Although thanks to this most stubborn virus our holiday plans won’t be as expansive as in a normal year, we know our patients from Layton and the surrounding areas still want to look their best when impressing our relatives and in-laws in this year’s smaller get togethers. That’s why you should stop in to one of Dr. Jensen’s two locations and have a yourself a merry little Botox session.
Botox takes about four days to fully erase your wrinkles, so now’s the time to get ready for your upcoming events.
How does Botox work?
Botox is not a dermal filler, such as Juvéderm or Restylane; Botox is a neuromodulator. It is made primarily from the botulinum toxin type A, the same bacteria that are responsible for botulism. But these bacteria also show up throughout the natural world in soil, water, and in the digestive tract of many mammals. Scientists researching the bacteria back in the late 1940s discovered that when injected in a minute amount into a muscle, the botulinum toxin caused the muscle to stop contracting for a period of time. Botox was born from that research.
When injected into a muscle, the botulinum toxin blocks the acetylcholine in the muscle (the nerve messenger) from being able to send its messages to the brain. The nerve messenger can’t get the call to the brain to contract the muscle, so the muscle stays relaxed. This has obvious benefits, such as relaxing involuntary muscle spasms that cause a person’s eyelid to twitch. This is known as blepharospasm and it was actually the first FDA-approved use for Botox.
But it also comes into play with wrinkles on the upper third of the face. These wrinkles form on the surface skin above certain muscles we use across our upper faces when we form expressions. Go ahead, make a frown. Feel all the muscles around your eyes, between your eyebrows, and on your forehead contract. After we make these expressions hundreds of thousands of times, coupled with thinning skin that comes with aging, wrinkles form above these muscles. These are crow’s feet around the eyes, the 11s between our eyebrows, and lines across our forehead. These are the areas Dr. Jensen targets with your Botox injections.
Botox only works on these wrinkles on the upper third of the face. If you have wrinkles around the mouth, such as smile lines or parentheses lines, Botox doesn’t work on them because they aren’t the result of muscle contractions. They are simply due to sun damage, declining collagen production, and various environmental and personal factors. These wrinkles can be filled from beneath with a dermal filler, as we discussed in last month’s blog.
So, if you want to keep your crow’s feet from getting invited to Christmas Eve dinner at your in-laws, give us a call at Dr. Jensen’s, (385) 424-4567, and schedule a Botox session.