It's a Do It Yourself era.

Perhaps you're hoping to re-tile your bathroom or groom your own pet. But some projects are best left to the professionals.

In a disturbing trend, consumers are scouring the Internet for cosmetic surgery products, such as Botox and fillers, and then injecting themselves. Recently, one self injection went horribly wrong, leaving the person disfigured when she injected a needle with cooking oil under her skin. (Read more).

The high cost of in-demand cosmetic procedures, which range between hundreds to thousands of dollars, is motivating some people to try to find less expensive alternatives, according to American Board of Plastic Surgery certified plastic surgeon Jason Pozner, MD, FACS, founder of Sanctuary Plastic Surgery and co-owner of Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center, in Boca Raton, FL.

But sometimes you get what you pay for, experts warn. For example, some online products, while less expensive, are meant to be topical and not injected into the skin, according to Ava Shamban, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and owner of the Laser Institute for Dermatology and European Skin Care in Santa Monica, CA. Others fillers, which are bought overseas or in Canada, may not be FDA approved, and can contain harmful or unknown ingredients.

If you're not obtaining the product directly from a licensed medical professional, there's no way to know it's the real thing, Dr. Shamban stresses. Fake products can cause painful and disfiguring reactions. At the very least, they can fail to provide the desired aesthetic result, by pooling or collecting under the skin.

And doing it yourself is simply not an option. Self-injecting would be dangerous, even for a doctor who wanted to inject himself, Dr. Schulman notes. "The injecting technique used to inject oneself is different then is used when injecting someone else," he explains, noting that awkward angles, injecting in front of a mirror and perhaps needing to use a non-dominant hand can all lead to drastic mistakes.

Inexperienced Injectors

When it comes to Botox, experience does count. So be careful even of using people affiliated with medical spas who might not have the training.  Some people are stealing the products and distributing them or injecting their friends, Dr. Shamban says.

Untrained, novice injectors can use too much product, inject the wrong areas of the face or use ingredients that just don't belong below the skin's surface. Risks range from small problems like lumps to major problems, such as infections, inadvertent intravascular injections (injecting into a blood vessel) and major skin loss, according to Dr. Pozner.

Individuals who lack the proper training may not be able to manage potential complications. They often take shortcuts. This can come at the cost of something as simple as sterility standards, says Matthew Schulman, MD, a board certified plastic surgeon and assistant professor of plastic surgery, The Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.

In one unusual case, owners of a Bellevue, WA beauty salon were indicted for allegedly injecting customers with fake facial fillers. One woman who was injected with fake Restylane experienced severe reactions requiring treatment by a plastic surgeon. (Read Richard Baxter's blog on this same topic.)The person who did the injection was an manicurist and aesthetician, not a physician, and officials don't know what substance was actually put into her face. In a separate case, the owner of another Bellevue salon was arrested for allegedly attempting to bribe an FDA inspector to overlook a dangerous, radiation-emitting cosmetic laser device that is not approved for use in the United States.

In short, consumers must be discerning. People should leave cosmetic medicine and injections to trained health care professionals, Dr. Shamban urges, noting medical professionals have the knowledge of human anatomy, knowing where to inject and how to avoid skin and muscles that should not be touched.

Those unfortunate self-injectors who attempted to save time and money with self-surgery are now faced with physical and emotional scars, as well as numerous costly surgeries to try to repair the damage they created.

If you want to eliminate wrinkles or provide volume to facial contours, turn to an experienced professional. The investment will likely pay off in results-and will keep you out of harm's way.

Kerri Penno is a senior associate editor at ADVANCE.