Botox For Wrinkles
Botox injections make it possible to prevent wrinkles and fine lines from forming by blocking chemical signals from nerves that cause muscles to contract, so preserving a more youthful appearance. The most popular reason to have one of these shots is so that you can stop wrinkling your face by frowning. Certain medical problems can have their symptoms reduced by Botox injections.
Botox is currently among the most sought after cosmetic treatments available. It’s a quick and easy way to get rid of small lines and wrinkles without resorting to surgery. Easy to implement, completely risk-free, and effective.
Injectable fillers (done on the hands) and Botox (done on the face) are two common medical procedures selected to reduce the look of wrinkles and fine lines. You need know a few things before determining whether or not you want this treatment, despite their seeming simplicity.
Botox® is the same substance that has been used for years by many plastic surgeons and dermatologists to temporarily treat moderate to severe frown lines. Now, in a new development, this very effective cosmetic procedure is now available for home use! Read on to learn more about botox for wrinkles on forehead and reasons not to get botox.
Botox For Wrinkles
Botox is a drug doctors have been using for years to treat wrinkles and facial creases. Botox is a brand name of a toxin made by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. There are other brands, such as Dysport and Xeomin. Botox is the term you hear most often because it was the first injectable botulinum toxin.
How Is Botox Used?
The most common reason doctors use Botox is to reduce the appearance of face wrinkles. But getting a Botox shot can help treat other conditions, such as:
- Severe underarm sweating (hyperhidrosis)
- Cervical dystonia, a neurological disorder that causes severe neck and shoulder muscle spasms
- Blinking that you can’t control (blepharospasm)
- Eyes that point in different directions (strabismus)
- Chronic migraine
- Overactive bladder
How Does Botox Work?
Botox blocks signals from the nerves to the muscles. The injected muscle can’t contract. That makes wrinkles relax and soften.
Botox is most often used on forehead lines, crow’s feet (lines around the eye), and frown lines. Botox won’t help with wrinkles caused by sun damage or gravity.
How Is a Botox Procedure Done?
Getting Botox takes only a few minutes. You won’t need anesthesia. The provider uses a small needle to inject Botox into specific muscles with only minor discomfort.
It generally takes 7 to 14 days to take full effect. It’s best to avoid alcohol starting at least 1 week before the procedure. You should also stop taking aspirin and anti-inflammatory medications 2 weeks before treatment to help prevent bruising.
Avoid rubbing the injection site for 24 hours so you don’t spread the Botox to another area. Your doctor may also tell you to stay upright for 4 hours after the shots and to take a day off from exercising.
How Long Does a Botox Shot Last?
The effects from Botox will last 3 to 6 months. As muscle action slowly returns, the lines and wrinkles begin to reappear and need to be treated again. The lines and wrinkles often appear less severe with time because the muscles are shrinking.
What Are the Side Effects of Botox?
You may have some temporary side effects after a Botox injection. These could include:
- Bruising. This is the most common side effect and will go away.
- Headaches. Typically, these are rare and end in 24 to 48 hours.
- Eyelid drooping. This happens with only a small percentage of people and usually goes away within 3 weeks. It usually happens when the Botox moves around, so don’t rub the treated area.
- Crooked smile or drooling
- Eye dryness or severe tearing
- Mild pain or swelling around the injection site
- Flu-like symptoms or a general unwell feeling
- Upset stomach
- Numbness
- Weakness in nearby muscles
Who Should Not Get Botox?
People who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have a neurological disease shouldn’t use Botox. Because Botox doesn’t work for all wrinkles, check with a doctor first.
You shouldn’t have Botox shots if you’re allergic to cow’s milk protein.
Will Health Insurance Pay for Botox?
Botox isn’t covered by insurance when used for cosmetic purposes. Check with your health insurance company for coverage details.
Reasons not to get botox
Botox (Botulinum toxin) injections relax the muscles in your face to smooth out lines and wrinkles, such as crow’s feet and frown lines.
It’s not permanent – it usually lasts for around 3 or 4 months.
In the UK, the cost of Botox injections can vary from about £100 to £350 for each treatment, depending on the clinic and the area being treated.
Botox injections for cosmetic reasons are not available on the NHS.
What to think about before you have Botox injections
If you’re thinking about having Botox injections, be clear about why you want them.
Read more about whether a cosmetic procedure is right for you.
Make sure the person doing your Botox injections is suitably qualified and experienced.
They should be a medical practitioner and on a register to show they meet set standards in training, skill and insurance.
Avoid practitioners who have no training or have only completed a short training course.
When you meet the practitioner, ask about:
- their training, qualifications and experience
- the name of the product, if it’s licensed, and how and where it’s made
- any risks or possible side effects
- what will happen if things go wrong
- what insurance cover they have
Read more about choosing who will do your cosmetic procedure.
