Botox Injection

Botox®

Botox® is a toxin produced by a bacterium called Clostridium Botulinum. It has been used for muscle over-activity for some years. Cosmetically it is used to remove the muscle action that forms frown lines.

Botox® is injected in a very small volume into each muscle. The initial effect of the injections is seen within three days and reaches a peak at one to two weeks after treatment. Each treatment lasts for approximately three months and it can be repeated indefinitely.

The dose can be increased if necessary. Some muscles should not have Botox® injected into them. This will be discussed at the time of the consultation. Please note that Botox® does not have a license for this use in the UK at the moment, but it is common practice.

More About Botox®

Facial Lines::How They Form

Furrows and lines form on the face as a result of the pull of the underlying muscle. Damage from the sun and normal aging also play a part, making the furrows easier to form by reducing the elasticity of the skin. Lines will form on the skin perpendicular (at a 90 degree angle) to the underlying muscle. For intance, the frontalis muscle that pulls the eyebrows up runs vertically (up and down) under the forehead. As a result, lines that form on the forehead always go horizontally (across).

What Botox® Is And How It Works

Botox® must be injected. It does not work as a tablet or a cream. In its raw form Botox® is produced in nature by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum when the bacterium is deprived of oxygen. Raw botulinum toxin contains a mixture of subtypes. The manufacturer purifies subtype A and crystalizes it onto human albumin to make Botox®. (The other botulinum product, Myobloc®, is subtype B.)

When injected, Botox® travels through the tissues until it finds the nerve that ends on a muscle. The nerve ending absorbs the Botox® (or Myobloc®), and the medication acts to prevent the nerve from firing. This weakens the muscle, and the muscle can no longer produce the facial lines.

Ultimately, the nerve ending regenerates, and the muscle regains its previous strength. This is why injections of Botox® and Myobloc® wear off and have to be repeated.

What Botox® Can (And Cannot) Improve

Botox® works best on the upper third of the face. Forehead furrows, glabellar frown lines (between the eyebrows), and lines around the eyes ("crow's feet") nearly always respond favorably to Botox®.

Lines around the mouth respond only about half the time. Injections around the mouth risk an uneven smile, even if the injection is properly performed. Dimples, discolorations, and sun damage do not respond to Botox®.

Botox® is measured in units. When pricing injections, be sure to get the number of units, since Botox® is very costly and most of the cost of injection is for the medication. Typical doses are 16 units for forehead furrows, 20 units for glabellar frown lines, and 12 units per eye for lines around the eyes.

Because Myobloc® is not pH balanced like Botox®, Myobloc® is seldom used for facial injections because it may cause a burning sensation when injected.

Precautions

Serious complications of Botox® injections are infrequent. Troubling side effects are still infrequent and nearly always wear off. From cosmetic injections, the most frequent adverse effect is a slight unevenness of the face. If bothersome, this can be corrected with a "touch up" re-injection. In about one in a thousand cases, temporary drooping of the eyelid or double vision results.

There is a small risk of allergy to the toxin and you must not have the injection if you are on some antibiotics. It is essential you tell your doctor of any medications you are on at the time. In addition, if you have any bleeding tendency or are on any anti-coagulant treatment, you must tell your doctor about this also.

The treatment cannot be used during pregnancy or breast-feeding. With any injection, there is a risk you may get a small bruise or an inflammatory reaction around the injection site.

The produce does contain a small amount of human albumin. The viral safety of this is documented by the manufacturer through several steps of its preparation and particular care is given by the manufacturer to controls of the donors, to the manufacturing process and to virus removal and the inactivation processes. Botox® has not been known to transmit hepatitis or the HIV virus.

BOTOX® treatment not just for Women. Women may talk about their looks more often, but men are concerned about their appearance just as well ! In nature, some of the Male species have gotten all the luck when it comes to looks. Think about a peacock and a peahen. It's the Male who's got that gorgeous train, not the female. And the father of the lion family is the one with the glorious mane.

With humans, it doesn't always work that way, but the fact is, Men do care about their looks. Why shouldn't they? A man who goes to the Gym to work out and cares about his clothes and grooming is a man who not only cares about his appearance, but what it says about him personally, as well as in his work. Men are also doing something about their brow lines A man who has pronounced lines between his brows may be perceived as angry or stressed-and he doesn't want to look that way. That's why it's not surprising that men are also choosing BOTOX®, a non-surgical, Doctor-administered treatment option. A BOTOX® treatment requires little time out of work. So, it is possible to have the procedure done during lunch hour and go back to work.