Don’t Inject your Buttocks (or anything else) with liquid Silicone

The Orange County (California) Register is reporting the death of a 22 year old California woman following illegal silicone injections to her buttocks (link here).

It’s a tragic story. Combine the ingredients of a young, uneducated patient with an unlicensed practitioner working in a non-medical setting, and add injections with some adulterated, non-medical-grade liquid silicone material, possibly mixed with other unknown substances. Bad news.

Just like the recent death of the former Miss Argentina under similar circumstances, pulmonary complications, due to the embolization of the injected material to the lungs, are believed to be the cause of death.

Other than retinal detachments and certain other specific ophthalmologic issues, I’m not aware of any legitimate (FDA-approved) cosmetic use for silicone injections. Long term problems caused by liquid silicone injections can be extremely difficult to repair. Just don’t do it. Even if it “seems like a good deal”.

Proven ways to improve the shape of the buttock area include:
1) liposuction of the waist, hips and thighs to shape the area;
2) fat grafting to the buttocks;
3) FDA-approved solid silicone buttock implants;
4) lower body lifting surgery.

Currently, there is no FDA-approved injectable material for large volume soft tissue augmentation.