It can be upsetting to look in the mirror and not recognize the face looking back at you. If you’re trying to turn back the clock on aging skin, it might be time to look to one of the most effective and popular solutions on the market: Botox. This game-changing injectable can eliminate even the deepest wrinkles on the face, including frown lines and worry lines. Here at Aesthetics Anti-Aging Center in Macon, GA, we can help you look younger and more like yourself.
How Can You Eliminate Frown Lines? Discover Botox
You’re probably familiar with frown lines: the eleven-shaped vertical lines that form between your eyebrows. Medically known as glabellar lines, they’re developed over time from moving your facial muscles, and in particular frowning and furrowing your eyebrows. They’re even caused by squinting. You may think that these wrinkles, as well as others that become more pronounced when you’re expressive and emotive, are be impossible to get rid of.
But Botox targets the muscles under the skin, rather than the skin itself, to stop these issues at the root of the problem. With relaxed muscles, your skin remains smooth and uncreased. That’s what has made this FDA-approved treatment the most popular weapon against dynamic wrinkles for over thirty years.
What Exactly Are Dynamic Wrinkles?
How They Develop
There are essentially two ways that we develop wrinkles as we get older. The first is due to the skin losing laxity and starting to sag, droop, and fold in on itself. The second is the result of repeated facial movements that move the skin the same way over and over, creating deeper and deeper lines. These are called “dynamic wrinkles”, and this treatment is specifically designed to target them.
What They Look Like
As well as frown lines, common types of dynamic wrinkles include forehead wrinkles, or “worry lines”, which run horizontally above your eyebrows, bunny lines, which form above the nose, and crow’s feet around the eyes. You’ll notice that these kinds of wrinkles become more pronounced when you move your face.
These lines can age you up, make you look tired or worn out when you’re not, or plaster your face with an emotion you’re not actually feeling such as surprise or anger. They can be so detrimental to a person’s confidence that they might be worried about moving their faces too much, should the wrinkles become more emphasized. But no one should feel like they can’t move or emote properly in their body. And that’s where this treatment comes in.
How Does This Treatment Work?
This is a neuromodulator treatment, which means it specifically targets nerves. The product used, botulinum toxin – AKA Botox – is a purified and safe formula that is injected under the skin using a fine needle. Once injected, stops communication from your brain to your facial muscles. It does this by interrupting the nerves that send signals between the two.
Without nerve signals, your brain still can tell your muscles to move, but the muscles won’t follow the order. Instead, they’ll stay relaxed and still, and so will the skin on top of them. It will smooth out, staying uncreased and soft as you talk and laugh.
What Will Treatment Be Like?
Before
Step one is to come in for a consultation where we can chat about your goals and see if this treatment is a good method of correcting your skin concerns. We’ll go over your medical history and look at medications you might be on to make sure you’re in a healthy condition for treatment. If everything looks good, we’ll design a treatment plan tailored to your face that we’ll follow along on the day.
We rarely ask you to do much preparation ahead of your appointment. We might ask for few small lifestyle changes, such as avoiding drinking alcohol beforehand, or recommend you stop taking certain blood-thinning medications. There’s generally nothing more severe we’ll require of you.
On the Day
Your appointment will take place in-house with a member of our expert staff. We’ll ask you to come in with a clean face, which we’ll apply a numbing cream to before we get started. The combination of numbing cream and our using very small needles means our patients don’t feel a thing, saying that at most they feel a light pressure. We’ll perform a series of injections as per your treatment plan. The whole thing should take between ten and thirty minutes, and then you’re all done.
Afterward
You’ll be thrilled to learn that there’s no downtime needed after your treatment. You won’t need to take time off work or get a friend to come to take care of you and instead can immediately carry on with your day. Many of our patients slot their appointments into their work lunch breaks!
We may recommend a few guidelines to ensure your skin heals effectively and quickly. These might include avoiding strenuous exercise, face massages, harsh chemicals, and extreme heat for up to twenty-four hours after your treatment. They’re very short-term lifestyle changes that will help you get long-term results.
Can I Still Feel My Face After Treatment?
