If you are tired of people telling you that you look tired, you may be a prime candidate for a browlift. But there is no real need for invasive surgery, when Botox can do the trick. Here, Dr. Todd Minars of Minars Dermatology in Hollywood, Florida, talks about why an injectable browlift is becoming so popular.
Certain muscles in your brow lift it; other muscles bring it down. So if you can relax the muscles that pull it down, you allow the lifters to act unopposed.
Botox relaxes muscles. And so what happens with a Botox browlift is that we inject the Botox in the frown line between the brows, also injecting a little bit at the tail end of both eyebrows. And by doing so, we are relaxing all those depressor muscles, those muscles putting the brow down.
And the result is that you get a few millimeters of a lift, which is all you can get from surgery as well — just a few millimeters. So to be able to get the same results you would get with invasive surgery with just a few injections of Botox is pretty amazing. It will last probably four to six months, which is why I tell my patients that they have to do it two to three times a year to maintain the look.
Frowning Pulls the Brow Down
If you look in a mirror, you can see how frowning can pull the brown down. I have my patients look in the mirror to see what they look like before and after. It is easy to see the difference. And they don’t need to worry about the effect of repeated Botox, either. After Botox, their brows are probably better as the brow is then used to staying up.
Those muscles that make you frown from lack of use might eventually atrophy a bit if you have Botox regularly, which is probably why it lasts longer the more you do it. Ultimately, you are better off in most cases doing it often. The muscles that you don’t want to move are now weaker, although they will eventually recover.
Don’t Let Skin Relax
The second reason for stopping up Botox regularly is that it is like ironing your pants every day. If you iron them every day, you eventually have a sharp crease. If you stop ironing, the crease eventually relaxes. It is the same thing with the skin. Eventually, the longer you stop Botox, the more the skin has the chance to relax.
The flipside is that once in a while, we see people recruit other muscles that were not there before when they use Botox a lot. That is the only negative consequence I have ever seen following long-term use of Botox. Other muscles start to strengthen, which can counteract what we have been doing.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.
