A Vietnamese woman who was not a licensed medical practitioner in Singapore was jailed for one week for performing a lip reduction surgery on a client at her home. The woman, Nguyen Thi Phuong Huyen, 34, had charged the client S$700 for the procedure and the medication she supplied. She pleaded guilty to carrying out a medical procedure without authorisation and giving the client three drugs that were not available over the counter in Singapore.

According to court documents, Nguyen offered aesthetics services out of her flat and was investigated by the Ministry of Health (MoH) after an informant from the Health Sciences Authority tipped them off. On Sept 22 last year, she met with a client who wanted smaller lips and agreed to let Nguyen remove some skin from her lips. Nguyen injected Lidocaine, a form of anaesthetic, to numb the client’s lips and then made two incisions around her upper lip area to cut and remove some skin. She then sewed up the cuts with a needle and dissolvable stitches and cleaned the client’s lips with gauze and saline solution. She also prescribed three medications that were not available over the counter in Singapore.

The MoH prosecutor cited the opinion of Dr Gavin Kang from the Academy of Medicine Singapore who stated that such procedures should only be done by a registered medical practitioner in Singapore as there were risks involved, such as infection, scarring and skin irregularity. However, the client did not suffer any adverse effects from Nguyen’s treatment.

The district judge noted Nguyen’s extreme remorse but agreed with the prosecution that a fine would not be appropriate given the risk of the procedure. For performing the lip procedure as an unlicensed medical practitioner, Nguyen could have been jailed for up to 12 months, fined up to S$100,000 or both .