There are legitimate ways to plump up a bottom, but this isn't one of them. Doctors said there have always been cut-rate cosmetic procedures, and publicity about plastic surgery is lulling more women into thinking it's no big deal. As last week's case proved, you're better off with a pro. A big clue: Board-certified plastic surgeons don't work in hotel rooms.
"You want to make sure you go to an appropriately trained physician," said Felmont Eaves, a plastic surgeon in Charlotte, N.C., and president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
"A little bit of homework would have saved this woman her life."
Friends who traveled with the woman who died said she was told she was being injected with silicone, but police do not yet know what substance was used.
Constantino Mendieta, a Miami plastic surgeon who specializes in "gluteal contouring," said several substances - silicone, PMMA or poly (methyl methacrylate), and hydrogels - may be used by fly-by-night butt enhancers, but patients have no way of knowing what they're getting. Eaves said practitioners sometimes use industrial silicone, and there have been reports of people using caulk. These are not FDA approved.
Real doctors usually inject patients with their own fat from other parts of their bodies, or they may use silicone implants.
Mendieta said injections of other substances can kill if they get into the bloodstream and cause a clot that blocks an artery. They also can cause infection, and, years later, become lumpy.
Mendieta said he has heard that people who do injections at parties or hotels charge $1,000 to $3,000. What he does, which involves recontouring the whole body and redistributing fat, costs $10,000 to $14,000.
