The clientele ranges from housewives to AIDS patients trying to plump up sunken faces. Transsexuals are also using the injections to look more womanly. That's still cheaper than legitimate plastic surgery, officials said. Some who seek illegal treatment succumb to false claims that liquid silicone lasts longer than collagen and that the injections are legal overseas. The silicone parties, which began a couple of years ago, are viewed as a major problem by health officials.
Attendance is by invitation only, and the parties are kept secret because of their illegality.
Many of the unlicensed practitioners fly into town once a month from South and Central America with full appointment books. At one party last week, four friends, none of whom wanted to be identified, clinked champagne glasses as they waited in a Miami neighborhood recreation room for a Colombian woman making a three-day sweep of patients and parties. All four asked for shots to fill in lines around their mouths and shots to enhance their cheeks. The Colombian woman injected each client a couple of times and was gone after less than an hour. The faces of the women were swollen and numb, but they all said they had done it before and had never suffered any serious side effects.