Botox

It happens to us all: one day, you look in the mirror and see that the face looking back at you has wrinkles. The more expressive your face, the more wrinkles you will see. After all: frowning, laughing, smiling and other facial expressions make your muscles contract daily. Factors such as stress, grief, loss of collagen, sun exposure, changes in hormone levels, and pollution accelerate the formation of wrinkles.

Botox® has been used since the nineties to soften or eliminate wrinkles, initially only by actors and supermodels. Today, Botox® has become an established brand name and an accessible method for helping to prevent the formation of wrinkles, with a beautiful and natural result. Botox® is not a permanent solution — the effects last on average 3 to 4 months — but a very effective way to soften expression lines and prevent deeper wrinkles. Because Botox® is a minor treatment, you could be done in fifteen minutes and resume your daily activities. Botox® is injected into the muscles around the wrinkle using an extremely thin syringe. Because Botox effectively temporarily shuts down the muscles that cause wrinkles, it is imperative to have Botox® administered by a skilled and experienced physician. This prevents your face from looking permanently surprised or “frozen” — a look we’ve all seen examples of. Dr Pirayesh strives for a natural and subtle effect in all treatments he performs — both surgical and non-surgical. He knows precisely how to smooth away the tension in your face without making you look like you have had anything ‘done’: no one needs to know your secret.

Different types of wrinkles:

There are three types of wrinkles:

Dynamic wrinkles are visible only when the muscle contracts and may therefore be treated with Botox®
Static wrinkles are visible even when the muscle is at rest; therefore, Botox® alone does not offer a solution for these wrinkles. Fillers, laser treatments, or Platelet Rich Plasma therapy treat static wrinkles.
Folds (deep static lines) are the result of subsidence of the face's underlying structures and, for example, cause the grooves between the mouth and nose. These folds will not benefit from Botox® but are successfully treated with fillers or a facelift.

Application of Botox®

Frown lines

Crows feet

Brow lift

Drooping mouth

Forehead lines

Asymmetrical eyebrows

Wrinkles on the upper lip

Vertical lines

Wrinkles on the neck

Cleavage wrinkles

Nasolabial lines (nose-mouth)

Horizontal lines on your forehead

Gummy smile

Excessive sweating of the armpits

Migraine headaches

Only trust approved Botox® brands

At present, there are three approved brands in the market: Botox® or Vistabel® from Allergan, Xeomin® or Bocouture® from Merz, and Dysport® or Azzalure® from Galderma. Be careful with clinics offering low prices for Botox treatments: this could indicate that the practitioner diluted, copied, or used an uncontrolled variation from China. A reliable physician will always show you the Botox® he uses before the treatment.

Botox® procedure

First, we clean the treatment area with antiseptic wipes. No anaesthesia is required because we use injection needles thinner than human hair. Dr Pirayesh will ask you to make certain facial expressions to identify muscle contractions in your face and make minor marks on the locations where Botox is needed. When these areas are injected, you will feel some tiny pinpricks that last a few seconds per injection. Afterwards, the treated areas are cleaned, and you can touch up your makeup.

The treatment takes about ten to fifteen minutes from start to finish. If this is your first treatment with Botox®, you can expect the desired effect within five to ten days. You can expect slight swelling around the injected areas, which lasts up to four hours. The next day, this will have completely subsided.

The effect of Botox®

After about four months, the effect of your Botox treatment will diminish, and your wrinkles will return to how they were before. Therefore, most women prefer to repeat this treatment every 4 months, ensuring that their wrinkles will continue to soften as time goes by.

After years of using Botox®, we sometimes see the effect lasting longer than usual (about 5 months).

Few complications with using Botox®

We rarely see complications with the safe use of Botox®. Occasionally, a blood vessel may be punctured, causing some bruising and some redness, tenderness, or swelling of the treated area. These side effects disappear within two to three days.