Botulinum toxin can only be prescribed in a face-to-face meeting by a qualified medical practitioner, such as a doctor, dentist, pharmacist prescriber or nurse prescriber.
The person prescribing botulinum toxin is responsible for making sure it’s given safely. They might not give the injections, but they should make sure it’s done by a qualified and experienced practitioner.
When you cannot have Botox
In certain circumstances, Botox injections are not recommended, including if:
- you have a skin infection
- you’re unwell in any way
- you have a neuromuscular condition like myasthenia gravis
- you’re taking certain medicines
- you’re pregnant or breastfeeding
What having Botox involves
Your face will be cleaned and botulinum toxin will be injected into muscles in your face using a very fine needle.
You’ll need injections in different places, depending on the area being treated. You’ll be asked to move the muscles in your face to help find the best place for the injections.
It usually takes about 10 minutes.
Afterwards
You will not see a change straight away. It takes about 2 or 3 days to start working, and 2 to 3 weeks to see the full effect.
Do not massage or rub your face for 3 days. Also, avoid vigorous exercise, sunbathing (including using sunbeds), and the sauna for 2 days. Your practitioner should be able to give you more advice about what you should and should not do.
The effects usually last for about 3 or 4 months. If you have Botox injections again, you should wait at least 3 months. It might stop working if you have it too often.
Risks
The risks of Botox injections are small if it’s done correctly by a suitably qualified practitioner. Speak to your practitioner about the risks.
After treatment you may have:
- a headache and flu-like symptoms for the first 24 hours
- bruising, swelling and redness where the needles went in the skin
- a frozen look – you might not be able to move the muscles in your face if too much Botox is injected
- temporary weakness and droopiness in your face – for example, your eyelids or eyebrows may droop if the Botox moves into these areas
Very rarely, serious problems such as blurred or double vision can happen if the area around the eyes is treated, or breathing difficulties if the neck area is injected.
Botox For Wrinkles On Forehead
It’s hard to find celebs who haven’t had work done, but go google pics of Emma Thompson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Cate Blanchett, Paulina Porozkova, or Isabella Rosselini. Granted, they were all beautiful women to start with, but just go look at them and see what a real ageing face looks like. It’s not all bad, people.
- you have a skin infection.
- you’re unwell in any way.
- you have a neuromuscular condition like myasthenia gravis.
- you’re taking certain medicines.
- you’re pregnant or breastfeeding.
Botox and fillers are gateway drugs. You think it’s only a little bit of tinkering, but when it’s no longer enough, suddenly surgical eyelifts and neck tightening start to sound viable.
10. There are plenty of people who are beautiful without it
And one extra reason to ignore me…
Because you’re you and it’s your business. If you can read all of this and still think, “It’s what I want”, then go right ahead. Just don’t come crying to me when you can’t order a meal in a Parisian restaurant without a phrasebook. Or without moving your eyebrows.
5. It makes your face look weird
Injectibles don’t make you look younger, they make you look smoother and puffier (a kind of pseudo-youth). A little too much or a little in the wrong place, and you’ll be too smooth or too puffy and it will look weird. Even celebrities occasionally have dodgy work done, and they have heaps of money and the best practitioers available: do you really think you can avoid it?
6. It makes you undersell yourself
You are more than your appearance. If you really think all you have to offer the world is a smooth face, then you are mistaken. Kindness, intelligence, warmth, humour, wisdom, patience, forgiveness, and so on and so on. Nobody’s value is limited to a smooth forehead.
7. It’s all going to go eventually
Botox can’t stop you getting old. Eventually, it will happen and no injectible on earth will help. By then, you’ll be struggling against a life-long panicky conviction that wrinkles must be eradicated. This is not what they call ageing gracefully.
8. Nobody can botox your arse
No matter how smooth your face remains, your body will eventually reveal the truth about your age. Skin grows softer and sits differently. There isn’t a shot for that, so you’re going to be limited to turtle-necks and maxi-skirts (which isn’t much fun in an Australian summer), or you going to have to present the world with collar and cuffs that don’t match.
Cosmetic injectables used to be just for movie stars, but now they have gone decidedly mainstream. Considering a little jab? Read this list first.
1. It makes you look older
Botox and fillers give you a recognisable look: smooth forehead ala Kylie and Nic; trout pout ala Meg Ryan and Courtney Love. All these women are well past their fortieth birthdays. If you look like them and you’re only 32, people will peg you as a person much older.
2. It’s not fair to other women
I have a colleague who confided in me that she’s had work done, but denies it to everyone else. When a mutual friend expressed amazement that she hasn’t any smile lines around her eyes, she smiled serenely and thanked her good genes, making my friend feel like crap. Not fair.
3. It costs a lot of money
Thousands of dollars a year to maintain it! Increasing every year as you get older! Think about what else you could do with that money. Go to Scotland every year for Hogmanay. Do a part-time university course in fifteenth-century manuscript history. Hire a personal trainer. No, hire a native French speaker to teach you French immersion style. In Paris.
