This Year You Can Turn Back Time with Botox®

It seems that anti-aging treatments are being advertised everywhere you look, but very few topical solutions provide the results you’re looking for. To truly wind back the clock, it might be time to consider minimally invasive options like Botox® injections.

At SLENT, with locations in Mandeville, Slidell, and Hammond, Louisiana, our otolaryngology specialists also offer safe, effective aesthetic services like Botox to turn back the clock on aging.

Is skin aging affecting your appearance?

To gain a broader understanding of Botox and why it works, you’ll need to know some fundamentals about your skin, the muscles that make it possible for you to show emotion, and what actually causes wrinkles. 

The skin is the largest organ in the body, spanning its entire outside surface area. It consists of a vast network of proteins, supported primarily by collagen and elastin. These two building blocks provide volume and elasticity for the skin, which is what keeps the tissue smooth and tight. 

When collagen production decreases in your mid-20s, the skin begins to lose volume; without elasticity, it begins to sag. As time wears on and sun damage takes its toll, wrinkling is bound to occur. 

Dynamic wrinkles: an overview

Every time you squint or frown, the muscles below your skin pull it in different directions. When you’re young, the skin bounces back easily. When you age, you lose that elasticity, and the tugging leads to dynamic wrinkles. Dynamic wrinkles are not always present; they appear when you tense certain muscles in your face. These can be temporarily smoothed by relaxing the muscle that creases the skin. 

Turning back time with Botox

Botox is a purified form of the toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum, commonly known for causing food poisoning. When injected locally rather than ingested, the neurotoxin can temporarily paralyze the nerves that tell the muscles to contract; without stimulation, your muscles relax, resulting in a smoother, more youthful appearance.

Injecting a neurotoxin under the skin sounds risky, but Botox injections have been performed and researched for decades, even predating the Botox brand name. Initially, botulinum toxin type A was used in the treatment of strabismus, a “turning in” of one of the eyes, so both eyes aren’t looking at the same thing.

Just as Botox can keep a lazy eye from drifting by neutralizing the muscle that’s pulling either too hard or not hard enough, it can do the same to a wrinkle, such as a frown line or crow’s foot. The result is smoother, tauter looking skin reflective of the younger you.

Botox results

Botox only prevents dynamic wrinkles; it can’t fill in wrinkles caused by lost volume, like the marionette lines or nasolabial folds around the nose and mouth. These are static wrinkles, and require dermal fillers to plump them out and reduce their visibility. 

To get a better understanding of which types of wrinkles you want reduced and whether or not Botox is right for you, schedule a consultation with the team at SLENT by calling the location closest to you or visiting the contact page for more information.