The uses of botox seem to be increasing all the time despite all the hype over its use; before you use this substance it could be worth dispelling a few myths that are attached. Before this can be done we need to go back a little in time to when this was originally discovered. The substance is derived from Botulinum toxin, discovered nearly five decades ago; It used originally for disorders of the brain.
A few decades later after much research, the FDA granted permission for it to be used medically and the first patients to make use of the drug were those with eye conditions; patients suffering with uncontrollable blinking and crossed eyes were given this and sometimes those who suffered with wrinkles as well. In the year 2000 it was approved to treat cervical dystonia; this eases the pain from serious contractions in the shoulders and neck, but it was also given the ok to be used on another more unusual eye condition. In all the research that was going on with botox, doctors had found that it was effective at reducing frown lines around the eyebrow area; following this the FDA finally recognized the implications and agreed its commercial use in 2002.
You see botox is a neuro toxin, meaning it paralyses the muscles it is injected into and makes them relax; eventually, over a period of several months, given enough of these injections, the frown lines start to soften. In many cases the lines eventually disappear completely but it can also be injected into the muscles of the face that cause crows feet, forehead lines and frown lines. The injections are a purified and watered down version of the sometimes fatal Botulinum poison; if it were not for the purification process this treatment could make us very sick.
This popularity is due to the fact that we all have wrinkles and lines (increasing with age) when we smile, laugh and make other facial movements which are the result of muscles in the face. The wonderful thing too many people is the treatment can help reduce and often eliminate the signs of aging that have taken years to appear; whilst many manufacturers have tried to produce creams that eliminate these wrinkles and creases (unsuccessfully), this treatment can at least for a short period. Botox paralyzes the facial muscles which means everyday expressions we use in communication and take for granted cannot be made; because facial movement is reduced, it can give a doll like appearance to the user.
Depending on the amount of treatments, a person can look fairly normal but their facial gestures will be restricted so that the creases and lines do not show. For some people the obvious downside to this treatment is the cost; this is why it has been coined as something only celebrities have performed because the least expensive injection can still cost upwards of 300 dollars to in excess of 1,000 dollars. There is always some concern about new treatments and botox is no exception with many people worried about the long term effects of injections, but even so this has not stopped its popularity.
