Botox: is the brand name for botulinum type A that is FDA approved for a variety of medical and cosmetic uses. It is most frequently injected for overactive muscles between the eyes, in the forehead and in the crow's feet area that are creating undesirable lines and wrinkles.

Botox treatments last about three months and almost all patients return for repeat treatments. Treatments are done in the clinic by Dr. Wallace or one of the nurses trained in Botox specific injection techniques.

Botox is also used for some migraine headaches and has been used to control excess underarm sweating.


Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: What areas do you treat?

A: Botox can be used to paralyze troublesome muscles most anywhere in the body. Plastic surgeons use it most frequently to treat the frontalis muscle that gives the horizontal lines on the forehead and the corrugator-procerus muscles, which cause the vertical and sometimes horizontal lines between the eyebrows and also the muscles to the outside of the eye that gives the crow's feet appearance. Occasionally, we will use it in other areas, but these are the most common.


Q: Does it hurt?

A: Most people find the treatment to be moderately uncomfortable. Those who are extremely needle phobic will find it unpleasant, while many patients do not seem to mind much at all. We do pre-treat with an ice pack or numbing cream in the treatment area and some patients do choose to take a tranquilizer, though we usually do not recommend this.


Q: How long does it last?

A: Duration of benefit varies some from patient to patient, but in general three months can be expected.


Q: Isn't this a poison? That does not sound like a good thing to inject into your body?

A: Botox is a purified diluted derivative of a naturally occurring poison. Different sorts of natural substances have been used in all sorts of medicinal treatments for literally thousands of years. This is simply the harnessing of a natural product and using its otherwise detrimental qualities in a beneficial way. We have not observed any detrimental effects whatsoever and in large series reviewed by the FDA, there were minimal incidents of allergic reactions and so on. The good news and bad news is the effects are temporary so if you do not particularly like the appearance of things, it will, in fact, go away. We have not had that experience in so much as a single patient in all of our experience with Botox.