Botox is one of the most effective ways to reduce the signs of aging, and here at Bala Aesthetics & Medispa in Bel Air, MD, many of our patients have received excellent results with this treatment. It works quite quickly, and the effects, while temporary, are normally long-lasting. So if you’ve been dissatisfied with either lines or wrinkles and you’d like to do something about it, here’s how long you can expect to enjoy the results after treatment.
After your first therapy session, you can expect the results to last about three to four months before you’ll need another treatment. You may start to notice your muscles becoming tense again like they were before treatment. Then gradually, any lines and wrinkles that were previously treated may start to become noticeable again.
If you return for regular treatments two to three times per year, you’re likely to start noticing the effects lasting longer and longer after each session. This is especially true after the first two years, which is when the facial muscles start to become trained to stay more relaxed, and many of our patients notice the effects lasting up to six months.
Botox is a cosmetic treatment that has two modes of action. First, it relaxes muscles by preventing the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. This mechanism is what it’s mostly known for and what often leads to improvements in one’s appearance by reducing lines and wrinkles.
The other way it works is by boosting collagen production in the skin, as the injections can stimulate an immune response. Collagen is one of the key proteins that give our skin a healthy, soft-looking appearance, but we lose much of it during the aging process. By increasing collagen levels, this therapy can help sagging skin look firmer, which can also have a contributing effect on the reduction of lines and wrinkles.
There is no best age or ideal point in life to start this treatment, as everyone has different aesthetic goals, and you have the option of starting earlier or later, depending on your preferences. Starting earlier in life can have preventative benefits, though starting later can be much more convenient for some patients. Regardless of your age, here’s how this therapy can be beneficial for just about every age group:
When you start treatments in your 20s or 30s, you have a chance to prevent some lines and wrinkles from forming by preventing muscle tension. When you’re constantly tensing and contracting your muscles, whether from stress or through facial expressions, this will eventually lead to some obvious signs of aging, which may be preventable if treated ahead of time.
By your 40s and 50s, you likely already have some prominent signs of aging, though the aging process is still ongoing, and you’ll surely have even more of these issues as you get older. So not only can you use this treatment to help correct some of these issues, but you’re still young enough to take advantage of some of its preventative benefits as well.
Once you’re in your 60s or older, it can be more difficult to treat lines and wrinkles because many of these issues have been long-standing and untreated. You may still be able to minimize existing lines and wrinkles while softening your skin with the collagen-boosting effects that these injections are known for.
There are many different reasons that a person may have lines on their face, and not all are related to muscle contractions. Here are some of the more common types of lines that we see:
These deep lines often appear with older age because they’re linked to a loss of skin elasticity. They’re called such because they come about when the skin is affected by gravity and hangs loosely from the face or neck.
If you’ve ever woken up from a long night’s sleep and noticed lines on your face from your pillow, these are sleep lines. In most cases, they’re temporary, but with older age, the skin doesn’t often bounce back as easily, and these lines can become permanent in some cases.
The most common type of lines, expression lines, occurs whenever we make facial expressions, whether we’re smiling or frowning. Like many other lines, these too can become permanent with older age due to collagen loss.
All three of these types of lines can appear with older age, but this therapy is particularly effective at treating expression lines. If you have gravitational folds or sleep lines, we may need to combine this therapy with other treatments.
Before starting your injections, we’ll want to make sure that this is the best treatment for you, so we’ll examine your skin while checking your muscle tone. This helps us gauge how many units of this medication you might need for each muscle and how well the muscles might respond.
We’ll also want to know if you’re taking any medications or if you have any active skin conditions other than lines and wrinkles. This therapy is not appropriate for those who are taking medications that can affect the blood, as well as women who are either pregnant or breastfeeding.
The injections typically take about 10 to 15 minutes, and while they’re not normally too painful, we can apply a numbing agent to your skin beforehand if you’re sensitive. The needles we use are very tiny and won’t go any further than a few millimeters beneath the surface of your skin. Most facial muscles require between two to four injections, though this can vary depending on their location and size.
After we finish your treatment, you can return home or to work with no downtime, meaning you can continue to carry out regular activities as you normally would. There are only a few minor precautions that we’ll ask you to take for a few days, such as not rubbing the treated areas, avoiding excessive sunlight, and not taking any blood-thinning medications or anti-inflammatories.
While you may notice some of the effects of this treatment kicking in within a few days after your session, the full results normally take at least a few weeks to become noticeable. Everyone’s muscles respond differently, though even late responders should be experiencing results by the second or third week.
One of the main reasons why it takes so long for the effects to become noticeable is because acetylcholine levels can vary in our bodies. This chemical messenger controls muscle contractions, so if there are already high levels of acetylcholine in the body at the time of treatment, it can take some time for this medication to work.
Good candidates for this treatment are those who:
This medication isn’t simply a cosmetic treatment because, in addition to reducing fine lines and wrinkles, it can also have a positive effect on a person’s social and work life.
One of the more obvious benefits of receiving this treatment is how it can make a person look younger than their age and more attractive to others. This can enhance a person’s social life by making it easier to meet new partners or by improving romantic relationships.
An overlooked benefit of this treatment is how it can also boost one’s professional working life. Wrinkles, especially when they’re around the eyes, can make you look tired, which can send off the wrong signals to prospective employers or coworkers. This treatment can often remedy this type of scenario by giving you a more alert appearance, which can change how others perceive you.
The long-lasting effects of Botox can keep fine lines and wrinkles minimized for many months and can be maintained with regularly scheduled treatments. To see how this treatment can benefit you, schedule your initial consultation today by contacting us at Bala Aesthetics & Medispa in Bel Air, MD, and we’ll be here ready to help you accomplish all your aesthetic goals.
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