Botulinum toxin is a neurotoxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium Botulinum. We have been using it for cosmetic rejuvenation for the past 30 years due to its ability to stop the muscles it is injected into from working. I know the name “toxin” may sound off-putting. However, when compared to other methods like mesotherapy and fillers, which we use to eliminate the lines that make us look tired and aged over the years, Botox is the fastest, most effective, and least expensive option. It has no restrictions other than its limited application area. Its limitation is that, although it is effective and safe in upper face applications, it has been shown to be insufficient in lower face applications and to carry a high risk of complications. There are two conditions in which it is contraindicated, meaning it should never be performed. One is Myasthenia Gravis and the other is Eaton Lambert Syndrome. During pregnancy and breastfeeding, I do not consider it appropriate to perform Botox due to insufficient research on its transfer to breast milk and the baby, and I do not perform it.
Deep wrinkles on our face are caused by the prominence of the facial muscles we use, the thickness of our skin, loss of elasticity, and loss of fat tissue. Facial Botox is an application that is mostly performed into the muscle, targeting the facial muscles. Lines that appear during movement but are not visible when we are still are dynamic wrinkles and are caused by repetitive movement of the facial muscles. Botox is used to eliminate dynamic wrinkles on the forehead, around the eyes, and between the eyebrows. It is not an eyebrow lift or almond eye aesthetic procedure. However, the shortening of the muscles on the forehead may cause the eyebrows to lift slightly.
We should not give up our freedom to express our emotions, such as laughing, getting angry, crying, squinting our eyes in the sun… Let’s not give up on living just because we don’t want to get wrinkles. There’s no need for that anymore because we have Botox. Botox does not affect your ability to smile unless something goes wrong. It eliminates the frown lines we make when we get angry. One of my favorite questions is, “Professor, will we no longer be able to get angry?” Beautiful women of my beautiful country, do we need those two big lines between our eyebrows to get angry?
It eliminates the vertical lines that form when we raise our eyebrows. After Botox, depending on the depth and location of the lines, we may have difficulty raising our eyebrows. I have been getting Botox since I was 25, and I have never felt that I was missing any facial expressions.
So, with such an accessible, cost-effective, and definitive solution at our disposal, we can laugh freely, express our emotions without restraint, and achieve a brighter complexion by getting Botox when the time is right. The most common side effects are pain, swelling, redness, and bruising, which typically subside within a day. The procedure, which uses extremely fine needles known as “ghost needles,” takes approximately one minute. To minimize injection pain, we recommend applying ice to the area. The cooling effect of ice helps reduce bruising, which is why we suggest it.
If we want a good and safe aesthetic result, it is important to have knowledge of anatomy, so Botox should be administered by doctors. Complications usually arise from a lack of knowledge related to the application technique.