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Have you noticed people have fewer wrinkles these days?
The amount of Botox injections have increased 50 percent to a record 1,123,510 users in 2002, the year it was approved by the FDA, a new study shows.
And it's not only aging Upper East Side ladies who are using the magic shots.
While 19 percent of all 2002 Botox users were from the East Coast, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Western states made up an additional 30 percent. And a huge percentage were in the Southeast.
Figures for 2003 are still incomplete, but it looks like the Botox boom has yet to let up.
"I see all walks of life in here, 25-year-olds to women over 80 who don't want to undergo the knife," says Dr. Paula Moynahan, a New York doctor who has specialized in Botox injections for over 10 years. "It's become a trend."
Moynahan notes that finding the right physician is important, so as not to "look like a Stepford wife."
But despite Botox being the number one low-risk procedure, the ASPS warns against casual administration of the magic serum, particularly during "Botox parties," where a doctor administers the drug to large groups of people at once - usually at the private home of one patient.
The ASPS warned that people should get their Botox treatments in the safety of a doctor's office.
