purse your lips a lot – mouth lines.
God, the poor woman. I know she basically did this to herself but who can say they’ve never even entertained the idea of a cosmetic procedure? I would NEVER let anyone take a knife etc. to my face because if that’s screwed, it’s literally in your face. You can’t hide it. I would nip and tuck the crap out of everythingt that can be covered up easily. If I had the guts and the money.
My husband is a plastic surgeon and in practice with his brother, a dermatologist. They don’t do much cosmetic work, but they play a game when we watch movies of listing all the procedures the actors and actresses have had. The list of cosmetic procedures I would be “allowed” to get (if I was interested) is incredibly short and includes nothing injectable. You never know if you are going to be in the 1-20% (which is the ‘acceptable’ range of side effects) that has a bad reaction or who has an injection too close to a nerve bundle, etc. Or if you are going to be the person who has a bad reaction to anesthetic during surgery or develops an infection afterward. To me, the risks are not worth the benefits. However, the pressure those whose livelihood depends on their looks must be incredible, and that bleeds into everyday life so that we assume everyone must look younger than they are. I joke that I’m a professor – it behooves me to have a big butt to sit on when I’m grading and frown lines to make me look intimidating. And I’m lucky in that I believe there is beauty in every stage in life and wouldn’t trade my face today for the one I had when I was 25. I hope she recovers completely and that others take her advice to read all the fine print!
Which procedures are those that he would allow? My sister, also a cosmetic surgeon, is also against injectables pretty much for the reasons you give, and also has a list of procedures that she thinks are useful/worth it (conservatively done face-lifts and mini lifts for older people; rhinoplasty and ear-pinning for any patient) and not (cheek/facial/lip implants of any type). She also does that thing of informing me of all the procedures she sees on actors/actresses in movies. It must be a plastic surgeon party trick!
A good skin regimen with gentle cleaners,daily sunscreen, and a prescription retinoid product, chemical peels, and possibly a very light laser are about it. As you said – a very conservative lift, ONCE, produces the best results, but I’m not interested. While there are still a lot of rhinoplasties, my husband mostly has a revision and reconstruction practice now — redoing cleft lip and palate repairs that were done as children is one of his favorites. And yes! It’s so funny to hear them go at the “this is what he/she had done” game!
Dang, I’d love to hear your husband’s professional guesses on plastic surgery; I love trying to guess but I’m not a professional. It’s vicarious I suppose, love the idea of enhancements but too chicken to mess with anything 😊
Injectables are so scary to me. I don’t know how long they’ve been in play but it seems to me there aren’t enough injected faces around that are old enough to judge how that stuff ages. There ARE enough around to know that it simply doesn’t look good. It doesn’t look young, just puffy.
Ah yes, infection!! That happened to me after a tummy tuck. Four years later and I’m still paying the price.
Yes, I’m dying to hear which procedures he would allow! Very interesting!
The old Face/Ass Impasse, lol. And CB, just so you know: 44 is young!! Trust me (I’m 56.)
Free tip: If you haven’t already, now is the perfect time to start using the “Imagine you were 10 years older, and looking back at your current age” trick. Because remember when you were 34, and thought you were getting old? And now, without question you know how young 34 is. Well, it just keeps going like that! 😉 #empoweredaging
There is a lot to be said for loving yourself as you are right now.
I’m almost 60 & have been covering my gray for 20 years & using Botox for 10. Stopped coloring last August. My friends think I’m so brave for going gray & being “my authentic self”.
HA! My dirty, little secret is a standing 3 month appointment with a great plastic surgeon. Eff authentic, lol.
LMAO. That’s awesome.
I feel like that’s a good balance though: do hair dying but a bit of ‘tox here and there 😉
I don’t understand this procedure but I feel for her. It’s good to speak out as some of these treatments sound so easy but have such scary results.
This is why I wear a lot of scarves now.
Me too!
I’m 38 and I have lines around my neck. They’re not crazy-noticeable but they bug me. Sigh. Getting older can be a bitch..
When I look at her pix, there is nothing wrong with her neck! What is aging her is that harsh eyeliner, especially how she has it under her eyes a la Kate Middleton.
Oh, I feel for her. Kudos to her for sharing her story. That is one of the advantages of *not* being rich. You can’t try any expensive, new procedures. Everything available to the plebs has been around for years. In this case, it’s the rich-ies who are the guinea pigs. Thanks 1% percenters!
I have been trying to decide what to do about my mid-forties face. Fraxel? Space lasers? Laser cats?!
Decided on CACI. They call it a non-surgical facelift and it. is. amazing. They used it for people with bell’s palsy and it lifts your face using electricity (or something).
With all these procedures, I’ve been feeling like a Russian billionaire’s trophy wife. Just call me Ludmilla 😉
Wow sounds like such a harmless procedure but then it has risks. Just yesterday I was reading about how 23 year old Kristyna Martelli, a model/alleged escort, died during a surgical procedure. Her body was modified to the extreme, you can look her up on Instagram still. One of the most extreme cases of enchantment I’ve seen. This whole plastic surgery thing is not only totally normalized but has veered into territory where it’s forgotten that it has real risks.
