April 2, 2002
By Kitty Bean Yancey
USA TODAY

CHICAGO - Around the country - at doctor's offices, hotel meeting rooms and even resorts - everyday people are lining up to erase lines in a social atmosphere.

It's dubbed the 21st-century Tupperware party.

"When you're at the doctor's alone, you're in a room and there's nothing to distract you. This is the way to go to the doctor," says Erin O'Boyle, a 48-year-old Henderson, Nev. photographer who attended a recent party in the spa at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, intending only to support his wife as she got Botoxed. But after listening to an explanation of the procedure and downing a couple of chocolate-covered strawberries, he wound up getting some to smooth a bothersome line on the bridge of his nose. It helped.

Botox injections temporarily immobilize muscles for several months and inhibit frown lines and crow's feet. On older patients, creases become less visible.

Paul Nassif, the Bevely Hills plastic surgeon who wielded the syringe at the Palms, thinks getting Botox in a group setting can be "more relaxing, They're holding hands, giving each other support."

And "in Hollywood, if they look good (in their late 30s), they've probably had it," adds Gretchen Bonaduce the 36-year old wife and manager of TV personality Danny Bonaduce. She's a Botox devotee who attended a Palms party and also gets touch-ups in L.A.

"Patients are coming in earlier and doing things so that at 55 they won't need emergency face-lifts," explains Nasiff. The theory is: "If you do it now, the line isn't going to get deeper and deeper."

In the photo: Paul Nassif injects Gretchen Bonaduce with Botox as her husband TV personality Danny Bonaduce watches.
 

Click here to learn more about Dr. Nassif. Patient Photos: before and after

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