Face Treatments
Botox for Face Treatments
In 2017, botulinum toxin was the top nonsurgical cosmetic procedure in the U.S.,
with 1,548,236 injections (of Botox, Dysport and Xeomin) performed by
physicians and their physician assistants and nurse injectors. That is up 30
percent from the 1,190,995 botulinum toxin injections performed in 2012.*
In this article we present only the facts, as well as recommendations from
respected medical professionals. After reading this article, contact your doctor
for answers to questions about your botox injection regimen, reactions and
concerns.
What Is Botox Cosmetic?
Botox, or onabotulinumtoxinA, is used for three main purposes: muscle spasm
control, severe underarm sweating and cosmetic improvement. In this article we
concentrate on the third use, achieved with the product called Botox Cosmetic,
which contains botulinum toxin type A (the active ingredient), human albumin (a
protein found in human blood plasma) and sodium chloride.
BEST CANDIDATES
Facial lines and wrinkles
• Procedure time: about 10 minutes
• Typical results: smoother, younger-looking skin; lasts about three to six
months
• Recovery time: a couple of days to a week to see full effects
• Cost: around $250 to $350 per region
Botox Cosmetic is used for the temporary smoothing of glabellar lines (also
called frown lines), which are the lines between your eyebrows that can make
you look tired, unhappy or angry.
It is FDA-approved for this use and in this area only. However, it is often used
for horizontal forehead lines, crow's feet, marionette lines at the corners of the
mouth and smoker's lines around the lips.
Don't confuse Botox Cosmetic with injectable fillers. Dermal fillers work
differently, plumping up tissues so that lines and wrinkles diminish or disappear
(Restylane, Radiesse and Juvederm are examples).
Your practitioner can help you decide which product(s) will solve your
particular appearance issues, though as a general rule, Botox is used mostly in
the upper portion of the face, and fillers are used mostly in other areas.
How To Know If You Are A Candidate For Botox
In the United States, the FDA has approved Botox Cosmetic for people aged 18 to
65. But you shouldn't use it if you:
• Are allergic to any ingredients in Botox or Botox Cosmetic.
• Are allergic to another botulinum toxin brand (such as Myobloc, Xeomin
or Dysport) or had any side effect from these products in the past.
• Have a skin infection or other condition in the injection area.
• Have ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)
, myasthenia gravis
•
, Lambert-Eaton syndrome
•
or another disease that affects your muscles or nerves.
• Have breathing problems, such as asthma.
• Have difficulty swallowing.
• Have bleeding issues.
• Plan to undergo surgery.
• Have had facial surgery.
• Have weakness in your forehead muscles.
• Have drooping eyelids.
• Are taking or have recently taken certain medications, vitamins or
supplements (see below).
Botox Cosmetic is not expected to travel far enough through the body to affect a
fetus or breastfeeding infant. However, for ethical reasons, clinical studies have
not been done on expectant or new mothers, so nobody knows for sure.
Therefore, the manufacturer (Allergan) advises that you should not have Botox
injections if you are planning or trying to conceive a child, are pregnant, are
planning to breastfeed or are currently breastfeeding. It's better to be safe, and
you can always have Botox later on.
How Botox Injections Work
A wrinkle in the skin is typically formed perpendicular to a contracting muscle
located directly beneath it. For example, the muscle in the forehead is a vertical
muscle, and when it contracts (such as when you raise your eyebrows), the lines
that form (wrinkles) will be horizontal.
Botox is not dermal filler. Instead, it blocks nerve
impulses that cause muscles to contract and cause
forehead wrinkles.
Likewise, the two muscles that are responsible for the frown lines are positioned
slightly horizontally between the eyebrows, so when they contract, the frown
lines appear vertical.
Botox Cosmetic is injected into muscles, where it blocks nerve impulses to those
tissues. The muscle activity that causes the frown lines is reduced, and a
smoother look results. Without a contracting muscle beneath it, the skin has a
difficult time wrinkling.
Facial lines that exist when your face is totally relaxed are not very good
candidates for Botox. These lines are better handled by the dermal fillers. Botox
can frequently "soften" these lines but not always get rid of them.
The injections take about 10 minutes, and you should have no downtime
afterward.
