I had Botox injections about a week ago which have successfully made the lines in the middle of my forehead disappear. Unfortunately the sides of the forehead lines are still there and it looks really awful. Why did this happen and will it resolve on its own? Will I need to have this fixed and how?

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.