When people see lines forming after BOTOX wears off, they assume treatment made their wrinkles worse. Actually, your face simply returns back to its natural state. No new wrinkles or lines are ever caused by these injections.
Many people worry that if they stop getting BOTOX injections, their wrinkles will come back faster and worse than before. However, this is not the case. If you stop BOTOX injections, your wrinkles will slowly start to come back, but slower than if you had never used BOTOX to begin with.
Put simply, it puts the muscles out of action for anywhere from 2-4 months (this can depend entirely on the client). Wrinkles gently smooth out over time because the muscles are not moving like they used to.
"After receiving Botox, a patient may unconsciously attempt to re-create the facial expressions in the area where treatment has paralyzed their facial muscles, "said Dr. Becker. "What can happen is that other, nearby muscles compensate--this can have the effect of actually creating new wrinkles."
And if you're wondering if Botox works if you already have wrinkles, the answer is a resounding YES. In fact, smoothing out facial wrinkles and fine lines, like laugh lines, crow's feet, frown lines, etc., is the primary FDA-approved purpose of Botox injections.
Many Botox users are terrified that their faces will become dramatically wrinkled if they stop using the treatment. This is just not the case.
After the age of 35, it may be too late to benefit from the preventive capacity of Botox®, especially if you have a very expressive face or fair skin, are genetically predisposed, or have unhealthy lifestyle habits such as using tan beds, overexposing yourself in the sun, or smoking.
Nausea. Redness. Temporary facial weakness or drooping. In rare instances, the botulinum toxin may spread beyond the treatment area, causing botulism-like signs and symptoms such as breathing problems, trouble swallowing, muscle weakness and slurred speech.
Negative side-effects of prolonged over-use of Botox may include muscle weakness as the facial muscles involved with Botox application slowly lose their ability to function normally. This might be regarded as a positive if these same muscles result in the development of prominent lines and wrinkles.
If you stop BOTOX treatments after many years of regular injections, the only effect will be that your wrinkles will return, albeit a bit more slowly than if you had not been using BOTOX. It's true: Even after you stop, you will still look younger than you would have if you had never been injected.
If you use Botox for ten or more years, your skin will appear brighter and smoother with fewer wrinkles. Even after stopping Botox injections after years of use, you'll still notice fewer wrinkles between your eyes or on your forehead, which means you'll continue to age gracefully.
However, the long-term effects include an atrophy of the muscles to the area. When muscles are not used, they shrink, sag, and with aging become less able to recover. In terms of appearance, this means that with every injection, the muscles lower in quality, sag, and cause the skin to sag and wrinkle.
So what could be the reasons behind Botox not working on forehead wrinkles? Some of the most common ones involve not getting enough Botox units for your skin issue, Botox not being injected correctly, or it could also be that some wrinkles are at a certain depth and could only be corrected so much.
But do you have to keep getting Botox once you start? Unfortunately yes, as a Botox treatment is not a permanent solution. You can expect the effect of a single Botox treatment to last for around three to four months. In some cases, the effects can last for up to six months, but that is rather rare.
If you compare your skin during and after this period, you will feel you appear older afterwards as you have been used to seeing your fantastic, smoothed-skin results. But, rest assured, the treatment itself will not make you appear more aged.
When some people see their wrinkles form again after the rejuvenating effects of Botox wear off, they assume that the treatment made their wrinkles worse. This isn't true at all. In fact, regular Botox use can actually retrain certain muscles to move less, leading to smoother skin with less Botox over time.
Patients must be 18 years or older to be able to get Botox. However, most experts agree that in most cases, patients at a good age for preventative Botox treatment are those in their mid-late 20s and early 30s who are prone to wrinkles.
Similarly, injecting Botox in your forehead over the long term can weaken the muscles there. As a result, your forehead muscles won't contract as much, which means they won't develop wrinkles as much. While weakened muscles may not be your end-goal, a wrinkle-free forehead sure is.
People of any age can get treatment with Botox, and it is regularly used on people between the ages of 25 and 50 particularly. No matter how old or young you are, however, this treatment can relax the look of wrinkles and even stop them from forming in the first place.
In general, most people should have Botox injections once every four months is usually an ideal frequency for this treatment. But because everybody has a different body, you may need your injections more or less frequently.
Botox injections are commonly injected into three main sites – forehead lines, crow's feet lines around the eyes and the vertical '11' frown lines between the eyebrows.
Botox Weakens the Muscles
The same thing can happen to the muscles in your face: "If used regularly, over a prolonged period, without interruption, eventually the muscle will atrophy from lack of use," says the legendary dermatological surgeon Patricia Wexler, MD. That's not to say your entire face will atrophy.