First of all, Botox is just a brand name for a naturally occurring protein produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, that works by preventing the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from axon endings at the neuromuscular junction. In plain old English, it’s a protein that stops the muscles from contracting in the areas where it is injected. There are other brand names out there that do the same thing, including xeomin, dysport, Jeuveau . Revance also just received FDA approval for a longer acting product that will be available soon.
“Botox” has been around for a while now. In the beginning it had a bad rap of making people look “plastic” and “fake”. Part of that was the heavy dosing providers were injecting. Nowadays several people you interact with on a daily basis are using botox and you probably cannot tell. When dosed appropriately, botox still allows you to move your muscles but reduces the movement just enough to reduce or eliminate the appearance of unwanted lines. The most common areas to have injected are the forehead and around the eyes, eliminating crow’s feet, those pesky “11s” between the eyebrows and the horizontal lines on the forehead that deepen when the eyebrows are raised. Botox can also be used to upturn the edges of a downturned mouth (thereby eliminating resting b*tch face), on the muscles in the neck to give the neck a smoother more youthful appearance, on the sides of the nose to eliminate “bunny lines”, above the upper lip to make the upper lip appear larger (also known as the ‘lip flip’), next to the base of the nose to correct a gummy smile. It can also be used for excessive sweating. We inject botox into the palms of the hands, the feet, the armpits and the scalp to reduce sweating. It can also be used to treat migraines and tension headaches and TMJ pain from teeth grinding. Many of these conditions are approved for you to use your medical insurance HSA card!
In terms of side effects, botox really doesn’t have many. Sometimes your forehead can feel heavy for a week or two after injections. Some people can have a headache for a few days after. Obviously if too much is injected you can lose the movement of those muscles – although some people WANT this look. If the product is injected too deep in the muscles above the eyebrows, you can develop a heavy eyelid. There are ways to reverse this if it occurs but the correction is not 100% so you have to wait for the product to wear off, which takes 3-4 months. The good (and bad !) news is that no effect from botox is permanent and will resolve completely with time.
If you are not sure if botox is right for you, feel free to schedule a free consultation with us @ Renewyoumedspama.com