Ethics, legal issues, and consent for fillers.

The huge patient demand for filler rejuvenation exposes plastic surgeons to legal issues. Plastic surgery statistics confirm a trend toward nonsurgical procedures, with a slight increase in surgical procedures overall from 2004 to 2005. Nonsurgical procedures, especially fillers, exhibited a 35% increase. Patients are seeding a quick-recovery, minimally invasive procedure that provides them maximal rejuvenation. This demand and media-driven exposure may create concerns for plastic surgeons as to patient selection and ethical, regulatory, and legal issues relating to filler choices and their use. This article addresses these concerns.