How will Botox get rid of my wrinkles?

Muscle relaxers paralyze tiny muscles to stop the expressive movements that etch in frown lines, crow's-feet, neck bands, and brow furrows.

• What Gets Injected: Botulinum toxin A or B.

• Brand Names: Botox Cosmetic, Reloxin (Dysport), Myobloc.

• Cost: About $400 per area, but prices vary considerably.

• Lasting Power: May take a week or so to take full effect. Lasts 3 to 6 months; less and less needed over time to maintain smoothing effect.

Extra Tips: Have repeat maintenance injections before benefit disappears to maintain skin smoothness. Myobloc (Botulinum B) is not often used for cosmetic reasons.

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Wrinkles look their worst when you are smiling or squinting. If you want to diminish wrinkles without living an expressionless existence, Botox injections provide a relatively easy, FDA approved solution as long you do not mind needles. The injections essentially relax the muscles around the corners of your eyes, so you can laugh without revealing your wrinkles.

Botox is a highly diluted and purified form of botulism toxin (the bacteria that causes food poisoning). When injected into the skin, Botox temporarily reduces the ability of the underlying muscles to contract and crease the skin.

Muscles of the face are used for facial expression and for other important functions such as blinking, chewing and moving the lips to pronounce sounds. Botox is especially useful in softening the movement of the muscles that create facial expression. However, care has to be taken not to affect the other important actions of those muscles. When administered correctly Botox can create a soft, natural face that is more true to the feelings and expressions you mean to convey. Specific doses of Botox are injected with a tiny needle into the muscle that is causing the wrinkle. Over the next five to seven days, the Botox effect begins. The Botox blocks nerve impulses of the muscle, which blocks the ability of the muscle to move. This causes the wrinkles in the overlying skin to soften gradually and often disappear as the expression that led to the wrinkles is also softened. The effect lasts for about three to five months, with an average of about three months of a wrinkle-free face. What’s so interesting is that during the time that the Botox is working, patients can be trained not to tug at the muscles that created those extreme expressions and led to the wrinkles in the first place.