If you stop BOTOX treatments after many years of regular injections, the only effect will be that your wrinkles will return, albeit a bit more slowly than if you had not been using BOTOX. It's true: Even after you stop, you will still look younger than you would have if you had never been injected.
Will it cause you to look older? From a medical point of view, once the effects of Botox wear off, your face will NOT look older. Actually the opposite happens with certainty. Botox injections help you get rid of some of the unwanted wrinkles around the eyes, forehead, chin etc….
When you stop using Botox, your muscles will eventually start working as they did before you used the treatment. However, your muscles or your skin do not make up for lost time by accelerating the aging process.
However, since Botox has weakened these muscles, they have not had years to get stronger and ultimately deeper in appearance. You would expect your skin just to return to its original state and the wrinkles would slowly reappear. So in a nutshell, it would be no better or no worse than when you first had Botox.
Botox is temporary, lasting about four to six months. If you like the results, you may decide to continue with several treatments a year.
When wrinkles begin to appear
When fillers become overused, the minimally invasive procedures that once worked stop producing results. As a result, patients may start to see heavy wrinkles in the form of laugh lines, marionette lines, and other wrinkles around the face.
There are no long-term or life-threatening adverse effects related to botulinum toxin treatment for any cosmetic indications. Moreover, the risk of possible complications can be reduced by means of a thorough analysis of the patient's medical history and the use of the appropriate dose and technique for the injection.
When people see lines forming after BOTOX wears off, they assume treatment made their wrinkles worse. Actually, your face simply returns back to its natural state. No new wrinkles or lines are ever caused by these injections.
Once Botox® wears off, wrinkles begin to reappear and do not become worse after the treatment. However, since the patient has become used to smoother skin and a youthful appearance, it might come as a shock when the Botox® wears off.
Over time, repeated injections of Botox® to a particular area in the body can also cause permanent paralysis of the muscle. This is by far one of the most important and dangerous side effects of using Botox® injections. The toxins can spread into the surrounding tissues and this can prove to be fatal.
There is no definite age when you should start BOTOX®—it's more about the state of your skin, and everyone's timeline is different. For wrinkle treatments, it's best to start when you notice forehead lines, frown lines, or crow's feet even when your expression is neutral.
Your face should look naturally smoother and more youthful. Since Botox actually prevents your muscles from contracting, it is impossible for them to worsen your dynamic wrinkles, or those caused by aging or sun damage.
“When an area of the face is frozen with absolutely no wrinkles, you can assume the person has had a date with a needle.” "When you look at a photo and see an area of the face that is extremely smooth and shiny," Rusher says, "that can be an indicator that the person may have had Botox."
The results from Botox last anywhere between 2-6 months; the average result lasts about 3-4 months. Why does Botox eventually stop working? Your body makes new neurotransmitters all the time, so the “blocking” effect of Botox gradually wears off as these chemicals start circulating in your body again.
"If you do too much Botox on your forehead for many, many years, the muscles will get weaker and flatter," cautions Wexler, adding that the skin can also appear thinner and looser. Moreover, as your muscles become weaker, they can start to recruit surrounding muscles when you make facial expressions.
When someone is receiving too much treatment with anti-wrinkle injections, the skin can become extremely smooth and the light bounces off in a uniform way. So, the skin appears shiny, which is why it can look 'frozen'.
In general, the effects of BOTOX last about 3 – 6 months, with the average results beginning to wear off after about four months. As with any treatment, of course, the longevity of the results will vary from patient to patient. Men typically require BOTOX injections more often than women, for example.
Compared to Botox, dermal fillers are just as effective. More importantly, the results last longer. However, the duration of the effects of dermal fillers still varies mostly on the type of filler. Some may last as long as Botox, while other types of fillers can last for more than a year.
How often should you get Botox treatments? While most patients are thrilled with their youthful look, the treatment is only effective for about 12 weeks on average. However, research has suggested that after two years of treatment, results may last with less frequent injections.
If you want to prevent the earliest fine lines from becoming full-blown wrinkles, preventative Botox can be the solution. Botox is approved for patients who are 18 years and older and most experts agree that patients in their mid to late 20s and early 30s are at a good age for preventative Botox treatment.
Botox is the brand name to the cosmetic treatment but the active ingredient in the injections is botulinum toxin. The toxin is produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum and it is staggeringly toxic. It is seven million times more toxic than cobra venom.
People who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or have a neurological disease shouldn't use Botox. Because Botox doesn't work for all wrinkles, check with a doctor first.
The dermal fillers mentioned are not permanent, and breakdown in the skin over time. “Since the results are only temporary you can expect your pre-treatment wrinkles to re-appear after the effects of the fillers resolve,” explains Dr. Hanson.
“Pillow face” is a direct play on the puffy, unattractive result of using too much facial filler or transferred fat. Another term often used to describe this overfilled look is “chipmunky.”
Filler fatigue is a term associated with the repeated use of filler injections over an extended period. With time, patients feel the filler is no longer giving them the results they had previously.