4. It gives that money to people who don’t deserve it
The companies and practitioners who sell you your injectibles want you to hate your smile lines. If you hate them, you’ll part with your money. So they manufacture self-hatred, through using horrid phrases like “crows feet” and “marionette lines”. In a relationship, if somebody undermined your self esteem to get your money, we’d call that abuse.
Botox For Wrinkles On Forehead
Botox can be injected into the forehead between your eyes. Botox injections for the forehead are treatments to smooth horizontal lines and vertical wrinkles between the eyes. The injections work to relax the muscles that cause these wrinkles to form.
- Botox Cosmetic is FDA-approved for use on horizontal forehead lines, “11” lines between the eyes, and crow’s feet around the eyes.
3. How many units of Botox are allowed on the forehead?
- For horizontal forehead lines, practitioners can inject up to 15–30 units of Botox.
- For “11” lines between the eyes (or glabellar lines), up to 40 units are indicated, with higher doses needed in male patientsTrusted Source.
4. What other sites are safe for Botox injections?
- Currently, lateral canthal lines (crow’s feet) are the only other FDA-approved site for Botox Cosmetic injections. Doses for the lateral eyes/crow’s feet are anywhere from 6 to 10 units per side.
5. How much does Botox treatment cost?
- Per area of treatment, Botox Cosmetic can cost roughly $325 to $600.
- Costs are determined per unit and may vary based on practitioner or geographic location.
Botox injections for the forehead
Botox Cosmetic is an injectable cosmetic treatment used to relax and smooth the appearance of wrinkles on the face.
It paralyzes the muscles in your face temporarily through its active ingredient, botulinum toxin type A. Botox can be injected into the forehead between your eyes.
Botox injections for the forehead are treatments to smooth horizontal lines and vertical wrinkles between the eyes. The injections work to relax the muscles that cause these wrinkles to form.
Some people may choose to receive Botox injections in their foreheads to minimize the appearance of vertical frown lines and horizontal forehead wrinkles.
Even though the FDA recently approved the use of Botox in the forehead, highly qualified practitioners are still cautious.
That’s because, while Botox can be effective at smoothing wrinkles, it can cause too much muscle relaxation, resulting in drooping eyelids or uneven eyebrows.
The injection dosage must be carefully monitored.
How much Botox is permissible on the forehead?
Botox comes in dosages between 50 and 100 units per vial.
Some practitioners say they inject an average of 10 to 30 units into the forehead. Allergan, the manufacturer of Botox Cosmetic, suggests a dosage of 4 units each in five sites on the forehead, totaling 20 units.
Your practitioner may start out with a low-unit dosage in each injection at first. They’ll give you a few weeks, usually 1 to 2, to see how that dose works for you. You may then receive a few additional units.
From there, your practitioner will have an idea of how many units you need at later visits.
Generally, Botox injections are spaced approximately 3 to 4 months apart. When you first begin receiving injections, treatment results may not last as long. You may find that you need to return to your practitioner 2 to 3 months after the first treatment.
How much will it cost?
Botox is priced per unit. On average, each unit costs about $10 to $15. If you receive up to 20 units in your forehead, you could be looking at a total of about $200 to $300 for treatment of horizontal forehead lines.
Forehead injections are often paired with injections for glabellar lines (lines between the eyebrows, which can also be treated with up to 40 units). Your treatment could cost as much as $800 for these two areas.
Where on the forehead is Botox allowed?
The FDA has only approved certain sites on the forehead for Botox injections. These include horizontal lines across your forehead, as well as the glabella (the “11s” between your eyes).
Even though they’re approved, treatments still require caution. Using too much Botox in the forehead can cause side effects.
Botox Cosmetic injections are FDA approved only for forehead lines, glabellar lines, and lateral canthal lines around the eyes (“crow’s feet”). Injections for lateral canthal lines may total up to 20 units.
How long do effects last?
In general, Botox injections are meant to last about 4 months.
However, the effects of your first treatment could wear off sooner. If that’s the case, you’ll need a follow-up treatment sooner after your first appointment. After that, you should be able to expect your treatments to begin lasting longer.
You may not see results immediately after your treatment. Some practitioners suggest that you should allow up to 14 days to see the effects of your injections before scheduling a follow-up appointment.
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Where not to get Botox
If you receive too many units of Botox, it can cause heaviness or drooping in the affected areas. Because the toxin used in Botox causes muscle paralysis, you won’t be able to move those muscles for a few months — until the drug wears off.
Receiving too much Botox, in the right or wrong places, can also make your face look “frozen” and expressionless.
If your practitioner misses the appropriate muscles with the injections, that can cause you to have to repeat treatments because the Botox won’t have the desired result.