There are many popular aesthetic treatments for wrinkles; Botox® injections being one of the most popularly known treatments.
Botox® is the brand name of the neurotoxin Botulinum Toxin produced by Allergan pharmaceuticals. We tend to refer to all treatments with a muscle relaxant as Botox® treatment, just as we might refer to vacuuming as hoovering, even if we do not use a Hoover brand.
There are several brands of botulinum toxin that are used to temporarily remove wrinkles by relaxing the muscles. The first to the market was the brand Botox®. Its use in medicine was first described in the late 1970’s for relaxing squints and since then many uses for Botox® have been found.
In Cosmetic, Botulinum Toxin was first used to treat glabella frown lines in 1992 and subsequently received FDA approval for this treatment in 2002, so it has now been many years since muscle relaxing injections were used to treat the frown lines!! More recently FDA approval has been given for the treatment of migraines in 2010 and then forehead lines and crow’s feet.
Since the introduction of Botox® as the brand of Botulinum toxin, several brands have been introduced. These include Vistalbel, Azzulure, Bocouture, Xeomin, Dysport. There are subtle differences between some of these brands but they all work by being a muscle relaxant.
Bocouture is the brand produced by Merz Pharma. It is the first to receive FDA approval for all 3 areas of treatment with muscle relaxant. It is also the purest, as it is the only toxin that has no complexing proteins, thereby theoretically, reduces the risk of developing antibodies that could result in the treatment being less effective.
The dose of injection can be finely tuned, so as to allow a refreshed look with movement still but some people may prefer to have no movement at all.
At St. Michaels Clinic, we have been providing Botox® and other toxin injections for wrinkle reduction since the mid 1990s.
Find out more about wrinkle treatments using Botulinum Toxin injections, together with how it works, what side effects to expect and costs.
