Botox and Wrinkle Reduction

  Adverse Effect of Botox

1. Droopy eye lid:

Any Botox administered around the eye has the potential to affect the muscle that opens then upper eyelid. As Botox can spread from an injection site approximately 1 inch or 2.5cm and is a paralyzing toxin, the muscle that opens then lid is technically also paralyzed, which may make it difficult to open then eyelid carefully. Poor location of the injection and excessive doses of Botox are the culprits of eyelid drooping.  (R.W. Westreich, 2008)

2. More wrinkles:

This happens because the paralyzed facial muscles force other muscles to move in an effort to recreate the facial expressions that Botox has blocked.

For example, when injected, Botox temporarily paralyzes the muscles there and its freezing effects prevent people from frowning. Since there is no muscle contraction, no wrinkles are formed. However, muscles in the upper nose, middle eyebrow and eyelid may try to recreate the expression of a scowl. Repetitions of this cause new wrinkles. (Sharon Bell, 2007)

3 Limit emotion experience:

Due to the paralysis of muscles causes by the injection of botox, facial muscles that have been injected will have less movement therefore less feedback to the brain on facial expressivity.

For example, reading negative emotional words causes contraction of the corrugator supercilii, which pulls the eyebrows down towards the centre of the face to produce vertical frown lines at the top of the nose, whereas reading positive emotional words activates the zygomaticus, which raises the corners of the mouth to produce a smile. These findings provide evidence that involuntary facial expressions can evoke emotions, and suggest that the brain mechanisms involved in experiencing emotions are also used in understanding the emotional content of language. (Mo, 2010)

4 Botox may leak into brain:

Botox might migrate from its injection site into other parts of the nervous system. In the current study, researchers injected botulinum toxin into one side of the hippocampus into the brains of rats and observed it to migrate to the other side of the brain. When the toxin was injected into the brain’s superior colliculus, which is involved in vision, it migrated into the animals’ eyes. (David Gutierrez, 2009)

5. Botox induced muscle paralysis rapidly degrades bone:

A study conducted by Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, University of Washington show that Botox can actually degrades some of the bones in body. (Sarah E.W,a David A.S, Blair A. B, Steven D, Sundar S and Ted S. G. 2006.)For more information, click here.