Normally you would see improvement within a few days. Botox requires two to
four days for it to attach to the nerve ending that would normally stimulate the
muscle to contract. The maximum effect usually occurs at about 10-14 days.
Therefore, whatever effect is obtained two weeks after the injections should be
considered the maximum effect that is going to occur.
Is Botox Painful?
Any injection can hurt, but the needles used for Botox injections are very small,
so pain is usually minimal. The area can be numbed with a topical anesthetic
cream or cold pack 10-20 minutes before the injections are given, so you may not
feel much pain, if any.
You may feel a little discomfort later, once the anesthetic cream has worn off.
Other side effects are listed below.
How Often Should You Get Botox Injections?
You're probably wondering how long Botox lasts. Most people see effects for
three to four months, but several factors may shorten or lengthen that period:
BOTULINUM TOXIN USE
• Your age. Older people with less muscle tone may see results diminish
sooner than those with younger, firmer facial muscles.
• Your facial structure and expressions.
• Whether you smoke.
• Your diet.
• Whether you take good care of your skin; use facials, microdermabrasion
or other resurfacing methods.
• How much sun you get and how much sun damage your skin already has.
• Whether you use Botox repeatedly or not. However, this seems to differ
from one person to another. Some obtain a longer-lasting effect with repeated
use, while others seem to develop a resistance to the drug and need more
frequent treatments.
Doctors disagree on which of the above factors are the most important so it's a
good question to ask your practitioner. In any case, it is not recommended to
have injections in the same injection site (such as for crow's feet) more
frequently than every three months.
As with the injection of any medication, your body's immune system can develop
antibodies to the medication, which render the drug less effective or possibly
cause development of an allergy to the drug. The more frequently the drug is
injected or the more quantity that is injected, the higher the risk for these
antibodies to be formed against the drug.
Botox Side Effects
Potential Botox side effects include pain at the injection site, infection,
inflammation, swelling, redness, bleeding and bruising. Some of these symptoms
may indicate an allergic reaction; other allergy symptoms are itching, wheezing,
asthma, a rash, red welts, dizziness and faintness. Tell your doctor immediately if
you have any breathing issues or a faint or dizzy feeling.
Also, dry mouth, fatigue, headache and neck pain have been reported.
You may have heard of other side effects as well, such as numbness, droopy
eyelids, muscle spasms or twitching, and migration of the substance.
Numbness as an absence of physical sensation is not really an issue with Botox,
because Botox is not an anesthetic. Numbness as the result of the inability to
move a muscle is an issue for some people.
Muscle spasms in the area of the Botox injections do not occur while the Botox is
effective. After all, Botox is used to treat spasms related to
Benign essential blepharospasm,
Hemifacial spasm
Cerebral palsy
Fibromyalgia and
Temporomandibular joint disorder.
It is possible for the Botox to spread a little beyond the intended injection site
and affect surrounding tissues. For example, if you receive injections into the
forehead close to your eyebrows or your upper eyelids, they could be affected
and may droop temporarily.
The best practitioners know the correct sites of injection to avoid side effects
such as droopy eyelids. A small, highly concentrated dose of Botox dose is less
likely to spread from the injection site than a large diluted dose.
This underscores the importance of finding a practitioner who has long
experience with giving Botox injections. Also, if you have any questions about
your Botox treatments, your doctor is the one who knows the specifics of your
regimen to best assess any reactions or concerns you may have.
What You Can Do To Avoid Botox Side Effects
The list of possible side effects mentioned in this article is a long one, but it would
be extremely rare for anyone to experience all of them. And following these six tips
will minimize or prevent most Botox side effects:
• Make sure your practitioner is very experienced at Botox injections and is a
respected medical professional. A salon stylist, for example, is not an appropriate
person to administer Botox, because he or she would not have emergency
equipment or sufficient medical knowledge if something went wrong. Some
disreputable people have reportedly administered injections that were over- or
under-diluted with saline, as well as counterfeit solutions that didn't contain Botox
at all.
• Before having injections, tell your practitioner about any health problems
you have.
• Also tell your practitioner about medications, vitamins, herbal preparations
or other supplements you take, since some combinations of these supplements with
Botox could cause serious side effects. It's especially important to mention having
taken injected antibiotics, muscle relaxants, allergy or cold medicines and sleep
medicines.
• Follow your practitioner's pre- and post-injection instructions very carefully.
