Botox is often misunderstood by those who don’t have experience of using it, if you are considering it though you need to understand exactly how Botox is done, how it works, what effects it has, including side effects, and what the long term risks may be.
How is Botox done?
Botox is delivered by injection in small quantities directly at the points where you want to stop wrinkles, or to the muscles that move to form wrinkles and frown lines. Injections can be painful and what is being injected is a Toxin. Treated to remove bacteria and delivered in tiny quantities the use of this Botulinum toxin is legal but not without its critics.
How many injections you have and in how many places will depend on how many areas you want to either get rid of wrinkles from or stop wrinkles forming in.
How does Botox work?
The Botulinum toxin causes paralysis of nerve endings, this stops them from sending messages to the brain that are then relayed to move muscles.
This leads to the relaxing of muscles, meaning that certain facial expressions are no longer possible most importantly frowning. Botox then works 24 hours a day to stop you moving your face to cause lines, this is especially effective while you sleep when your face is often highly active, which is why wrinkles usually appear worst in the morning.
We highly recommend that you use a well known botox alternative before trying botox.
What effects does Botox have?
Immediately after Botox injections paralysis of the face can be extreme and more than expected. If trying to avoid wrinkles around the mouth badly placed Botox injections can make it hard to smile, though in some cases this is what you want though, generally it is only broad grins you want to eradicate.
With time, existing wrinkles will decrease and can eventually disappear: especially with the help of face creams to help lines heal and skin firm. As they say though prevention is better than cure and people may use Botox before they begin developing wrinkles, usually in your late twenties.
Other effects of Botox though include side effects and as mentioned smiles and also other facial expressions can become difficult. Botox should make your face look natural through relaxing muscles but sometimes the effect may make you look slightly odd if the effect is too much.
This is just one concern though and instant side effects of Botox injections often include nausea and dizziness, people may also experience migraines for some time after the injection, especially if it is their first.
What are the risks of using Botox?
The short term effects of Botox are linked to the long term risks that though still only studied on a small scale have led some to believe that Botox is in fact dangerous.
It has been suggested that Botox can with prolonged use lead to damage to the nervous system; though nerve endings that are paralysed by Botulinum toxin should heal and recover with prolonged use it is possible they won’t and that further damage may actually be caused.
It may be that the brain will itself be affected by having signals from nerves interfered with, many believe this is why migraines may occur after injections.
