All About Botox
Injections
7 Cosmetic and Medical Benefits
You Should Take Advantage of
All About Botox
Injections
7 Cosmetic and Medical Benefits
You Should Take Advantage of
As you get older, you start to develop wrinkles and fine lines that you’d rather not have on your face: forehead lines, frown lines, laugh lines, crow’s feet, marionette lines. Despite taking great pains to take care of your skin, the appearance of all these wrinkles are inevitable.
You may not be able to stop the hands of time, but it doesn’t mean that you should live with the signs of aging etched all over your face.
That is the reason why Botox treatments have risen to become one of the most popular cosmetic treatments in the world. More than 7.7 million people have gotten Botox injections in the US in 2019 alone, and the numbers keep rising year after year.
Dr. Siamak Agha, one of the top plastic surgeons in Southern California, offers Botox injections at The Aesthetic Centers as a suitable alternative to surgical treatments.
If you’re interested in learning about Botox and how it can help you erase your wrinkles and solve other medical conditions, read the rest of this article.
OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
What is Botox?
Botox is short for botulinum toxin, a toxin produced by the Clostridium botulinum bacterium. It can cause botulism, a condition that paralyzes the facial and throat muscles, eventually spreading to other muscles of your body.
But in its isolated form, Botox strains A and B are popularly used as anti-aging treatments. Its ability to temporarily paralyze muscles can help reduce the appearance of facial wrinkles. It can even treat other medical conditions, like spasticity, eye twitch, and overactive bladder.
Despite being a toxin, Botox injections are considered safe, with only a few adverse effects.
How Does Botox Work?
Botox works by temporarily paralyzing your muscles so that you eliminate those deep-seated wrinkles. It works best with dynamic wrinkles, which appear when you move your face, such as smile lines and crow’s feet.
Once your muscle is injected with Botox, the botulinum toxin binds with your nerve terminals, preventing the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
This causes muscle activity to stop, which, in turn, halts muscle spasms and smooths out your wrinkles. As such, it is normal to experience weakness in the surrounding muscles where Botox was injected.
Botox also prevents the release of substances that cause pain and inflammation, which is why it can treat migraine headaches.
The results of Botox injections are instantaneous. However, its effects wear off over time, as the nerve endings regenerate after 120 days.
If you want to maintain your Botox results, you might need to get frequent treatments every three to four months for the same spots.
How are Botox Injections Used?
Though famous as a wrinkle treatment, Botox injections can actually help relieve other medical conditions.
Here is a quick rundown of all the ways that you can use Botox injections.
Some of the primary areas treated by Botox injections are your forehead and frown lines between the brows. This is done through a procedure known as Botox brow lift.
The Botox brow lift relaxes the underlying muscles between the eyebrows, freeing the area from wrinkles and allowing your forehead muscles to pull them up. Doing so elevates the height of your eyebrows and opens up your eyes.
You can also have Botox injections at the ends of your eyebrows so that your forehead muscles can pull them up, too.
With this procedure, you can get rid of stubborn frown lines and smooth out deep wrinkles even without surgery.
Got undereye wrinkles? Botox can help with those, too!
A 2003 study from the Dermatologic Society showed that Botox injections administered under and around the eyes could reduce the appearance of wrinkles around this area. Botox can make the lower eyelid appear fuller and plumper, reducing the appearance of bagginess and wrinkles.
However, it should be noted that Botox injections under the eyes are not done as a standalone treatment. It is almost always coupled with injections in the crow’s feet area, which are the fine lines spreading from the corner of your eyes.
Botox injections also can’t treat the dark circles under the eyes and eye puffiness.
If you have chronic neck pain, a shot of Botox might be able to relieve it.
According to a study published in Pain Medicine, combining Botox injections with physical therapy can help relieve neck pain and pressure by up to 40%.
Since Botox can help relax muscles, it works best for neck pain caused by chronically contracted muscles. The effects last for about three to six months.
In fact, more than 50% of the patients in the study said that they would get Botox injections in the future for neck pain relief.
The study also revealed that Botox injections could enhance rehabilitation efforts. Giving the injections before therapy maximizes the potential for the repair of damaged muscle tissues. It also strengthens the muscles that weakened due to spasms.
This is also the same principle at work in Botox’s treatment of other muscle-related conditions, like neck stiffness and spasms.
You can also use Botox injections to decrease your salivary glands’ saliva production. Doing so treats drooling or hypersalivation, a condition that can affect your ability to speak and swallow due to saliva buildup.
