Patients paying $10,000 for plastic surgery to fix sagging ‘Ozempic face’

Ozempic users notice a change in their face — and it costs them an arm and a leg.

Patients who inject themselves with an anti-diabetic drug to lose weight have found themselves with “Ozempic face” – gaunt, puffy cheeks and loose, sagging skin around their jaws.

Trying to avoid plastic surgery to fix their new sagging faces, sufferers instead undergo repeated medical procedures – paying up to $10,000 a pop.

“It’s really hard to say exactly when I noticed my face changed,” Ozempica user Quenby Erickson, who lost 45 pounds in seven months on the drug, told the Post.

“It was gradual. You just think it’s weight loss, and then you start looking at your mirror like, “Wait a minute, my skin is looser now than it was before. I’ve aged a lot in a few months.”

Erickson, 51, a Chicago resident who is also a dermatologist, started taking Ozempiz in August 2022 for post-pregnancy weight loss.

In May, she had her staff at Erickson Cosmetic Dermatology & Lifestyle Medicine treat her with Sofwave, a $2,000 to $3,000 ultrasound treatment that reduces lines and wrinkles by heating and remodeling facial collagen.

Dermatologist Marina Peredo, who owns Skinfluence on the Upper East Side and Dick Hills, explained what causes sagging skin.

“Because the weight loss happens in a very short period of time, the skin doesn’t have time to catch up, so you have a lot of people who look thin,” she said.

In addition to Sofwave, which needs to be repeated once or twice a year, Peredo also treats his Ozempic patients with Morpheus8, a micro-needling procedure that stimulates collagen to tighten and smooth wrinkles.

“Think of it like hot needles,” she said. “It costs $800 to $1,000 per treatment, and you usually need a series of three.”

Those “not quite ready for a face lift” after Ozempic opt for three procedures: AccuTite, which focuses on the upper part of the face; FaceTite, which works on the jaw line and neck; and liposuction, a trio that clocks in at a whopping $10,000.

AccuTite and FaceTite use a metal probe that “goes under the skin and tightens it from the inside,” Peredo said.

Patients also combine these procedures with hyaluronic fillers from $3,500 to $9,000. “We have to inflate that sagging by putting fillers in the cheeks, temples and jawline,” she said.

She advises her patients to start corrective work at the same time they start Ozempic.

“Otherwise, if there’s a lot of weight loss, they may have to go under the knife,” she said.

Pered’s longtime patient Kathleen Colon, who started Ozempic in July 2021 after rapidly gaining weight due to menopause, received Sofwave, Morpheus8 and AccuTite.

Colon, 57, of Long Island, was worried about how her face would change, so she started getting the procedures just months after she started taking Ozempiz.

“I’m very sensitive about my lower face,” said Colon, who lost 45 pounds over a two-year period. “When you lose weight, it ages you, so I was worried about that.

Colon will likely have to repeat expensive procedures since he’s still on Ozempic — with another weight loss goal in mind.

“I have about 20 pounds that I would like to lose,” she said. “My daughter’s wedding is coming up, and I bought my dress in Paris.”