How I–a Regular Brooklyn Mom–Researched Botox and Restylane Before Taking the Plunge

By a regular Cobble Hill mom (who shall remain nameless)

Before I could bring myself to give Botox and facial fillers a try, there were two things I had to do. The first was to make sure this stuff would not kill me or make me sick.

After doing my due diligence on researching facial fillers, such as Restylane and Juvederm, I concluded that there was zero to be concerned about. Both fillers are made of hyaluronic acid, a naturally occurring substance in all mammals, particularly around the eyes and in the joints. No warnings, no reported cases of complications—and its effectiveness in filling in the deep grooves around the mouth and “removing” the bags under the eyes was beyond obvious. So, no worries.

Botox, however, presented another story. Anyone who has ever heard of what’s in Botox has to wonder: Is injecting botulinum toxin—the same bacteria that causes food poisoning botulism—really an okay thing to do? No matter how much a person hates her permanent scowl lines, she wants to know if there are any real side effects, short- or long-term, that are deal-breakers.

There were real reasons to think that there might be in 2009, when an Italian study on lab rats showed that the botulinum toxin could travel from an injection site to the brain. Oh, that’s great, I thought as I read through the study. That’s just what I need: to have my case of “Mommy Brain”–a condition well-known to mothers everywhere, characterized by the staggering inability to remember anything other than what is going on in the moment–exacerbated by botulinum toxin poisoning.

It turned out, however, that such cases resulted from off-label uses of botulinum toxin (meaning, not approved by the Federal Drug Administration), such as pain and severe spasms in the limbs of children with cerebral palsy and migraine headaches—and that in such cases, the toxin had been injected into the bloodstream.

Injected in the proper dosage by a board certified, experienced cosmetic surgeon, botulinum toxin is never injected into the bloodstream, but into specific muscles. According to the FDA, which issued warnings about off-label uses of botulinum toxin, there was “no definitive serious adverse event reports of distant spread of toxin effect have been associated with dermatologic use of Botox/Botox Cosmetic at approved doses.”

The real issues with possible dangers of botulinum toxin injections for wrinkle control clearly emerged when patients went to unlicensed practitioners for them. First, only an experienced cosmetic surgeon knows beyond a shadow of a doubt how to properly inject it. Second, botulinum toxin type A–the kind used in Botox Cosmetic–must be carefully stored and handled. There are extremely strict regulations surrounding the temperature in Botox storage, expiration dates, and the use of opened vials–regulations which may not be observed by unethical (or simply uninformed) operations.

So, now I knew two things. One, I was definitely going to do it. Two, I was definitely not going to do it with anyone other than a board-certified cosmetic surgeon whom I trusted absolutely—and who was not going to make my face look like a frozen mask. That left me with only one question: who?

Take Advantage of Our Fall “Face” Special: Treat Yourself to a Fresh Look!

Tags: affordable botox, board certified, botox, Brooklyn, cosmetic surgeon, cosmetic surgery, facial fillers, injectable, Juvederm, restylane

This entry was posted on Monday, October 11th, 2010 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Fillers, New/Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.