Every face is different. There are people whose facial expressions are highly pronounced, while others prefer to express themselves with lower levels of activity in their facial muscles. Over the course of our lives, these habitual facial expressions make their mark on our faces. Examples being frown lines or the "crows feet" that typically form at either side of our eyes.
In response to gravitational forces, the malleable fatty tissue in our cheeks drops, pushing its way downwards. This gives rise to nasolabial wrinkles and unattractive rings under the eyes. Furthermore, the more frequent use we make of certain groups of muscles, the older this makes us look. For example, strong groups of muscles in the neck, or muscles in the mouth-chin region can typically develop into "hamster cheeks" or so-called "puppet wrinkles". The face then frequently adopts a very negative expression because the corners of the mouth trend downwards. Chin and nose are also influenced by increases in muscle tone. The tip of the noise starts to sag while the chin rises ever higher, forming unattractive folds of skin under the chin and a look known to German specialists in this field as "cobblestone relief". For most people, the outer edges of the eyebrows tend to droop, creating rather a melancholy facial expression.
To intervene here effectively and prophylactically, we therefore need to treat and "relax", i.e. weaken, the muscle sets responsible. This is accomplished through the use of botulism toxin A - an extremely diluted toxin that inhibits the transmission of signals from nerves to muscles, which in turn prevents those muscles from tensing up or clenching. Correctly applied, it relieves tension in our expressive facial muscles in the treated areas and reduces wrinkles. We frequently apply botox in conjunction with hyaluronic acid, used to fill out the recesses between existing wrinkles, to smooth areas of facial tissue and also to feed and freshen up the skin. Doses of hyaluronic acid are more effective and their results last longer when applied after botox treatment, reducing the volume of materials required.
The impact of botox takes effect within a few days. When injecting botox subcutaneously, dosage is of primary importance, and our aim is to create a relaxed facial expression, one that looks entirely natural and not in any way like an expressionless mask.
No, it's not snake poison! This is a protein formed from the bacterium Clostridium botulinum that is first cleaned and prepared for medical use before being injected in extremely dilute form into the affected muscles. Botox stops muscle impulses from being transmitted; in other words, even if you want to tense a muscle, it is impossible. The affected areas appear visibly relaxed and facial lines are smoothed away. Depending on the dosage, the effect of botox on facial muscles can range from relaxing to paralysing. High dosages of this medication can be toxic. However, in the cosmetic field of botox treatment involving its sub-cutaneous injection in wrinkles, the substance is highly diluted, to such an extent that there is no risk of toxicity whatsoever.
When it comes to the aesthetic treatment of wrinkles, Botox should only be injected by an experienced physician with a detailed knowledge of the human anatomy to prevent any undesirable results, such as an eyebrow that is positioned too low, thus exacerbating an existing hooded lid.
One of the main applications for Botox is the treatment of frown lines caused by the facial muscles used for expressions. The upper half of the face in particular is the focus of treatments using this method. They alleviate frown lines, forehead lines and crow?s feet. Botulinum toxin A can, however, also be used successfully for eyebrow lifts to improve existing hooded eyelids.
Other applications for which Botox can provide excellent results are neck lifts (firming of the neck and chin/lower jaw area) and the correction of ?chubby cheeks?.
Fine superficial lines in the eye and cheek region can be smoothed out by administering very shallow injections of a more highly diluted Botox solution.
Pronounced nasolabial folds can be caused by excessive muscle tone, which can also be remedied very easily with Botox, in turn making it much easier to administer hyaluronic acid injections and increasing their efficacy.
Botox is also highly effective when applied to hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) and bruxism (tooth grinding).
