Partygoers Bond Over Botox Treatments

L OS   A N G E L E S,  March 25 -- At Oscar bashes, red carpet guests look their best, but at another party in Los Angeles, only those who feel they look their worst make the guest list.

Still, the plastic surgery party — like the Oscar celebrations — is a quintessentially L.A. event. The menu includes food, drinks and treatments with the popular wrinkle-zapper, Botox.

Debbie Rosenquist attended the party after discovering that she didn't like the changes she saw in the mirror.

"I'm 43 years old," she said. "I like being 43, but I don't like seeing what's happening to my face."

Pressure to Look Young

She is not the only one.

"There's a lot of pressure out there for women — especially in the professional world — to look like a magazine model," said Janet Fields, another patient.

Dr. Debra Luftman holds the exclusive, invitation-only plastic surgery party at her office. Lunch is served in the waiting room, while the Botox injection treatments are given in the office's rear rooms.

Botox is actually a form of toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria, which is known to cause food poisoning.

In the late 1970s, researchers discovered that the bacteria could be used for a good purpose, too. When purified, freeze-dried and mixed with saline, it can minimize involuntary muscle spasms by temporarily blocking nerve impulses. In 1989, the Food and Drug Administration approved Botox for people suffering eye-muscle disorders.

But later, researchers also found that tiny amounts of Botox can make wrinkles temporarily disappear by releasing the tension in surrounding muscles. Cosmetic specialists began snapping it up. It is particularly good on the upper third of the face, and patients like the way it eliminates frown lines, forehead lines and crow's feet.

"It is injected into the muscles, and by doing that it paralyzes the muscles for a period of time, usually about from three to six months," Luftman said. Hence, she has many repeat customers.