Botox Still Leads Among Cosmetic Enhancements

The idea of reinvigorating and brightening one’s appearance is appealing in many senses of the word. Cosmetic enhancements make it possible to obtain the essence of youth.
The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery’s “Top 5 Nonsurgical Cosmetic Procedures” lists Botox as the most popular nonsurgical enhancement. Over 2.7 million people were administered Botox in 2007, nearly twice as many injections as the next most popular procedure. The popularity of Botox is most likely due to a high return rate, with patient satisfaction around 97%.

With the popularity of Botox as high as it is and the number of people being administered this medicine, it is important to acquire as much information as possible regarding this procedure.

When having a cosmetic procedure, it is essential to remember that no individual is the same as another, and therefore results can vary slightly. However, typical ‘predictions’ are possible. How long Botox lasts is ‘dose dependent’. Dosing depends on how the medicine is reconstituted and administered in the injection site. Upon consultation, these are important things for your physician and you to go over.

Botox is a simple injection which reduces the appearance of “frown lines”, “furrows”, and “laugh lines” for 3 to 4 months. The medicine consists of protein which starts to take effect 2 to 3 days after the procedure, achieving optimal results in about 10 days. The results you receive in this time can be expected to last for at least 3 months, but in some clinical trials results were seen for upwards of 4 months.

Why so popular? The ‘relaxing’ quality of Botox restricts overly expressive muscular contractions in the treated area, allowing expression but with minimal wrinkles. It has also been demonstrated that relaxing muscular contraction in the forehead and eyebrows produces a slight lifting effect.

“A simple analogy is folding a piece of paper; over time, that fold becomes deeper and more noticeable. Botox essentially reduces the extent of ‘folding’ so a permanent wrinkle does not develope”.