Muscle Relaxing Injections
Muscle relaxing injections, widely known as 'Botox', have become one of the most popular cosmetic treatments in the world. Celebrities like Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Liz Hurley are rumoured to be keeping the wrinkles at bay this way. A few years ago Sir Cliff Richard admitted to having had the treatment and now it is an increasingly popular choice for ordinary men and women looking for a quick way to look younger.
Is it just aging? Too much sun? Too much stress?
In general, how skin ages and wrinkles is a complex process. It isn't just about cellular changes, collagen depletion, hormone loss, damage caused by free radicals, and so on; it's a combination of many factors.
The Anatomy of the Wrinkle
The lines that appear between your brows and around your eyes actually result from muscle movement and the passage of time. If you're angry or annoyed, for example, you knit your brows together. Underneath your skin, your facial muscles contract, cause a pleating of the overlying skin, and then, as anyone can see, you're frowning.
After years of crinkling and wrinkling, those lines start to linger longer and can become more pronounced. For women, whose faces tend to be more animated than men's, and whose skin is typically more delicate, these lines may appear exaggerated and more permanent.
Fortunately, there is a way to temporarily reduce moderate to severe Facial lines. They can be dramatically improved by the technique of cosmetic denervation, which involves muscle relaxing injections to soften the appearance of expression lines, namely, crow's feet, worry lines and frown lines.
Treatment with muscle relaxing injections can visibly smooth and soften moderate to severe expression lines. An improvement can be seen within days and may last up to 6 months, although results may vary.
How do the injections work?
Muscle relaxing injections are a simple, non surgical, treatment that can temporarily smooth moderate to severe frown lines between the brows or crows feet around the eyes in people from 18 to 65 years of age.
They will temporarily block the nerve endings to small facial muscles involved in producing expression lines. Treatment with muscle relaxing injections results in these muscles being frozen, which in turn softens the lines in the overlaying skin. The treated muscles are unable to contract, but the untreated muscles are able to contract normally, enabling normal facial expressions to occur.
The effects of muscle relaxing injections last for between 3 and 6 months, but with repeated treatments the muscles can become relaxed and their contractions reduced. This results in the lines becoming softer more long term and hence the skin looks younger and less tired. If you do not continue treatments, the frown lines between your brows will gradually look like they did before treatment.
Is the treatment safe?
Muscle relaxing injections have been used in medical research since the 1970s and in medical practice since the 1980s to treat several conditions including spasticity, facial spasms, eye deviation, squints and neck stiffness. Its cosmetic benefits were discovered in 1990 and it has been used effectively and safely for this purpose, worldwide, ever since.
What does the treatment involve?
The treatment involves injecting very small quantities of a muscle relaxant via a small micro needle into several locations on the face very precisely. The pain experienced is similar to sensation following an insect bite since the needle used is very fine and very small amounts of liquid are injected. Local anaesthesia is not required and the whole process takes between 10 and 15 minutes. Normal activities may be resumed almost immediately after the procedure.
Are there any side effects?
No serious side effects have ever been reported when using muscle relaxing injections in cosmetic treatments, because it is extremely safe when given in low doses. Side effects only occur in a minority of patients, are minor and are fully reversible within a few days to a few weeks.
The most common side effect is a few days of bruising or redness at the injection site, which can be covered up with makeup if necessary. There have been cases where treatment with muscle relaxing injections has led to drooping of the eyelid or asymmetry of facial expression due to migration of muscle relaxing injection into adjacent muscles, resulting in their weakness. This is very rare and fully reversible, but may last a few weeks.
Also, though extremely rare as well, it should be noted that repeated treatments may result in antibodies against muscle relaxing injections being produced by the patient, which renders future treatments ineffective.
Which patients are not suitable?
Muscle relaxing injections are most effective between the ages of 30 and 50 years old, though anyone above the age of 18 can be treated. It is not suitable in people who suffer with neuromuscular transmission disorders (e.g. Myasthenia Gravis), chronic respiratory problems, coagulation disorders, pregnant women, breastfeeding mums, if there is a history of allergy to injection ingredients, if there is infection or inflammation over the injection site or if the person is taking any of the following medications - aminoglycoside antibiotics, anticoagulants, aspirin or muscle relaxants.
Updated Thursday 12th 2008f June 2008
