BOTOX AND ITS EFFECT "HEALTHY GLOW"

Authorized in France since 2003, Botox or Botulinum toxin is known to prevent aging facial. If physicians prefer to speak of effect "healthy looking" temporary, the fact remains that the injections attenuate wrinkles. This product also has many other neuromuscular indications.

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Botulinum toxin causes a relaxation of the treated muscle. This effect lasts three to four months on average. Side of the mechanism, it acts by blocking the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which prevents the transmission of nervous information. Consequently, the muscle relaxes . Thus, the botulinum toxin may combat excessive muscle contractions, wrinkles and involved in the origin of certain neuromuscular diseases. Its purely cosmetic indication (anti-wrinkle) is the latest. If the studies began in the 1990s, not until February 2003 that the Ministry of Health has issued an authorization on the market for the treatment of some wrinkles. However, only doctors who specialize in plastic surgery, reconstructive and aesthetic dermatology, facial surgery and ophthalmology, are entitled to inject botulinum toxin, provided they have received specific training.

Modulation of aesthetic face and neck

In addition to relax a muscle and therefore the skin surface, injections of the drug also affect the hydration and smooth the skin, giving an effect of "good looks". But by altering the balance between the levator and depressor muscles of the face, it is also possible to modify slightly a face (eyebrows too high, too low corner of mouth, nostrils volume?).

In practice

For a long-term, it is necessary to repeat injections, because the effect lasts only 4-6 months. As a precaution, the minimum period between two sessions of injections is three months. Micro-injections can cause side effects, rare and transient, like the collapse of an eyelid or double vision, reflecting impairment of neighboring muscles. No injection in pregnant women or nursing mothers, people suffering from neuromuscular disorders like myasthenia gravis (sagging muscles), under treatment Nivaquine (against malaria) or according to certain antibiotics.

Strabismus and other neuromuscular disorders

It all started with strabismus. Injected into the oculomotor muscle, botulinum toxin may restore the position of the eye and thus binocular vision. Today, the most common indications relate dystonia and spasticity . Among dystonias include blepharospasm (involuntary and inappropriate contractions of certain muscles of the eyelids), cervical dystonia (abnormal positioning of the head accompanied by violent muscle spasms and painful), the writer's cramp (not embarrassing disorder that writing) or the musician, oro-mandibular dystonia (slurred speech and chewing) and laryngeal (muscle disorder of the vocal cords) and hemifacial spasm (involuntary contractions of small muscles innervated by the facial nerve). As for spasticity, there is an excess of muscle tone that occur after brain injury (difficult childbirth, stroke, trauma?). Note that recently, patients suffering from hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating) can benefit from injections of botulinum toxin. Conducted under the armpits, they block the release of acetylcholine from nerve fibers responsible for stimulating the sweat glands. This treatment can prevent a possible surgery.