The little botox shop around the corner

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

• Discount UK Shopping

: On a busy section of East 59th Street in Manhattan, a half block from Bloomingdale's, two plastic surgeons are preparing to open a new kind of cosmetic medical entity: a Botox-only storefront office. No appointment necessary.

Smoothmed, scheduled to open next month, will offer only one procedure: Botox injections to smooth wrinkles around the forehead, eyes, lips or neck. "Botox-on-the-go is the way we like to think of it," said Dr. Andrew I. Elkwood, an owner of Smoothmed. He and Dr. Michael I. Rose, are plastic and reconstructive surgeons who practice in Manhattan and in Shrewsbury, N.J.

Botox Cosmetic, a diluted form of botulinum toxin, is used to temporarily paralyse the muscles underlying wrinkles. "It will appeal to people who took a few hours to shop at Bloomingdale's, to secretaries on their lunch hours, to people who live and work in the neighborhood,” Rose said.

A patient's first visit to Smoothmed should take about 30 minutes or less, and follow-up appointments will take another 15, he said.

In an age-conscious society that has already accustomed itself to Botox parties, Botox house calls and Botox in spas, the idea of a Botox specialty retailer akin to Starbucks seems inevitable. With more than 4.5 million treatments performed in the US last year, Botox is the most popular nonsurgical cosmetic medical procedure in the country, according to plastic surgery associations.

To expand the demographic, pharmaceutical companies like Allergan Inc., which makes Botox, are stepping up their marketing and advertising. And, independently, physicians are devising strategies for expanding their client bases.

But the idea of a drop-in injection center raises the question of whether, Botox is destined to become the new manicure, an impulse purchase at local storefronts.

Some doctors contend that convenience and pricing are inappropriate criteria for choosing a cosmetic medical provider. "This may be trivialising the procedure the way the teeth-whitening center on the corner trivialise dentistry,” said Dr. Fredric S. Brandt, a dermatologist who practices in Manhattan and Coral Gables, Fla.

Elkwood disagreed, saying that medical care will not be compromised just because Smoothmed brands itself as a Botox convenience center.