TIPS FROM BEAUTY MEDICAL CLINIC
BOTOX / DYSPORT FAQ
How Botox/Dysport injections work?
A wrinkle in the skin is typically formed perpendicular to a contracting muscle located directly beneath it. For example, the muscle in the forehead is a vertical muscle, and when it contracts (such as when you raise your eyebrows), the lines that form (wrinkles) will be horizontal.
Likewise, the two muscles that are responsible for the frown lines are positioned slightly horizontally between the eyebrows, so when they contract, the frown lines appear vertical.
Botox Cosmetic is injected into muscles, where it blocks nerve impulses to those tissues. The muscle activity that causes the frown lines is reduced, and a smoother look results. Without a contracting muscle beneath it, the skin has a difficult time wrinkling.
Facial lines that exist when your face is totally relaxed are a good candidates for combination treatment of Botox/Dysport and the dermal fillers. Botox can frequently “soften” these lines but not always get rid of them, but Dermal fillers can fill those lines up.
The injections take about 10 minutes, and you should have no downtime afterward.
Normally you would see improvement within a few days. Botox and Dysport requires two to four days for it to attach to the nerve ending that would normally stimulate the muscle to contract. The maximum effect usually occurs at about 10-14 days. Therefore, whatever effect is obtained two weeks after the injections should be considered the maximum effect that is going to occur.
Is Botox painful?
Any injection can hurt, but the needles used for Botox injections are very small, so pain is usually minimal. The area can be numbed with a topical anesthetic cream or cold pack 10-20 minutes before the injections are given, so you may not feel much pain, if any.
What is the recovery period like?
You’ll be able to return to work or home immediately after the procedure. However, care must be taken to keep the head upright and avoid massaging the treated area, so that the BOTOX or DYSPORT affects only the desired areas.
What is the recovery period like?
You’ll be able to return to work or home immediately after the procedure. However, care must be taken to keep the head upright and avoid massaging the treated area, so that the BOTOX or DYSPORT affects only the desired areas.
How often should you get Botox injections?
You’re probably wondering how long Botox lasts. Most people see effects for three to five months, but several factors may shorten or lengthen that period:
- Our age. Older people with less muscle tone may see results diminish sooner than those with younger, firmer facial muscles.
- Your facial structure and expressions.
- Whether you smoke.
- Your diet.
- Whether you take good care of your skin; use facials, microdermabrasion or other resurfacing methods.
- How much sun you get and how much sun damage your skin already has.
- Whether you use Botox repeatedly or not. However, this seems to differ from one person to another. Some obtain a longer-lasting effect with repeated use, while others seem to develop a resistance to the drug and need more frequent treatments.
Doctors disagree on which of the above factors are the most important so it’s a good question to ask your practitioner. In any case, it is not recommended to have injections in the same injection site (such as for crow’s feet) more frequently than every three months.
As with the injection of any medication, your body’s immune system can develop antibodies to the medication, which render the drug less effective or possibly cause development of an allergy to the drug. The more frequently the drug is injected or the more quantity that is injected, the higher the risk for these antibodies to be formed against the drug.
You are NOT good candidate for Botox/Dysport treatment if you have
- ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease)
- Myasthenia gravis
- Autonomic neuropathy
- Lambert-Eaton syndrome or another disease that affects your muscle or nerves
- Have difficulty swallowing
- Have weakness in your forehead muscles
- Have drooping eyelids
- Dysport should be used cautiously in patients with albumin hypersensitivity (especially cow’s milk protein)
- Viral infection
- Antibiotic treatment (Gentamicin, Amikacin)
You should not have BOTOX/DYSPORT injections if you are planning or trying to conceive a child, are pregnant, are planning to breastfeed or are currently breastfeeding.
It’s better to be safe, and you can always have Botox/Dysport later on
Botox side effects:
Potential Botox side effects include pain at the injection site, bruising, swelling infection, inflammation, redness, itching. Also, dry mouth, fatigue, headache and neck pain have been reported.
You may have heard of other side effects as well, such as numbness, droopy eyelids, muscle spasms or twitching, and migration of the substance.
Numbness as an absence of physical sensation is not really an issue with Botox, because Botox is not an anesthetic. Numbness as the result of the inability to move a muscle is an issue for some people. It is possible for the Botox to spread a little beyond the intended injection site and affect surrounding tissues. For example, if you receive injections into the forehead close to your eyebrows or your upper eyelids, they could be affected and may droop temporarily.
The best practitioners know the correct sites of injection to avoid side effects such as droopy eyelids. A small, highly concentrated dose of Botox or Dysport dose is less likely to spread from the injection site than a large diluted dose.
This underscores the importance of finding a practitioner who has long experience with giving Botox/Dysport injections. Also, if you have any questions about your Botox or Dysport treatments, your medical provider is the one who knows the specifics of your regimen to best assess any reactions or concerns you may have.
How to avoid Botox side effects:
The list of possible side effects mentioned in this article is a long one, but it would be extremely rare for anyone to experience all of them. And following these six tips will minimize or prevent most Botox side effects:
1. Make sure your practitioner is very experienced at Botox injections and is a respected medical professional. A salon stylist, for example, is not an appropriate person to administer Botox, because he or she would not have emergency equipment or sufficient medical knowledge if something went wrong. Some disreputable people have reportedly administered injections that were over- or under-diluted with saline, as well as counterfeit solutions that didn’t contain Botox at all.
2. Before having injections, tell your practitioner about any health problems you have.
3. Tell your practitioner about medications, vitamins, herbal preparations or other supplements you take, since some combinations of these supplements with Botox could cause serious side effects. It’s especially important to mention having taken injected antibiotics, muscle relaxants, allergy or cold medicines and sleep medicines.
4. Follow your practitioner’s pre- and post-injection instructions very carefully.
5. Report all side effects — especially those that are bothering you or won’t go away.
6. Beware of Botox injections at a “Botox party” at someone’s house. You need to be in a medical setting, where any side effects can be treated immediately.
