This bar serves booze and Botox

Several years after Botox parties raised eyebrows, a San Diego County bar has begun holding a spa night in which patrons can order up a shot of Botox. One doctor calls it the "next not-quite-so-logical step" in society's embrace of Botoxed faces.

NBCSanDiego.com reported last week that WineStyles Bar in Coronado has invited a doctor to deliver Botox shots one evening per week. According to the website article, the doctor will not drink during the visit and will refuse to treat patrons who have had too much to drink. These stipulations are unlikely to impress medical societies, such as the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, which warned consumers against receiving Botox treatments in nonmedical settings in a 2002 statement.

"Botox injections should be performed in a setting with appropriate medical personnel and necessary equipment to safely observe patients and deal with potential complications, as well as provide for the disposal of medical waste as required by Occupational Safety," the organization's statement says.

New York plastic surgeon Kevin Tehrani told the Los Angeles Times that Botox should be administered in a confidential setting, where a patient's complete health history is recorded; by a qualified health professional and where record-keeping, including photographs, and emergency care is available. Those medical and ethical considerations, he says, should deter most doctors from setting up shop in bars, adding a final objection: "This is not even entertaining the idea of BWI (Botox While Intoxicated)."

-- Shari Roan

Photo: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Jennifer Rose]

One of the things I like about the idea of living in a free country is that we have a right to decide if something like this is for us or not. Though this is not a service that I would choose to use, I am very happy that it is an option to those that would like it.
This unconventional service, reminds us that freedom should not be limited to what is popular. While there is bound to be protest from the medical community, the bottom line is that this doesn't hurt anyone. Participants are supposed to be sober and capable of exercising their own judgement. I am sure that the doctor on location has a sharps box for needles and is using gloves.
In any situation the possibility of medical emergency is present. Schools, bars, amusement parks, churches...ambulances visit these places daily, I think that while it is certainly possible that a side effect could be present that would require more advanced medical attention, it is not a probability. We can't be concerned with every possible outcome to every possible scenario. I am sure that the insurance actuaries looked over this with a fine tooth comb and decided that is is a safe enough rish to insure it, so I am not concerned about this being a probability.
I want to thank the people that worked hard to make this happen; I was starting to question how much freedom americans actually have. My hope is that this kind of thing, our ability to allow people to use their own judgement as it pertains to them, rather than public oppinion, is carried into other areas of interest and non interest.

[Charles]

Who cares? The time will come one day when all these extra precaution luxuries will be laughable. For simple, low risk procedures, I don't care if the person administering the injection has eight years of medical school and 2 years residency and board certified or is a high school grad with one year of on-the-job training. The odds of problems are likely the same but the cost would be much more affordable with the second. Just get 20 people of the second calibar with one standby Doctor (in that rare case there are problems) and you've got a business.