How Botox® Works

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) collects statistics each year on which cosmetic surgeries are most often done, and which minimally-invasive procedures are most often done for cosmetic reasons. In 2006, Botox® was Number One on the minimally-invasive popularity list, with 4.1 million people having that treatment.

As cosmetic surgery becomes more accepted and more popular in the general population, more people begin dipping their toe into the water by having a minimally-invasive procedure rather than a permanent one, a surgery. Examples of this are the very popular injectable fillers, such as Restylane, Radiesse, Sculptra, and Artefill. These plump out the facial skin, giving you a more youthful appearance. Their results are temporary, lasting several months to several years, depending on which one you choose to have.

Botox is an injection, but not a filler. It works in a different way altogether. Rather than placing some kind of substance beneath the skin to give that youthful look, it works on the nerve impulses traveling to the particular muscles at the injection site.

Frown lines
Most of us develop frown lines towards middle age, or earlier. They come from repeated use of the muscles that wrinkle the forehead skin between the eyes (the procerus and corrugator muscles). We may not always be frowning because we feel angry or worried. We may be just squinting in the sun, or sneezing, or coughing. There is often an automatic contraction of the frown muscles in these ways which doesn’t say anything about our personality or outlook on life.

But the fact is that frown lines do give people an impression that you’re annoyed, impatient, depressed, or some other kind of negative feeling. They give the face an older look. When the frown muscles contract, they also lower the eyebrows, which adds to the aging look. So if a person wants to appear younger and more relaxed, they may turn to a Botox treatment to smooth out the frown lines. It takes ten minutes to remove years of frowning.

Where Botox® is derived from
Botox® Cosmetic is the trade name used by Allergan, Inc., the manufacturer. It is a substance derived from the botulinum toxin produced by the Clostridium botulinum bacterium. That is one very toxic protein as it occurs in nature, but it is not Botox. This toxic protein was originally discovered in poorly prepared meat, and was called sausage poison, back in the nineteenth century. If you ingested it, it would act systemically to paralyze all the body’s muscles, which would be fatal.

Botox® Cosmetic does not do this! The only similarity between a Botox injection and the botulinum toxin is that they both act by blocking nerve impulses traveling to the muscles. A Botox injection is very tiny, given through a very tiny needle, into a very specific muscle. It affects only a small area on the face and only temporarily.

How Botox Acts
It acts on the nerve impulses that travel to the particular muscle where it is injected. To treat frown lines, it is injected into the procerus and corrugator muscles, and blocks the nerve messages that would tell those muscles to contract. They don’t receive those messages, and so they don’t contract. The skin over those muscles therefore does not get wrinkled, and it acquires a smoother look.

The effect of a Botox injection lasts for four to six months. The body gradually absorbs the substance and the treatment needs to be repeated. However, if it is repeated in a series of treatments, those muscles will gradually learn not to contract as much. So this can give a more long-term effect and allow the skin to smooth out more permanently. It will not smooth out completely, but it will certainly look smoother and younger.

You can have a Botox injection on your lunch hour and go straight back to work, as there is no downtime. The results are immediately visible. If you have not yet tried a minimally-invasive cosmetic procedure, Botox is a good place to start. Why not now?