The statistics from 2014 were recently released by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) and guess what procedure was the most popular once again? Botox injections. Of course, that’s nothing new for this neurotoxin because it has been the world’s most popular procedure ever since its cosmetic debut in 2002.
Overall, there were 4,064,571 cosmetic procedures performed last year in the U.S., surgical and non-surgical. That was double the country with the second most, Brazil. Worldwide, Botox was injected 4,830,911 times in 2014!
How Botox works
Botox is classified as a neurotoxin and is actually made of the botulinum toxin type A, the same bacteria responsible for botulism. But decades ago, scientists discovered that injecting very small amounts of the botulinum toxin into a muscle can effectively paralyze that muscle for a temporary period of time. How does it do this? The toxin blocks the messages sent from the nerves to the brain. So, when a muscle is injected with Botox, the brain doesn’t receive any messages to make the muscle contract, so the muscle stays flaccid. That has made Botox effective in treating conditions like involuntary muscle spasms, migraines, jaw disorders, and other things.
But it was when the FDA approved Botox for cosmetic use in the treatment of wrinkles and lines in 2002 the neurotoxin became a household name.
Botox works on what are called dynamic wrinkles. These are wrinkles that are formed by the repeated muscle contractions associated with everyday behaviors such as frowning, squinting, and laughing. The skin above the muscles around our eyes, for instance, gets wrinkled when we frown, forming crow’s feet. But when you inject Botox into those individual muscles, they relax and wrinkles either go away or are far lessened in appearance.
But you need an experienced injector such as Dr. Kearney to provide your Botox injections. Why? Because if a person doesn’t have an excellent grasp of facial anatomy, he or she can inject Botox into the wrong spot, or inject too much Botox, leading to problems such as drooping eyelids.
Call us to get rid of your crow’s feet and forehead lines with Botox. (858) 677-9352.