After years of squinting, laughing, frowning, smoking, and worrying, the skin around the eyes and on the forehead will often develop deep lines and wrinkles called "expression lines." A frequent concern is that they often make you look older, tired, or stressed. Until recently, these advanced furrows have been difficult to treat. Now, by utilizing this FDA approved muscle-relaxing agent, expression lines can be significantly reduced.
Smile, laugh, frown, and make all the facial expressions you want and stop worrying about wrinkles!
What is BOTOX® Cosmetic?
BOTOX® Cosmetic is a therapeutic muscle-relaxing agent derived from the bacterium, Clostridium Botulinum. For over a decade, ophthalmologists have applied BOTOX® Cosmetic for its original intention, the treatment of blepharospasm. Physicians have utilized BOTOX® Cosmetic for years as a cosmetic treatment to correct visible signs of stress and aging.
How does BOTOX® Cosmetic work?
The contractions and movements of the facial muscles are controlled by signals from the brain. BOTOX® Cosmetic simply prevents the muscle from allowing responses to these messages. As a result, the muscle relaxes and the overlying skin remains unwrinkled and smooth.
What is treatment like?
With a very fine needle, BOTOX® Cosmetic is injected into the specific muscle that is contracting and causing the lines and wrinkles on the face. Treatment is effective, safe, and takes approximately 10 minutes. The pain is a minimal "pin prick" and no anesthetic is required. Immediately following treatment, you may resume regular activities!
How long does a BOTOX® Cosmetic treatment last?
The effects usually last 3 to 4 months, and fade away gradually. Following several treatments, the results may last 4 to 8 months or longer. BOTOX® Cosmetic offers extended relief over the course of long-term treatment.
Are there any possible side effects?
Side effects of BOTOX® Cosmetic, if any, are usually mild and temporary. Botulinum toxins contain proteins, which in some circumstances may be naturally safeguarded against by the body's ability to produce antibodies. If antibodies are formed, the therapy will generate a lesser response. Temporary bruising is sometimes experienced, though this symptom resolves itself within 2 to 3 days. In rare cases, there can be a slight drooping of an eyelid or asymmetry of expression. If this should happen, please call or come in for a follow up consultation.
What type of results will I see?
Typically, the effect of BOTOX® Cosmetic is visible within 3 days. Maximum benefits are reached between 10 to 14 days. Once the muscle becomes dormant and the skin softens, you will have a more relaxed and youthful appearance. BOTOX® Cosmetic treatments are not a substitute for the results achieved with a facelift. The optimum appearance may be achieved with BOTOX® Cosmetic therapy in conjunction with a facelift, laser resurfacing, and skin rejuvenation.
What are the other uses of BOTOX® Cosmetic?
Botox is also FDA approved for the treatment of Hyperhydrosis. Hyperhydrosis is the medical term for excessive sweating. Now the treatment of excessive sweating of the underarms is just an office visit away. The treatment takes approximately 45 minutes and begins taking effect within 2 weeks. Results tend to last 6 to 9 months. Now there is no more worrying about underarm sweat marks.
Facial lines and wrinkles are caused by a gradual breakdown of the body's collagen and the elastin fibers in the skin. No one is immune from experiencing this normal aging process. Squinting, frowning and smiling also inflict stress on the underlying collagen in the skin and accelerate the formation of these furrows. Until recently, injectable collagen was the most widely used available cosmetic filler to improve the appearance of these lines.
Restylane® is long lasting cosmetic filler that provides dramatic results for improving the appearance of facial lines, wrinkles, and folds.
This is a non-surgical solution to soften facial lines and wrinkles, restore volume and fullness to the skin, plump up lips, and fill in scars. Restylane® injected into the lips can give back fullness to lips that have receded. The cosmetic results are visible immediately, bestowing you with a more youthful and invigorated look.
What is the treatment like?
Restylane® is injected in small amounts under your skin to fill creases, lines, wrinkles, or folds. It is also injected around the lip area to create volume, resulting in a more youthful appearance. A skin test is not necessary prior to treatment, so treatment can be performed at any time. In order to optimize your comfort, the treatment area may be anesthetized with a topical cream or anesthetic block. Treatment results are immediately evident.
How long do the results last?
Depending on many factors, such as your lifestyle, age, and skin structure, your results may last as long as six months to a year or more. You may require a touch up treatment 2 to 4 weeks after the first treatment to achieve your desired result. Treatment to enhance the lips is reported to last much longer than treatment using standard collagen filler. When the effect of the treatment begins to diminish, you can replenish the area as needed.
What are the benefits of Restylane®?
- Immediately you will discern a smoothing of the wrinkles and folds.
- Restylane® will impart lift and new firmness to your skin.
