McKenzie Westmore Shares Facelift Transformation Photos Following Painful Journey with Fillers

Courtesy McKenzie Westmore

McKenzie Westmore is regaining her self-worth.

The Passions actress built her business, Westmore Beauty, around making other women feel beautiful, even though she was struggling herself to feel confident in her own appearance. After nearly two decades of getting facial fillers and dealing with negative effects, Westmore took back control.

As a young actress, Westmore started getting fillers in her face to counteract her "gaunt" skin that was a result of having anorexia, she previously told PEOPLE. But after years of feeling pressured by the industry and over-using fillers, she was left with lumps around her face from injectables that had migrated under her skin. She turned to board-certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Paul Nassif, who is known for co-hosting the reality show Botched, for help and is now on the road to restoring her confidence.

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Courtesy McKenzie Westmore

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Just a few weeks after having her filler dissolved with the enzyme hyaluronidase and getting a deep plane facelift and endoscopic brow lift to help add balance and reflect her former appearance, Westmore tells PEOPLE that she feels better than ever.

RELATED VIDEO: Actress McKenzie Westmore Opens Up About Undergoing Reconstructive Surgery After Bad Filler

"I feel healthier," Westmore, 45, says. "I feel vibrant, I feel like I have a new lease on life. My parents made a comment — they're like, 'We have our daughter back.' My 16-year-old said, 'Mom, I got to be honest, you were looking a little manly there. You were looking a little masculine. You look feminine again.'"

Dr. Nassif tells PEOPLE that with the way Westmore's filler originally settled, it gave her a "heavy, even masculine" look. "She had a lot of filler even in her forehead, her eyebrows, her temples, her face," he says. "Everything was just too heavy … especially her jawline. If you look at her now, she has that beautiful jawline."

Before surgery, Dr. Nassif had Westmore do a few sessions of getting her filler reversed before she had the actual surgery. He tells PEOPLE that her case was unique because he's never encountered filler in areas of the face where she had it, despite having it reversed beforehand — that's how "overfilled" she was.

"She had filler in areas I've never seen before — deep in her cheek tissue — and it was exuding," he says. "When I was doing what we call a deep plane face and neck lift, underneath what we call the SMAS flap, or the muscle flap around her nerves, there was filler still coming out from there, and now it's squeezed in the tissue."

Despite hyaluronic acid filler normally dissolving after six months to a year, Dr. Nassif said, Westmore still had filler in her face. After a five-hour procedure, which also included an endoscopic brow lift, Dr. Nassif transformed Westmore.

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Courtesy McKenzie Westmore

"She looks very natural," he says of Westmore's appearance post-op. "She does not have any more bruising, we used another device called the J-Plasma device to help. It's a radio frequency healing device to help me elevate some of the tissue, which causes less bleeding. It's called Renuvion."

Dr. Nassif had Westmore use Hydro-Screen Serum before surgery to "hydrate the tissue" and moisturize, making the procedure go more smoothly. He also shares that Westmore used the Age Defying Eye Renewal Serum, which she tells PEOPLE she truly loves.

"One thing that really impressed me with Dr. Nassif that I've never seen another doctor have you do, is a serious pre-op in prepping your skin prior to surgery," Westmore says. "I personally fell in love with these products, and that is what I have on right now — the Hydro-Screen and the eye gel — to keep moisturizing my skin."

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Now that she's post-op, Westmore says she's taking care of her skin better than ever, and that includes wearing sunscreen diligently. She's also getting used to what her face looks like again, and says the recovery really wasn't too bad, despite being a long, intense surgery.

"Every day just gets better and better and better," she says of her results. "The bruising started to go, and then the swelling started to go." She notes that it took a few days for her nerves to gain feeling in her face again, saying it felt like spiders were crawling down her cheeks. "I didn't want to scratch, so I was just tapping my cheek not to irritate the skin!"

Courtesy McKenzie Westmore

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And while Westmore is pleased with how her face looks now that her filler has been removed, she also feels great and has noticed improvements that she never expected — like even her vision.

"When [my husband, Patrick Tatopoulos, and I] were driving home, I was shocked because I remember looking forward at the cars ahead of me and all of a sudden I could see sky above me that I couldn't see before," she says. "Because the filler was so heavy in my brow, I couldn't see. And it's been amazing that now I can see so much more in my peripheral that I couldn't see before. And so now it's like, 'Oh my God, there's life around me. I can see.'"

Westmore tells PEOPLE that it's been a true delight to feel like herself again and to reclaim her appearance that she lost in trying to attain a perceived beauty. She says it's been "amazing" to have "regained" who she once was, noting that she takes responsibility for being in this position in the first place of having to ask for help.

"Yes, I went down the slippery slope, but you know what? I do take responsibility that I continued down that slippery slope," she says. "And I feel very blessed, and so lucky that Dr. Nassif helped me regain this old McKenzie back, if you will. I don't want to say old McKenzie, but this McKenzie that once was. And I just feel so lucky to be back to where I was and not feeling self-conscious about this bulge on my eye, or this big heavy jaw, or these thick temples. I just feel great — I feel so vibrant again."

Courtesy McKenzie Westmore

The "slippery slope" that Westmore fell down is one that Dr. Nassif hopes other people avoid, especially at the age that the actress started getting fillers. "Moderation is key to everything we do in life," he says. "Usually in your 20s, I don't think you even need [filler]. At that point, you have plenty of volume in your face, your face is hydrated."

He also says it's important to get filler that's an "FDA-approved reversible product," adding, "Don't go and have any of these filler parties, pump parties, where they're doing illegal silicone. They'll ruin your life."