Botox

The treatment options I recommend for crow's feet include Botox which softens the muscles that form crow's feet. I also recommend a good eye serum, such as IS Clinical's eye serum, to hydrate the skin around the eyes. If the crow's feet are more prominent, I may recommend a laser resurfacing with fractionated CO2 laser or chemical peel with 35 percent TCA or 88 percent phenol. Interestingly, there are trials going on now for a botulinum toxin gel. The initial trials show some promise using this product for the treatment of crow's feet; however, studies need to be performed to determine its effect compared with Botox.

Botox is an excellent treatment option to minimize the appearance of lines that form from muscle movement in the forehead and around the eyes. Specifically, I like to use Botox to smoothen the area of the forehead, the frowning region, and the lines around the sides of the eye commonly known as crow’s feet. Botox takes approximately four to seven days to show effect. I like to use something termed a microinjection technique where I inject very small amounts of Botox in very specific areas to provide a very natural result.

It sounds as if your injections of Botox were placed to effectively treat the middle aspect of the forehead, but not the sides of the forehead. As such, you are experiencing what appears to be un-natural movement of the forehead on the sides. While you had Botox one week ago and you may still demonstrate improvement from your injections, I would recommend a touch-up of Botox in the sides of the forehead to minimize that unnatural appearance of movement on the sides of the forehead while the middle of the forehead has no movement.

When I do Botox injections, I always have the patient raise their eyebrows and frown. I look at the specific lines and the muscle action that creates these lines. As well, I use my knowledge of anatomy as a facial plastic surgeon and my knowledge of the location of the muscles to inject small amounts of Botox throughout the distribution of the muscle to provide a very natural result.

Treatment of frown lines (some people refer to frown lines as "elevens" because the lines sometimes look like the number 11) is a common reason patients come to my office. During the consultation, I analyze the muscle action of the brows and forehead. The muscles that form frown lines are located between the eyebrows and travel along the brows. I inject small amounts of Botox in the muscles that create the frown lines. Botox acts to soften the muscle action and, therefore, minimize the appearance of the frown lines. Some people use Botox to prevent formation of the frown lines; for an example of this, please click here. However, the frown lines might be rather deep. In this instance, I recommend Botox to minimize the muscular activity that forms the lines and filler augmentation with Juvederm to minimize the appearance of the deep line. These procedures are performed at the same time. For an example of this, please click here.