I just googled and OH MY GOD MY EYES!!! Why would you do that to yourself?!?!?! What doctor would do that to someone!?!?!
I feel extremely sorry for her, and am very glad she is telling other people about how devastating possible side effects can be. I’m allergic to several things, and before I got Botox, I Googled its’ side effects. Honestly, I thought about it for 3 days straight, and decided no Botox, etc. for me, simply because my health is such a priority. The HORROR people have now for aging and its’ signs has reached incredibly neurotic levels, IMO. People start speaking of their HEALTHY (albeit aging) bodies with self hatred, sometimes starting in their 30’s!! I find it very unattractive, much more so than wrinkles!
Try Chinese medicine!
There are several protocols for facial rejuvenation. Mei Zen is the one that is probably the most recognizable to a popular audience because it was featured in O and I believe that Oprah even tried it but there are several others from which to choose.
If you do not like needles, see about Chinese massage (the name for that is tui na, pronounced “tui na”) with a practitioner who uses employs a jade roller and/or uses a jade instrument to perform gua sha (light scraping, pronounced “gwa sha”). Vogue magazine has a short article on the jade instrument and gua sha in the current issue.
Chinese medicine can do wonders for the face and there are protocols for Bells palsy that also can be useful for droopiness in general.
Best: no crazy side effects as you see in the case of this poor woman.
Her experience is truly unfortunate, but-
1) stay away from “fairly new” procedures…let others be the testers until it is a well accepted procedure, and
2) research your providers carefully, and
3) use common sense.
I think that’s a good baseline, but you can do all those things and still be unlucky enough to be part of the 1-2% that experience adverse reactions. Additionally, I’ve read horror stories about people who have had the same treatment administered by the same doctor, over and over again with no side effects or issues but then that ONE TIME, something goes wrong. People’s bodies can be unpredictable and even the most skilled surgeon can encounter a bad reaction, not always in conjunction with bad technique.
I’m getting micro pigmentation on my lips next Monday and I’m somewhat nervous. I’ve done extensive research and I have a close friend who just got it done, so I know what to expect in terms of the recovery. Still, I’m aware that things could go wrong… I never exclude that possibility, you know?
I’m apparently in the minority here: I think plastic surgery and its relatives look like shit. You can always tell.
I find that fillers and botox derail the face. Whenever I saw somebody and could not put my finger on what it was that was strange about their face, I later learned that they had some sort of cosmetic procedure done. I have since learned the markers. All of a sudden, even with “just a little” botox, certain parts of the face move and others don’t, or don’t move at the same rate/speed. Same with fillers. Lips are the worst.
People here raved about how young Angelina Jolie looked recently, and all I saw were new fillers and botox, including the frozen forehead and shine.
I think plastic surgery is a major fraud. To me, people who had cosmetic procedures done don’t look “better”, or even younger. They just look like they had something artificial done to their face. Aging is not a disease, it is a natural process. Try sleeping one more hour every night for three months and tell me you don’t look and FEEL better. Obviously, a lot of people disagree with me, or plastic surgeons would not be so filthy rich. Personally, I find the fact that a whole industry exists that is based on telling people that they are not okay the way they are, perverse. I’ll go to bed now.
I’m a volunteer at an art house theater and most of the time I’m slinging popcorn. I used to dye my hair and loved the volume and beautiful highlights in the look. Months behind a counter I noticed patrons my age and older w/ dyed hair, I noticed something. Youthful hair, yes. Youthful face, no. Even those who did injections (and I had my suspicions) along w/ the youthful hair did not look young. Or even younger. But of a certain age w/ a line free face but not younger looking. The best look “refreshed.” And those were few. I don’t have the kind of discretionary income that would allow for surgery or procedures. But I no longer dye my hair.
It is, however, LITERALLY what she signed up for. She even admits she read the warning.
So the puffiness went down and her smile is back to normal but she didn’t mention if it the treatment actually worked.
i appreciate that this woman owns not really having read the fine print. it takes guts to say “it’s on me,” be open about this embarassing thing about both her vanity and the physical unpleasantness, try to warn others about the risks.
it’s just too bad that she like freaking so many women, myself included, feel so tempted to mess with this kind of stuff. we face too much pressure in society to stay young and beautiful forever.
one can imagine that her job at Fox News didn’t help her one iota in confronting that whole “beautiful woman getting older” thing.
also, she looks a lot like kelly preston.
Never, ever be a guinea pig for a new procedure! Always look at consumer comments for any procedure, even if it has been out for a while. There’s one out there that I was considering, but then I saw how many people had been permanently scarred by it – but reading only the initial things, it sounded almost too good to be true.
She also didn’t read the fine print, either. Always consider the worst case scenario and ask yourself if you could live with it.
I’m sorry that it happened to her. I hope that she does research and starts taking methylcobalamin B12 sublingual lozenges to help with the nerve problems. (It helped with my mother’s Bell’s Palsy.)