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Your Favorite Facial Treatment: Botox® Cosmetic Injection Therapy
Botox® has been rated the most popular physician-administered aesthetic procedure in the US for the past five years, according to The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS). Over 3 million Botox® Cosmetic treatments were carried out in 2006 in the US alone. Millions more are carried out in Canada, Central and South American and Europe.
Toxin or Wonder Drug?
Botox® Cosmetic is a drug prepared from the purified protein toxin produced by the clostridium botulinum bacteria (Botulinum Toxin A). It is the same toxin that causes a life-threatening type of food poisoning called botulism. Botox® is not harmful to humans as it contains only a minute amount of the toxin. It is also sold under the trade name Dysport® in some countries and in the European Union under the name Vistabel®.
Botox® Cosmetic, the formulation used for cosmetic treatment, is not a dermal filler although it is also administered into sites under the skin’s surface by injection using fine needles. Whereas dermal fillers are injected into the skin layer under the wrinkle or crease to be lifted, Botox® Cosmetic injections are made into the muscles which control the crease or wrinkle.
The effect of Botox® Cosmetic appears gradually over a few days following injection, and the effect can last anywhere from a month up to four months, or sometimes even up to six months, depending on the individual. When treatment is discontinued the effects wear off and the frown lines or wrinkles gradually return to their former appearance.
How Does It Work?
Botox® Cosmetic works by physiologically weakening the facial muscles allowing the frown line or wrinkle to relax, thus creating a smoother surface appearance. The frown line appears as a result of contractions of two of the major muscles in the forehead, the corrugator and the procerus. Botox® works by blocking the impulse from the nerve to the facial muscles; the muscles stop contracting and frown lines relax.
Who Should Administer Botox® ?
Authorized healthcare professionals are allowed to administer Botox® Cosmetic, but dermatologists, plastic surgeons, ophthalmologists, otolaryngologists (ear, nose, and throat doctors), or other physicians specializing in cosmetic procedures are generally more experienced.
Some very good reasons for going to a board-certified plastic surgeon are:
- An important part of facial regeneration is deciding whether Botox® Cosmetic is right for you. Your age, skin characteristics, lifestyle, and general health are all factors that are important considerations in achieving a successful result.
- Another reason is that the selection of injection points is critical to the success of the procedure. There may be numerous injections points for each location to be treated and a thorough medical knowledge of facial muscles is required.
- The doctor will also determine the amount of Botox® to be used for the procedure.
- It is especially important when long-term Botox® Cosmetic therapy is contemplated that injections be administered under the guidance of a board-certified plastic surgeon so that total amounts of drug administered over time are responsibly monitored.
Other Uses for Botox®
Botox® is manufactured by Allergan of Irvine, California, and was initially developed as a muscle relaxant to treat crossed eyes and eyelid tics. Botox® was approved by the US FDA in April 2002 for the temporary relief of moderate to severe glabellar lines (frown lines) between the brows in people 8 to 65 years of age.
Long before the cosmetic use of Botox® was approved, several of the seven botulinum neurotoxin serotypes of the drug were used clinically for therapeutic treatment of many medical conditions. Its clinical use was approved by the US FDA in 989, and it is approved for clinical use in another 70 countries throughout the world.
Perhaps one of the reasons for the great popularity of Botox® Cosmetic is the fact that physicians already had almost 20 years’ experience and confidence in its safety before the cosmetic industry discovered its use as a wrinkle therapy.
Other therapeutic uses for Botox® include treating eyelid spasms, muscle pain disorders, and migraine headaches. It is used in bladder dysfunction and even in writer’s cramp. It is also administered for treatment of severe primary axillary hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating. ) Read Botox® Isn’t Just For Frowns.
In one of it’s most dramatic “off label” applications (under FDA rules board-certified physicians may use drugs in approved trials) , Botox therapy has enabled children crippled by the spastic muscle contraction of cerebral palsy to walk and even participate in sports.
Quick and Easy
Injections are generally administered on an out-patient basis and take under thirty minutes. Sometimes cold packs or a local antiseptic are applied to the injection sites to minimize discomfort. Discomfort is brief and minimal and there is no period of recovery. Some individuals may experience a temporary eyelid droop and nausea following injection but it soon goes away. Normal activities can be resumed immediately.
Botox® Injection Therapy Costs
Often a patient will have an initial injection treatment and if the results are pleasing with no negative side effects, follow-up injection therapy will be scheduled to maintain a relaxed and youthful brow appearance.
Botox® Cosmetic comes in 100 unit vials, and the average initial treatment uses about 20 units. The cost for treatment of the brow creases varies according to where the treatment takes place and who administers it.
The expense of Botox® injection therapy should be measured in comparison to alternate facial aesthetic options such as dermal injection, chemical peels, and facial plastic surgery. Relative to other ongoing beauty treatments such as hair care, teeth whitening, manicures and pedicures, Botox® Cosmetic therapy is not considered an expensive beauty treatment.
Contraindications to the use of Botox®
Side effects are uncommon, with temporary eyelid droop and nausea being the most frequently reported. Localized pain, infection, inflammation, tenderness, swelling, redness, and/or bleeding/bruising may be associated with the injection (as with injections for any other medical purpose).
You should not use Botox® if you are pregnant or breast feeding. The manufacturer also warns that patients with certain neuromuscular disorders such as ALS, myasthenia gravis, or Lambert-Eaton syndrome may be at increased risk of more serious side effects.
The biggest risk in Botox® therapy is incompetent injection, and this is probably the best reason to choose with care the person who will administer treatments.
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