Because this treatment targets nerves, there’s some confusion as to whether it has a numbing effect on treated areas. You can rest easy because you will have complete feeling in your face. This is because Botox works on motor neurons, which are responsible for movement, and not sensory neurons, which are the nerves that allow you to feel things. So you can enjoy all the perks of smooth, youthful skin without having to sacrifice any normal sensations.
How Long Does It Take To See Results?
Unlike some cosmetic treatments available, the results of this treatment are excitingly quick to develop. Many of our patients see the first signs of treatment taking effect in just three days, while others notice them after five or six days. Most of our patients enjoy optimal results after about ten days.
The exact time will depend on you; factors like lifestyle, skin tissue, how your body processes the neurotoxin, and so on. So even if results seem a little slow to develop, you can rest easy knowing that sometimes they do take longer, but the results are worth it.
How Long Do the Results Last?
For between three and four months after this treatment, you can enjoy supple, radiant skin that stays smooth as you chat and emote. It may be slightly shorter or slightly longer – it’s always dependent on the individual – but this is the approximate length of time for the majority of our patients. After this time, you’ll notice the effects start to wear off and lines return to your face. We encourage patients to come in for a maintenance session when they see these changes.
A maintenance session is as quick and easy as your first appointment; we’ll just reapply the treatment in much the same way so you can enjoy your results all over again. Most of our patients come in three to four times a year for these sessions, which is less frequent than a trip to the hairdresser.
Will It Affect Other Parts of My Face?
If you only want to treat a specific area – for example, frown lines – but want the rest of your face to stay the same, don’t worry. This treatment is “localized”, meaning it’s precise and the product doesn’t spread once injected, so it only affects very small areas at a time, the rest of your facial muscle won’t be touched and will still move normally and dynamically.
So while it’s a common fear that your face might look “frozen” as the muscles relax, you can know that results will look natural and subtle. We have a total of forty-two muscles in our face, so stopping the movement of a few will do nothing but enhance your natural beauty!
Who Is a Good Candidate for This Treatment?
If you’re over the age of twenty-one and noticing moderate-to-severe lines that are emphasized when you emote, you may be an ideal candidate for this treatment. Here at Aesthetics Anti-Aging Center, we don’t believe there is a “right age” to undergo treatment, as dynamic wrinkles can occur regardless of how old you are. This treatment is suitable for any skin tone and gender – men certainly develop wrinkles as much as women!
Certain medical conditions may preclude you from undergoing this treatment, as can some medications and supplements. This is why we go through your medical history during the consultation. Pregnant, soon-to-be-pregnant, and nursing candidates will be advised to seek out treatment when they’re no longer in these conditions.
Patients should have realistic expectations for how this treatment can help their concerns, and understand that they’ll need to come back in for maintenance sessions. Patients should remember that this treatment is designed to smooth out skin and enhance natural beauty, not completely change the structure of a person’s face.
Can This Treatment Be Used To Combat Sagging Skin?
As mentioned above, sometimes wrinkles and folds are caused by sagging, drooping skin. When we age, our bodies produce less and less collagen and elastin, which are proteins that keep our skin tight and plump. Without them, our skin gets looser, weaker, and more coarse. Overexposure to sunlight, genetics, and lifestyle can also be factors in why our skin loses its elasticity.
Because these concerns aren’t caused by muscle movement, Botox can’t be used to treat them. Instead, we recommend dermal fillers. Like Botox, they’re injectables that can be used to target various concerns around the face, but they treat the skin tissue and cells, adding volume, filling out hollow areas, and stimulating the production of new collagen. They’re very effective when used on marionette lines, thin lips, and nasolabial folds, making patients look refreshed, younger, and with more balanced features.
During your consultation, we can talk about what treatment might work better for your skin concerns. If we decide that both options may work to address different problematic areas on your face, we can design a treatment plan that incorporates both of them. We can often still do both treatments in one simple session.
Say Goodbye to Frown Lines
Next time you look in the mirror, expect to see a familiar face looking back at you. With Botox, you can look younger and more refreshed, while still looking like your beautiful self. If you’re ready to be the best version of yourself, we’re ready to help. Schedule your consultation today with Aesthetics Anti-Aging Center in Macon, GA.
