Botox anti-wrinkle injections: how do they work?

Botulinum toxin, a substance produced in nature by the bacterium Clostridium Botulinum, temporarily interrupts the transmission of nerve impulses that determine the contraction of the mimic muscles. Therefore, facial wrinkles caused by excessive contracture of the facial mimic muscles will be smoothed out. It is injected into the individual muscles whose activity is to be modulated in order to attenuate skin wrinkles. The direct action of botulinum toxin is not to correct the volume of the wrinkle with a filler, but to cause a blockade of muscle contraction that leads, therefore, to the subsequent relaxation of the skin. It interacts with the nerve endings of the muscle bundles and reduces their ability to contract. Therefore, it is injected into the right muscles to determine a blockage of the movement of those anatomical parts. This blockage is usually prolonged for 4-6 months, after this period the treatment should be repeated.

Botulinum: effects

Botulinum cannot resolve very deep wrinkles or those caused by cutenaeo aging in general. The mechanism of action is explained by blocking the release of acetylcholine at the junction between the nerve that transmits the contraction stimulus to the muscle and the muscle that performs the contraction. So the effect obtained is that of selective and reversible weakening of the muscles on which the toxin is injected, at very small doses. This effect becomes evident not immediately but after 2-7 days after treatment and remains for about 4-5 months and then decreases. Immediate exposure to the sun is not recommended, to be avoided for about 10 days, avoid massages to the face in the first days following treatment with consequent vasodilatation and possible migration of the product.

Indications:

– correction of horizontal wrinkles in the frontal site, treatment of glabellar wrinkles, vertical, located at the root of the nose;
– correction of periocular wrinkles commonly known as “crow’s feet”.

The wide use in aesthetic medicine is also justified by the lack of significant side effects (no serious or fatal event in twenty years of use) and the reversibility of the therapeutic action.

Contraindications:

– neurological diseases such as myasthenia gravis, S.L.A., sclerosis multipa, autoimmune myasthenic syndrome;
– pregnancy and lactation;
– antibiotic therapy;
– psychic alterations