How to Get Preventative Botox
Everyone likes to look younger and one of the major signs of aging are wrinkles, especially on the face. While there are several cosmetics and treatments to fight wrinkles, one of the most popular is Botox. It is mostly known and used as a way to reduce and eliminate existing wrinkles.
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However, there are some doctors and other health care professionals who use Botox on patients as a way to prevent wrinkles before they become noticeable – this is known as preventative Botox treatments. Thus there are people as young as the 20’s who are using Botox in this fashion. This use of Botox is not for everyone and not all doctors will administer this type of treatment.
Botox treatments are widely available from all sorts of clinics and medical practitioners, but it is strongly advised only to use professionals who are properly certified and experienced. By doing so, the risk of adverse side effects is very low and the percentage of satisfactory results are high. To assist you with this, Allergan, who manufactures Botox, provides a physician locator tool that lists doctors near you who have been properly trained in the use of their product.
Discussed below are important facts and things to know about preventative Botox treatments.
How Preventative Botox Works
Botox relaxes the muscles underneath your skin by blocking the nerve responses that tell your face to make certain expressions. Wrinkles are caused by your face making the same expressions, over and over again. Botox limits those expressions to potentially prevent wrinkles. Doctors who administer this type of treatment feel that the patient will develop much less wrinkles as they get older. It should be noted that Botox works differently than dermal fillers, which inject a gel or collagen substitutes to make your skin appear more firm. Botox is a nerve blocker, as described above.
Procedure
First, as mentioned earlier, you will need to find a doctor who uses Botox as a preventative treatment. A consultative appointment will be held, where the doctor will determine if and how the treatment can be beneficial for you. It is important that you ask about the doctor’s past experience and statistics (including before and after photos) of treatment outcomes and patient satisfaction. You should be aware that Botox is most popular to treat the lines between your eyebrows, the lines around your eyes, and the area above your forehead where your brow “furrows.” These are the most popular targeted areas for preventative Botox and the standard use of Botox, too.
Treatment Details
During the actual treatment, you’ll lie down and be instructed to relax. You will likely be asked to make certain facial expressions, such as raising or furrowing your eyebrows. This helps the doctor giving you the injection see your facial muscles and fine lines. They can then aim the injection perfectly. The injection itself may feel a little bit painful, and most often more than one injection will be required for the treatment.
After the injections have been administered, you may see bumps at the site of the injections for the first half hour or so afterward. You’ll need to keep your face upright for at least four hours. Strenuous activity and exercising soon after your treatment are strongly discouraged.
Recovery and Results
Recovery after treatment is usually fast. Within a half hour or so, any bumps you notice at the site of the injections should start to subside. You may also notice some bruising. Botox begins to work to relax the muscles between four to seven days after injection. After this time, you should notice that your muscles are tighter and your fine lines are less prominent.
However, results of preventative Botox are not permanent. For most people, the effect of Botox injections starts to disappear after around twelve weeks. So, you may want to schedule touch-up appointments every three months or so. It’s possible that preventative Botox will mean you need less Botox in the future. It isn’t certain how long preventative Botox can stave off wrinkles and keep them from appearing. Since results aren’t permanent, chances are you’ll just need to continue treatments to keep wrinkles from showing up, the same way you would with regular Botox treatments.
Possible Side Effects and Risks
Botox is generally safe for the vast majority of patients, especially if you’re careful about using a properly trained and experienced doctor.
Common side effects can include:
• headache
• sinus inflammation and flu-like symptoms
• dry eyes
• swelling or bruising at the site of your injection
One thing to keep in mind regarding preventative Botox treatments is the risk of “frozen” or “locked” facial expressions that can result from Botox’s muscle-relaxing effects. Therefore, if you don’t have any really noticeable wrinkles to begin with, you might want to carefully weigh the side effects and outcomes of preventative Botox treatments.
