Black Market Cosmetic Injections

Earlier this week, a story came out of New Jersey about 6 women being hospitalized after receiving "Black Market Cosmetic Butt Injections" from unlicensed providers. These women received injections containing commercial or industrial-grade silicone diluted with saline. In some cases, victims are injected with other substances such as caulking for tile and bathtubs, petroleum jelly, baby oil, paraffin, oil, peanut butter, or a mixture of unknown toxic and potentially fatal substances.

Anyone injected with a non-medical-grade substance risks serious, painful and often life-threatening complications when infections are not treated early. When large amounts of commercial silicone are injected into the body and blood vessels of victims, it often results in complications such as life-threatening damage to the kidneys and can result in death.

It's a tragic and terrible coincidence that this story broke on the same day we re-published our first blog entry "Cosmetic Injectables and Patient Safety" on Blogspot (March 8th). Even more tragic, is the fact that this is not the first, and probably not the last time this has happened. These incidents have happened as recently as 2009 in Florida and in other places including Georgia, New York and parts of South America.

Buttock augmentations performed by licensed medical professionals was up 37.5 percent in 2009 from the previous year and buttock lifts were up 34.6 percent, according to statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

While only 4,996 buttock or gluteal augmentations were performed in 2009, compared to some 2 million Botox treatments and 311,957 breast augmentations, the increase in demand potentially means that the odds of this sort of tragedy happening may also be on the rise.

We cannot stress it enough - if you're a consumer or patient interested in ANY cosmetic injectable procedure, you should ALWAYS seek out the services of a professionally trained, qualified and experienced plastic surgeon or dermatologist or appropriately licensed clinician operating under medical supervision.  Never choose a provider based on price alone.

Use our directory to find an experienced, qualified and licensed plastic surgeon or doctor in your area.