3 Surprising Facts About BOTOX®
Most of us are on a lifelong quest for our skin and hair to look as youthful as possible. Even if you accept aging or don’t mind looking the age you are, it’s only natural to want your appearance to reflect how you feel on the inside. With this in mind, it can sometimes be frustrating to deal with wrinkles—such as deep frown lines or worry lines on the forehead—that make you look angry or upset when you don’t actually feel that way. Continued use of skin care products like retinoids can improve the quality of your skin, but injectable wrinkle treatments like BOTOX® provide faster and more dramatic results. Of course, it goes without saying that one of the main BOTOX® benefits for Westlake Village patients who come to the Pierre Skin Care Institute is a younger look thanks to softened facial wrinkles.
Specifically, BOTOX® is used for dynamic wrinkles that are caused by repetitive facial movements, a use that was first approved by the FDA in 2002. Want to know more about this injectable? Here are some strange but fascinating facts about BOTOX® that you may not have heard before:
It Can Actually Feel Good
One of the aspects of BOTOX® patients are usually most worried about is ending up with a “frozen” or robotic-looking face. When administered by an experienced professional, BOTOX® typically yields effects that are noticeable, but subtle. You’ll still be able to make a wide range of facial expressions. However, some patients find that the inability to move certain parts of their face—such as knitting their eyebrows together to frown—actually puts them in a more positive mood.
It Can Be Used to Treat Depression
Your emotions are connected with your facial expressions. In fact, research has shown that specific muscles are not only involved in communicating emotions, but also play a major role in how we experience emotions. By relaxing your facial expressions, BOTOX® blocks facial muscles from recognizing negative emotions. There’s also the idea of a feedback loop: If you see a more pleasant-looking you in the mirror, you begin to feel more pleasant, too.
The Most Likely Side Effect is Bruising
With any type of injection, bruising is a possibility. There’s no way to completely avoid this side effect. We do recommend that patients avoid blood thinners for about a week—if possible—before their appointment, but there are also other things that you’ll need skip, such as alcohol the day before and caffeine a few hours before.
For more information about BOTOX®, contact Pierre Skin Care Institute. Call us at 805-496-9190 or fill out an online contact form.
