Before you think about going under the knife, it’s important to know that tried-and-true gold-standard injection options and newer dermal fillers can provide a natural, youthful effect — no surgery required.
Cosmetic injections can be a good way to minimize wrinkles without turning to invasive procedures. He explains some of the most popular options and answers your most pressing questions.
What does Botox® do?
Botox®, or botulinum toxin A, prevents the flexing of muscles that cause wrinkling, like in your forehead and around your eyes and mouth.
Originally used to treat muscular conditions, Botox is among the most well-known cosmetic injections. It’s a neurotoxin that affects the nerves, temporarily weakening the muscles that cause wrinkles and resulting in a temporary smoothing effect.
What is Botox used for?
It’s approved by the FDA for treating laugh lines, crow’s feet, forehead lines and the creases between the brows, sometimes called “11 lines.”
Anyone over 18 can receive these injections, but most people are 30 to 60 years old.
What does fillers® do?
Enter dermal fillers such as Juvederm® and Restylane®, which can temporarily mimic the return of the facial structure of your youth by adding volume. (There are other varieties of fillers, too. The product your doctor chooses is largely dependent on the area they’ll be treating.)
Fillers are commonly used in the depressions around the corners of the mouth and cheekbones. One of the most popular uses of dermal fillers is lip fillers, which use synthetic hyaluronic acid to increase the volume of your lips. Juvederm is also approved for infraorbital hollows and the chin/lower face area.
How are dermal fillers different from Botox?
In short, they treat different types of lines.
Botox prevents the flexing of muscles that cause wrinkling, while dermal fillers fill in the type of wrinkles that come from a loss of collagen, volume and elasticity. “The lines in the lower part of the face aren’t due to repeated muscle movement, “They come from a change in facial structure over time.”
Because they focus on different parts of your face, it’s possible to get both Botox and dermal fillers, or to get more than one type of filler.
“Usually it’s best to get a combination of different fillers to get optimal correction,” “Together, Botox and dermal fillers can work together to rejuvenate the face.”