The Toronto Police department have issued a warning to the public to watch out for scamsters giving illegal butt enhancement procedures throughout the Greater Toronto Region. Apparently, women have been getting PMMA (polymethylmetacrylate) injected into their rears in order to make it look rounder, and fuller. PMMA was originally used as a bone cement during surgery, but was later mixed with collagen to create a filler. There are no licensed practioners in Canada that use it for that purpose, however (not even as a facial filler, for the most part). A woman last November was charged with criminal negligence for giving these illegal injections which sent a 26 year old to the hospital, where she had to have surgery to have the substance removed.
But don’t worry, Toronto Police have got our backs, with handy tips for how to tell if the butt injections you’ve saved up for might not be the real deal. “Arrangements are usually made via email or referral,” reads the press release. The injector also performs the service in the client’s home or a hotel room, and not a doctor’s office, and usually asks for cash. You’d think that having a medical procedure not performed by a doctor or nurse and not even in a doctor’s office would be red flag enough, but apparently not. Also look out for this site: pmmainjection.com, which is the site the woman charged with performing these illegal procedures was using last year. Don’t be fooled by its black magic theme — this is not the website for a medical practioner of any kind.
Police would like to reiterate that “[t]his type of procedure performed outside a medical facility is very dangerous and could result in long−lasting complications and, in some cases, even death.” Better yet, do your butt a favour and don’t stick it full of foreign chemical substances at all, OK? I’m sure it’s beautiful just the way it is.
[via Toronto Police, The Globe and Mail]
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Megan Patterson is the Science and Technology Editor at Paper Droids and currently a Toronto Standard intern. She also tweets more than is healthy or wise.
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