Botox: Poison-turned-antiaging drug
Botulinum toxin (Botox) is a widely known term not only in the medical community but the general public as well. It is a potent tool that has revolutionized the practice of aesthetic medicine. Botox was notoriously labeled before as a toxin that causes food poisoning and could be a potential biological weapon, but now, it is considered a fountain of youth potion.
In fact, it has put many surgical procedures on hold, producing excellent results vis-a-vis that of the scalpel in an appropriate subject.
Below are some of the uses of Botox.
Cosmetic indications:
• Sculpts the facial, leg muscles. In areas with bulges secondary to prominent muscles like the jaw area (pangahan due to masseter muscles), those with large leg muscles, gastrocnemius muscle).
• Facelift. That is, adding the illusion of volume in strategic areas.
• Smoothens skin. Improves skin texture, minimizes large pores, oiliness, laxity, and other changes which are not attainable through blade power.
• Shapes eyebrows. Lifts the eyebrows to enlarge one’s eyes or depresses the eyebrows to avoid the startled look.
• Noselift.
• Achieves fuller lips.
• Turns out the corners of the mouth.
• Removes fine lines. Like crow’s-feet, glabellar lines (the number 11 in between eyebrows), horizontal forehead lines, nasolabial folds, smoker’s lines (lines around lips). This should be done not too aggressively (that is to the point of paralyzing the muscle that no movement is possible after treatment). The reason for this is that the muscles that you paralyze completely may atrophy permanently with time and they in turn become nonfunctional and could possibly cause more sagging later on and problems with movement.
• Minimizes baggy eyes due to hypertrophic eyelid muscles.
• Narrows flaring nostrils.
• Smoothens a bedimpled chin; reduces the golf ball chin.
• Lightens facial scars.
• Relaxes neck bands or lines; softens the vertical bands in the neck.
• Smoothens the chest skin.
• Lifts the breast (for those whose breasts just need firming up).
• Hair loss. Injections appear to improve the tissue environment surrounding the hair follicles by reducing scalp tension and improving blood flow.
In the aesthetic field, Botox is now an option for many of our patients. For those with jitters every time they hear the word surgery or anesthesia, for those patients who do not have the luxury of a lengthy downtime and for sweaty patients who do not have any other better option, this poison-turned-medicine is the answer.
Botox must and only be used by experienced physicians to avoid unwanted results or side effects because it is a drug not without risks. Unskilled users are often the ones responsible for giving this powerful treatment a bad name and this could ruin the value of this wonder drug.
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