Hypersalivation is often a sign of an underlying condition like infection, gastroesophageal reflux, cerebral palsy, facial nerve palsy, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
To treat hypersalivation, Botox is injected into the submandibular gland and the parotid gland, located below the mouth’s floor and behind the jaw, respectively. It paralyzes the nerves and muscles in the area, preventing your glands from producing saliva.
The whole procedure only takes around 30 minutes. Like all other Botox treatments, the effects wear off after a few months, and you’d need repeat injections to continue enjoying the results.
If you’re experiencing jaw tension and pain, Botox may help relieve them as it can treat disorders involving the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Examples of these are teeth grinding and lockjaw.
The TMJ is the point where the jawbone meets the skull. It is used for talking, eating, and swallowing. Excessive teeth grinding can displace or overwork the joint, making you suffer from severe tension headaches and sharp pain.
With Botox injections on the TMJ area, you can relieve jaw tension as the shots temporarily paralyze the jaw muscles, thus also eliminating headaches and jaw pain.
Even though Botox treatment for TMJ disorders are still at the experimental stage, patients report a noticeable improvement within one to two days of treatment.
For those struggling with excessive underarm sweating, you’ll be pleased to know that Botox has been approved as a treatment for your condition, too.
According to numerous studies, Botox injections can reduce armpit sweat by 82-87%, with results lasting anywhere between four and 12 months. The effects are noticeable just two days after treatment .
So far, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only approved Botox injections for underarm sweating. However, some studies show that it might also be useful in curbing sweating in other parts of the body, such as the palms, head, and feet.
In 2010, the FDA approved Botox as a treatment for migraine. Only those who experience chronic migraine headaches on most days of the month (at least 15) are considered good candidates for this treatment.
Botox works against migraine by acting as roadblocks for neurotransmitters that carry pain signals from the brain to the nerve endings on your head and neck.
It is injected around the head and neck once every 12 weeks, with results becoming apparent 2-3 weeks after your first treatment.
Various studies show that people who got Botox injections for migraine relief successfully cut the number of days they had headaches each month in half. Five rounds of treatment were all it took to decrease headache frequency by up to 70%.
Botox vs. Other Less Expensive Neurotoxins: What’s the Difference?
Botox is a brand of botulinum toxin licensed and branded by Allergan. Other similar products include Dysport, Jeuveau, and Xeomin.
Although these formulations have botulinum toxin type A as their active ingredient, they are dosed differently. Some also feature protein blends, affecting the effectiveness of the injection. In other words, they are not interchangeable.
To learn more about their differences, check out this table below.
| Brand | Botox | Dysport | Jeuveau | Xeomin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FDA Approval | 2002 | 2009 | 2019 | 2011 |
| Manufacturer | Allergan | Medicis Pharmaceutical | Evolus | Merz |
| Benefits |
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| Drawbacks |
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| Onset of Results | 3-5 days | Within 24 hours | 3-5 days | 5-7 days |
| Results Duration | 3-4 months | 3-4 months | 3-4 months | 3-4 months |
Get Your Botox Injections at The Aesthetic Centers
At The Aesthetic Centers in Orange County, we only use Botox injections to eliminate your unsightly facial wrinkles, helping you look a lot younger and more relaxed even without surgery.
Dubbed as the bestselling treatment of its kind in the world, Botox comprises 80% of the botulinum toxin injection market — a testament to how trusted and effective this treatment is.
According to a 2018 survey, people prefer Botox over other neurotoxins because it’s a brand they trust, and it produces predictable yet subtle results.
It is also the only treatment of its kind evaluated by the FDA for safety and efficacy in three different treatment areas — frown lines, crow’s feet, and forehead lines.
Botox’s effectiveness is backed by over 16 years of published studies, which is a whole lot more compared to other neurotoxins in the market.
Want to erase the signs of aging on your face? Schedule your Botox injections at The Aesthetic Centers today.
Get Your Botox Injections at The Aesthetic Centers
At The Aesthetic Centers in Orange County, we only use Botox injections to eliminate your unsightly facial wrinkles, helping you look a lot younger and more relaxed even without surgery.
Dubbed as the bestselling treatment of its kind in the world, Botox comprises 80% of the botulinum toxin injection market — a testament to how trusted and effective this treatment is.
According to a 2018 survey, people prefer Botox over other neurotoxins because it’s a brand they trust, and it produces predictable yet subtle results.
It is also the only treatment of its kind evaluated by the FDA for safety and efficacy in three different treatment areas — frown lines, crow’s feet, and forehead lines.
Botox’s effectiveness is backed by over 16 years of published studies, which is a whole lot more compared to other neurotoxins in the market.
Want to erase the signs of aging on your face? Schedule your Botox injections at The Aesthetic Centers today.