- With lip enhancement, the results will be noticeably fuller and more contoured lips.
- It is not necessary for you to be tested for skin sensitivity.
- The cosmetic results are visible immediately, bestowing you with a more youthful and invigorated look.
- When the effect of the treatment begins to diminish, you can replenish the area as needed.
Restylane® vs. Collagen
Restylane® has been demonstrated to last much longer than the standard bovine collagen injection. The occurrence of an allergic reaction is extremely rare due to the product's non-animal associated basis. Unlike injectable collagen filler that is made of bovine protein and can cause an allergic reaction in some patients, Restylane® is a natural substance, hyaluronic acid, which is a sugar molecule already present naturally in the human body. The hyaluronic acid in Restylane® is similar to that found throughout your body, which gives volume and fullness to the skin. It is both biodegradable and compatible with human hyaluronic acid. Because of this compatibility it is not necessary for you to be tested for skin sensitivity.
What can I expect following treatment?
You can resume normal activities following treatment. The most commonly reported side effect has been redness and swelling at the injection site. These effects typically resolve within a few hours or, at most, a day or two. Results are immediately evident. Lines, wrinkles and folds look softer and your skin looks smooth.
The natural aging process, along with sun damage and environmental damage, causes
collagen fibers to stretch and loosen like worn rubber bands, resulting in less elastic skin that, over time, eventually droops or sags. This condition, frequently one of the earliest signs of aging, is often overlooked because most people are unaware of the problem and the marked improvement its correction can provide. Like many people, you want to offset this course and look younger, but without the expense, pain, and recovery time of an invasive surgical procedure. There's an alternative treatment that requires no anesthesia, no scalpel, and no downtime, that is delivered quickly at a fraction of the cost. It's called Titan™ Skin Tightening.
What is Titan™ Skin Tightening?
The Titan™ ("tighten") procedure is a safe, non-surgical rejuvenation process that uses an infrared light source to tighten skin and reverse the signs of aging. The Titan™ heats the dermis to cause collagen contraction while preserving the epidermis through continuous cooling. In addition, Titan™ can stimulate long-term collagen rebuilding that leaves patients with younger, firmer looking skin.
How does it work?
The Titan™ skin tightening system from Cutera, consists of a hand-held, infrared light source and an attached cooling system that protects the skin. The infrared light penetrates the deep, inner layers of the skin, uniformly heating the existing collagen and subsequently causing it to shrink and firm up. This shrinkage promotes long-term collagen production, which lifts the targeted areas and gives the patient a smoother, more toned appearance. While the infrared light source heats the collagen, the cooling attachment continuously cools the surface skin in order to protect the skin's epidermal surface and prevent any heat-related damage.
What are the benefits?
- Treats lax skin on all areas of the body
- Stimulates collagen remodeling and growth
- Does not involve injections
- Non-surgical
- No downtime
Where can Titan™ be used?
Titan™ is appropriate for any area of the face, neck, or body where there are wrinkles or mild sagging caused by loose skin, such as the brow region, cheeks, jowls, neck, abdomen, thighs, back of arms, elbows, and knees.
Are there side effects?
Immediately following the treatment, you may notice some redness and mild swelling. Both should dissipate within a few hours. Titan™ is safe for all skin types and all body types. No anesthesia is required for this virtually painless procedure.
Titan™ vs. other laser treatments Titan™ skin technology, which uses carefully modulated, infrared light to improve skin quality, is safer and more effective than traditional non-surgical skin rejuvenating treatments. Other heat treatments use radio frequencies, which can burn the skin and may require a significant recovery period. Unlike other forms of heat treatment, Titan™ skin technology offers patients an effective alternative to surgery with minimal side effects and virtually
no recovery time. Most patients resume normal activities immediately following the procedure.
What does treatment involve?
Forget having to clear your calendar-Titan™ truly can be a "lunchtime" procedure. It takes anywhere from ten minutes to one hour depending on the size of the area being treated. Following a brief initial evaluation, a topical numbing cream is gently spread on the area to be treated to facilitate the movement of the treatment head. The treatment head can cover an area about the size of a nickel. The actual treatment occurs in six second cycles and feels like an initial cooling then a short heating cycle followed by a cooling phase. The brow, lower face, and neck can usually be treated in an hour.
How many treatments will I need?
After just one treatment you will notice firmer, tauter skin in the treated area. Multiple
treatments may be needed based on your skin's laxity, the area to be treated, and your desired results. Patients can expect visible improvement within the first three weeks after treatment. After three to six months, those who have undergone the procedure find that they have achieved a result that is similar to and often more natural looking than a face lift. Treatment is undertaken and patients immediately return to their normal activities.
