The Cuban TikToker Leslie Betancourt (@leslie_btnc) posted a video confessing her regrets about various cosmetic procedures she underwent, both in Cuba and the United States, which have left her with physical and emotional consequences that she has yet to resolve.
The video, just over three minutes long, garnered over 340,000 views and nearly 10,000 likes on TikTok, reflecting the significant impact of his testimony within the Cuban community on social media.
The first regret she mentions is having her teeth whitened. "I don't know what I was thinking getting these teeth so white that I don't like now," she confesses. She feels that they no longer suit her and wishes she had someone to advise her at that moment.
The second—and most serious—issue is the breast surgery she had in Cuba. "It was a disaster," she repeats several times. The result left one breast higher than the other, with a scar she describes as terrible. "It was as if I had gone to get surgery at a veterinary clinic," she says to illustrate the extent of the damage.
Far from improving the situation, a second surgery performed in the United States made things worse. "One breast is higher and the other is lower, worse than before, hard, painful, horrible," she recounts. Currently, she needs a third surgery, not just for aesthetic reasons but for health: she has a encapsulated implant that causes her constant pain when lying down, exerting herself, or making any physical movement. "It's on the side of my heart and it gives me a lot of pain," she explains.
Capsular contracture —which is exactly what Leslie is experiencing— occurs when the scar tissue around the implant hardens and compresses the prosthesis, causing pain, deformity, and displacement. It is one of the most common complications of breast augmentation and worsens when procedures are performed under resource scarcity conditions, as is the case in Cuba.
Leslie also mentions having injected hyaluronic acid into her lips on the island, with results she describes as monstrous. "I looked like a literal monster," she says. Fortunately, she was able to reverse that procedure because the product was hyaluronic acid, which is dissolvable with hyaluronidase.
A detail that he emphasizes in his account is the lack of responsibility among doctors for negative outcomes. "Nobody takes responsibility for something that goes wrong during surgery, regardless. At least here in the United States. And in Cuba, what's the point of even talking about it," he points out.
The case of Leslie is not an isolated one. The Cuban influencer Rachel Arderi also reported complications after having breast surgery in Cuba—worn-out, encapsulated, and displaced implants—and had to undergo a second surgery in Miami where her implants were replaced. Another Cuban, Cynthia Broche, recounted that an aesthetic surgery in Florida led to four emergency procedures due to a severe infection.
Leslie ends her testimony with a direct piece of advice for her followers: "I used to be embarrassed to smile because of my natural teeth, and now I'm also embarrassed to smile because my teeth are no longer natural. If your body is fine, don't touch it. Especially your teeth."
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