Since the ‘80s, Botox has emerged as one of the most talked-about skin procedures throughout the world. The treatment has been lauded for its ability to reduce signs of aging like wrinkles, worry lines, smile lines, crow’s feet, and more. These signs of photo-aging reflect the fragility of the aging skin and its inability to generate healthy collagen and connective tissue. Botox aims to reduce the appearance of these signs, making you look years younger with a procedure that barely lasts a few minutes.
Read on as we take a closer look at Botox and how it can reverse aging on your skin.
What is Botox?
Botox is a cosmetic procedure that involves the injection of Botulinum toxin into the skin and underlying facial muscles. This toxin goes into the muscle fibers and acts on the junction between the nerves of your face and the muscles, resulting in their relaxation by blocking nerve conduction. Relaxing your face is an important goal of the procedure because it allows your wrinkles to soften and fade. The toxin tends to have an effect on the facial muscles for up to 90 days, after which a repeat treatment might be needed.
Botox and Aging
While botox is ideal to reduce visible wrinkles and creases on the skin, there has been much debate within the medical community about its longevity and permanent effects on the skin. Botox was previously believed to not have permanent effects, a long-held belief that is being challenged by a few studies that emphasize how botox impacts the skin long term.
According to the latest studies, botox might make the skin more elastic and healthier. Increased skin elasticity can help prevent the formation of wrinkles by stimulating collagen growth. Collagen is a type of connective tissue found in the skin, a lack of which is associated with the formation of deeper and more numerous wrinkles. If these results are found to be significant, they could forever alter the way we approach photo-aging and open new avenues for lasting skin rejuvenation procedures that employ botox.
Retraining Your Face
One of the key benefits that might contribute to a decrease in the formation of facial wrinkles is how the toxin retrains your facial muscles. When their contraction is inhibited for a prolonged period, you subconsciously become more aware of your facial movements. Once the toxin wears off, you are more likely to avoid making facial expressions that will contribute to skin wrinkling.
Retraining your face comes with the added benefit of requiring less botox for future treatments for the maintenance of preferred results. Once your muscles get trained to not move as frequently, you can expect to need less botox in the future to keep your skin looking healthy and young. As a result, you will get fewer wrinkles as you age, thereby delaying the process of photo-aging.
Conclusion
Botox is one of the most popular skin treatments in the world. The procedure significantly reduces the appearance of visible wrinkles, helps you look youthful by making your skin more elastic, and might make it less wrinkle-prone by helping you retrain your facial muscles. With a good Botox dermatologist, the procedure will be relatively inexpensive and well-tolerated by a majority of the population.