HOUSTON – A Houston woman who wishes to remain anonymous says she had store-bought silicone injected into her body from someone offering her a cheap procedure in a hotel room.
This is a kind of black market procedure that any credible doctor would tell you to stay away from.
However, holidays bring up "Botox parties," which is typically not the same thing.
One dermatologist from Baylor College of Medicine warns they can be just as dangerous. With all of the nerves in your face, one wrong move can damage your vision, muscle control and lip movement and it might be permanent.
She says it's critical for a doctor to administer the injections to monitor where they're going but that's where plastic surgeon Dr. Malik Kutty differs.
"It doesn't always have to be an MD physician who's doing filler injection because MD physicians can train some higher-level staff, nurses and such to do the actual injections under their supervision, but yes there are a lot of things that can happen. Once you break the skin with a needle or a scalpel or whatever it is, there are a lot of things underneath the skin that can be injured and cause somebody a lot of problems," Kutty said.
Which means is still critical to do research ahead of time. If you're attending a Botox party, make sure you find out who the practitioner is in advance and verify they have the right qualifications.
"More importantly, it should be done in a place where it's sanitary, it not in somebody's garage and that kind of thing," Kutty said.