The truth behind Botox parties

A group of nervous but excited, middle-aged men and women mingle in a common area. Sometimes refreshments are served. One by one, as their names are called, each slips away for 15 minutes to a private examination room.

He or she pays a fee and signs an informed consent agreement. The practitioner injects about one tenth of a teaspoon of toxin into specific muscles. The person then re-joins the group.

This is how a Botox party typically works, a plastic surgery event that has gained popularity in Singapore.

But people should be wary about the abuse of Botox that may arise from this, said the Singapore Medical Association (SMA) yesterday.

Botox is licensed for marketing and distribution as single-use vials, said Dr Julianne Seet, of the Heath Ministry’s Department of Vaccines and Related Products Applications. This means that each vial should be used for one person only.

Botox parties, however, often see participants getting injections from the same vial.

“Treating multiple people with one vial violates product labelling,” said Dr Seet.

But plastic surgeon Dr Charles Woo feels that Botox parties are beneficial to his clients.

The surgeon has held monthly “Botox Hours” in his medical office at Mount Elizabeth Hospital since 2002, and they “are an opportunity to treat a lot of people at one time in a relaxed but professional atmosphere.”

But Dr Woo makes sure that his staff is not allowed to administer Botox treatments.

“Patients safety has to be of prime concern,” he said. “People need to be in the right hands when complications arise.”

This also comes from SMA’s rising concern of unqualified people dispensing Botox, especially in non-sanitised venues.

In such cases, people risk side effects and adverse reactions, including respiratory infection, muscle weakness and pain, said the SMA.

The SMA urges doctors and the public to only administer Botox through a qualified physician in an appropriate medical setting.

“Gathering as many patients as possible trivialises a medical treatment, which could deteriorate over time into a non-professional environment,” said SMA President Dr Frank Lim. “There’s more to medicine than just dispensing drugs.”

(Oct 2018, in-class assignment - characters and scenarios in this story are fictional)