• Report all side effects — especially those that are bothering you or won't go
away.
• Beware of Botox injections at a "Botox party" at someone's house. You need
to be in a medical setting, where any side effects can be treated immediately. You
may not see the final effects of the injections during the party anyway, as they
usually take a few days. A Botox party isn't such a bad idea if it's held by a doctor in a
medical setting, but even then there's a risk of the doctor's attention being divided
between you and the other attendees.
Is Botox Safe For Your Eyes?
Botox is actually used to treat eye muscle problems (strabismus) and uncontrolled
eyelid twitching (blepharospasm), and it was developed and FDA-approved for
these uses with eye safety in mind.
Of course, precautions are necessary to prevent possible Botox Cosmetic side
effects such as droopy eyelids, double vision, blurred vision, decreased eyesight,
eyelid swelling and dry eyes. If you have any of these issues after an injection, report
them to your eye doctor and your physician.
Botox Cost
The cost of Botox Cosmetic injections varies from one place to another and from
one practitioner to another, so you'll need to ask your practitioner what he or she
charges.
Some practitioners charge by the number of units injected. One vial of Botox
Cosmetic contains 100 units. Advertised specials of $6-$7 per unit are not
uncommon, while some practitioners may charge up to $10-$12 per unit.
Some practices charge by the "zone." For example, the frown lines would be one
zone, the crow's feet another zone and the forehead yet another zone.
Prices per zone may vary between $250 and $350, depending on the practitioner
and/or the region of the country.
The essential goal of dentist’s worldwide has been to achieve esthetically pleasing
smile irrespective of their specialty. The value of attractive smile is undeniable. The
framework of smile is formed by lips, teeth & gingival. Excessive gingival display
during smile is considered undesirable and less pleasing. Various treatment options
are available for correction of gummy smile. Recently the use of boot (botulinum
toxin) has been advocated in treatment of gummy smile. Minimally invasive
injection of botox into the hyperactive muscles of upper lip reduces the upward
movement of lip thus, resulting in less of gummy smile. In spite of few pit falls,
weighing the amount of psychological benefit to the patient, it is quiet a
breakthrough in the field of cosmetic surgery in the treatment of gingival smiles.
Does Botox Work for Migraine Headaches?
In a study of adults who get chronic migraine headaches, shots of Botox cut down
the total number of days they had them or even other types of headaches. They also
had more "crystal-clear" -- pain-free -- days each month, and they reported fewer
days off work.
In another study, nearly half the people who took two rounds of Botox shots
reported that the number of days they had a headache each month was cut in half.
After five rounds of treatment, that increased to about 70% of the people.
Doctors think Botox works for migraine headaches because it blocks chemicals
called neurotransmitters that carry pain signals from your brain. Botox is like a
roadblock in that pathway. It stops the chemicals before they get to the nerve
endings around your head and neck.
Botox Treatment
You'll get several shots of Botox around your head and neck once every 12 weeks to
dull or prevent migraine headaches.
You may need 30 to 40 shots in all, and you'll get an equal number on each side of
your head. If you have migraine pain in one particular spot, you may need more
shots there. You could see results 2 to 3 weeks after your first treatment.
You should only get this type of Botox treatment from a doctor who's trained to
give these shots for chronic migraine headaches rather than for wrinkles or other
cosmetic uses.
Side Effects
Neck pain and headache are the most common side effects for people who get
chronic migraine headaches and use Botox.
It's rare, but you can have an allergic reaction to Botox. Signs of this can be hives,
shortness of breath, or swelling in your lower legs. Although there's no confirmed
case where Botox spread to other parts of the body, it is possible and could be
deadly. The medication label includes this warning.
PICTURES
Anti-aging treatments with Botox
Forehead
Nasolabial folds
Crow’s feet
Smoker’s Lips
Lip Augmentation
Puckered Chin (Hyperactive Mentalis activity)
Broad Chick region (Hyperactive Massteric Activity)
Gummy smile
Migraines
Trigeminal Neuralgia
Atypical Facial pain
Anti-aging treatments with Dermal Fillers
Thin faces
Thin lips
Defining jaw line
Non-surgical face-lift
Miscellaneous
Pimples
Hyperpigmentation of face
Dark under eyes
Dark under arms
