Permanent Filler Removal in Dubai: What Can Be Taken Out, and How

Permanent fillers cannot be dissolved. Biopolymer, liquid injectable silicone, PMMA and older semi-permanent products can only be taken out surgically — the encapsulated material and the inflammatory granulomas around it excised under general anaesthesia. For patients in Dubai living with hardening, migration, pain or a distorted shape, this is reconstructive surgery, not a cosmetic injection reversed. It is performed by Dr. Paulo Michels at Elyzee Hospital in Abu Dhabi, whose body contouring work was recognised with the Gold Medal, Best Body Contouring — World Plastic Surgery Olympiads 2025 (ISAPS, Singapore).

Why can’t it just be dissolved?

This is the single most common misunderstanding, and it comes from a real fact applied to the wrong product. Hyaluronic acid filler — the temporary kind used in most clinics — genuinely can be dissolved with an enzyme, in minutes, in a consulting room.

Permanent fillers cannot. And that one difference changes everything about how they have to be treated:

• Biopolymer and liquid silicone do not stay where they were injected. They spread along tissue planes, migrate, harden, and trigger chronic inflammation that forms firm granulomas — sometimes years after the injection.
• PMMA (Metacrill and similar) becomes fixed and encapsulated in the tissue, forming nodules and irregularities.
• Older or semi-permanent products that have encapsulated or caused lumps and inflammation are removed surgically once they can no longer be managed conservatively.

Because none of them can be dissolved away, the material has to be physically excised. That is why permanent filler removal is a reconstructive operation rather than a quick office treatment — and why it belongs in a hospital, under general anaesthesia, with a surgeon who does reconstruction.

How much can realistically be removed?

Honestly: not always all of it.

When biopolymer or liquid silicone has spread widely through the tissue, removing every last trace is not possible without damaging healthy structures around it. That is a limit of the material’s behaviour, not of the surgeon’s skill — and it is the reason to be sceptical of anyone promising complete removal in every case, sight unseen.

What surgery reliably does is remove as much of the material as is safe, take out the worst granulomas, and relieve the pain, inflammation and deformity they were causing. For most patients that is a profound improvement. What your case allows is assessed after examination and explained to you before anything is decided — not promised over a message.

What does the surgery involve?

Removal is planned in two stages, and it matters that they are separate.

Stage one — removal. The encapsulated filler and the inflammatory granulomas are carefully excised under general anaesthesia. Drains and a compression garment are often used, depending on how much is removed and from where.

Stage two — reconstruction. Once the tissue has fully recovered, the planned second stage restores the shape where volume or contour has been lost — fat grafting or a lift, depending on the area. Trying to do both at once, in tissue that is still inflamed, is not how a durable result is built.

The buttocks are the area treated most often, because that is where biopolymer and silicone injections are most common — but the face and other areas of the body are treated on the same principles.

What if I don’t know what was injected?

You do not need to know. A great many patients were treated abroad, or in unregulated settings, and were told only that the result was “permanent”.

Part of the assessment is examining the area — sometimes with imaging — to understand what is present and how it is behaving in your tissue, then planning removal around that. Bringing any paperwork you still have is useful; not having it does not stop you being assessed.

What is recovery like?

Recovery depends on how much material is removed and from where, and is typically two to four weeks.

• Swelling, bruising and tenderness settle over roughly two to four weeks
• Pain from the old inflammation often eases noticeably once the material is out — for many patients this is the change they notice first
• The tissue continues to recover and soften over the following months, supported by compression
• Reconstruction, where it is planned, follows as a second stage once the tissue has fully recovered

When should you contact the surgeon?

After any excision of this kind, contact the clinic rather than waiting for your next review if you notice:

• Pain that is increasing after the first few days instead of settling, or that your prescribed painkillers no longer control
• Redness spreading outward from the wound, or skin that is hot to the touch
• Fever, or fluid from the wound that is cloudy, discoloured or foul-smelling
• A wound edge that opens, or a dressing that soaks through
• A sudden increase in swelling on one side, or a firm area that is growing rather than settling
• Calf pain, chest pain or breathlessness — these are not filler-specific, and they are always urgent

Is it worth removing if it isn’t hurting yet?

That is a fair question, and the answer belongs to a consultation rather than an article. What can be said generally is that permanent fillers are associated with more than lumps and deformity: recurring infections, chronic inflammation, and longer-term immune reactions. Many patients choose removal for that reason rather than for appearance. Whether that applies to you is assessed individually.

How do consultations work if I live in Dubai?

Consultation and surgery both take place at Elyzee Hospital in Abu Dhabi, roughly an hour from Dubai, where patients from Dubai and across the UAE are routinely seen. Because this is staged surgery, the follow-up matters more than usual — reviews are grouped where possible so the journey is made as few times as practical, and the timing of any second-stage reconstruction is planned with you rather than fixed in advance.

The emirate you live in changes the logistics, not the clinical plan. The page on how patients from Dubai are seen covers the practical details, and consultations are held in English, Portuguese or Spanish.

Choosing a surgeon for filler removal

This is one of the few aesthetic problems where the surgeon’s honesty is a clinical variable, not a bedside manner. You want someone who will tell you what cannot be removed as clearly as what can, who plans reconstruction as a separate stage rather than promising a single-operation transformation, and who operates in a fully licensed hospital with board-certified anaesthesiologists.

Dr. Paulo Michels is board certified by the Brazilian Society of Plastic Surgery (SBCP) and a member of ISAPS, ASPS and EPSS, with over 18 years of experience. Because removal so often ends in reconstruction of the contour, the body contouring expertise recognised at the 2025 ISAPS Olympiads is directly relevant to what happens after the material is out. Related reading: our procedures and booking a consultation.