BOTOX® is used by cosmetic surgeons to smooth out forehead wrinkles and frown lines. It is administered with an extremely thin needle directly into the muscle being treated. It prevents the brain from successfully sending messages to that muscle telling it to contract.

When you cannot contract the frown muscles, you cannot frown. That keeps the skin in that area more smooth, removing tension that would otherwise create the frown energy in your face. Repeated BOTOX® injections can prolong the smoothness and perhaps also retrain the muscle not to contract so often.

BOTOX® for Movement Disorders
BOTOX® works by blocking nerve impulses, in effect paralyzing that muscle. The medical profession has not been slow in seeing many other uses for a substance that safely paralyzes specific muscles. Physicians have been using BOTOX® to help with disorders that involve involuntary movements, such as cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis. Cessation of that chronic, jerky movement is a great relief to these patients.

BOTOX® for Migraines
More recently BOTOX® has been used in treating migraine headaches which involve chronic muscular tension. This use of BOTOX® was discovered accidentally after patients who received the injections for frown lines reported headache relief. Physicians now inject BOTOX® into the sides or back of the head and have been changing the dosage to avoid unwanted side effects such as drooping eyelids.

BOTOX® for Bladder Problems
Another recent use has been for people with an overactive bladder. Urologists in two London hospitals recently did a double-blind trial with 34 patients, with half of them receiving BOTOX® and the others getting a placebo. Since BOTOX® works only on the specific muscle where it is injected, a long tube was used, with the injection needle inside it, to reach the bladder muscles targeted.

Twenty injections were given from different directions into the bladder, using a total of 200 ml of BOTOX®. Previous medications had been ineffective in reducing incontinence but the patients in this study who received BOTOX® all reported improvements in this and in their overall quality of life.

At the Cosmetic Surgical Center we use BOTOX® for facial enhancement only. If you would like to know more about how BOTOX® could smooth facial wrinkles and give you a more fresh and youthful appearance, please contact our cosmetic surgery office today.