There's a common misconception that Botox makes you look older when it wears off. On the contrary, regular Botox treatments make you look younger even after the neurotoxin wears off.
When people see lines forming after BOTOX wears off, they assume treatment made their wrinkles worse. Actually, your face simply returns back to its natural state. No new wrinkles or lines are ever caused by these injections.
Botox can't affect your facial muscles permanently. Your natural regenerative properties will take over and those lines and wrinkles will start to appear again over time.
If you use Botox for ten or more years, your skin will appear brighter and smoother with fewer wrinkles. Even after stopping Botox injections after years of use, you'll still notice fewer wrinkles between your eyes or on your forehead, which means you'll continue to age gracefully.
One of the aspects that patients enjoy most about BOTOX therapy is its long-lasting results. In general, the effects of BOTOX last about 3 – 6 months, with the average results beginning to wear off after about four months.
As such, the gradual dissipation of Botox leads to a reemergence of facial wrinkles, such as the forehead lines, frown lines between the eyebrows, and the crow's feet around the eyes. However, you don't look older than before — on the contrary, you might even look younger.
“Your skin will still look younger, smoother with softer wrinkles as the muscle itself will have weakened over time.” She continued, “You will still look much younger than you would have if you hadn't gotten injected, but you will be at risk of getting wrinkles again as the effect of Botox wears off in 3 to 6 months.”
As top dermatologist David Colbert, M.D. is quick to note, however, too much Botox and filler distorts the face and as a result will make you appear older.
After the age of 35, it may be too late to benefit from the preventive capacity of Botox®, especially if you have a very expressive face or fair skin, are genetically predisposed, or have unhealthy lifestyle habits such as using tan beds, overexposing yourself in the sun, or smoking.
Again, not typical, but Wexler says that with the skin thinning, some patients notice "a visible waviness of the skin overlying the muscles treated," as well as discoloration. "On expression, the forehead may even appear like hills and valleys," she says.
People of any age can get treatment with Botox, and it is regularly used on people between the ages of 25 and 50 particularly. No matter how old or young you are, however, this treatment can relax the look of wrinkles and even stop them from forming in the first place.
There are a number of reasons and advantages for this. First off, if you were happy with your original result, the best way to maintain that result is to re-treat the area just before your Botox wears off.
While BOTOX is most known for smoothing out wrinkles and creases, it can also make small adjustments to your jawline. BOTOX can narrow your face and make it appear thinner. It works by temporarily freezing the masseter muscle, so it eventually shrinks down in size.
Will Exercising Long Term Effect Botox? While exercising immediately after having Botox treatments is not recommended, many people think that exercising frequently while you have Botox will cause it to wear off. This couldn't be further from the truth! There is no correlation between exercise and Botox longevity.
Smoking, vaping, and anything with nicotine causes your collagen to break down, damages your skin cells, and reduces the effectiveness of your Botox injections.
If you stop BOTOX treatments after many years of regular injections, the only effect will be that your wrinkles will return, albeit a bit more slowly than if you had not been using BOTOX. It's true: Even after you stop, you will still look younger than you would have if you had never been injected.
The average age for people to receive their first BOTOX treatment is, generally, at some point in their 30s. Most women, and some men, begin to notice a few fine lines or wrinkles around their eyes or forehead area at this age.
“When an area of the face is frozen with absolutely no wrinkles, you can assume the person has had a date with a needle.” "When you look at a photo and see an area of the face that is extremely smooth and shiny," Rusher says, "that can be an indicator that the person may have had Botox."
After three to six months, your body starts producing new neurotransmitters that override the botulinum toxin, allowing your muscles to contract and move around again. It's around this time that your dermatologist would recommend that you get another dose of Botox.
Having heavy Botox from a young age is likely to make you look older over time. An early start and heavy-handed approach can leave a face looking frozen and over-treated.
Puffy, bulging cheeks
But if it's done by a less-than-credible injector, you can get the dreaded “pillow face.” If too much filler is put into the cheeks, or it's injected into the wrong area, the cheeks can bulge and essentially give you chipmunk cheeks.
Botox Reduces Facial Lines
By relaxing the muscles that cause wrinkles, you can reduce or eliminate them. Botox can treat facial lines all over your face. These include your crow's feet, smile lines, and even neckbands. With fewer facial lines, your skin becomes smoother and more youthful-looking.
In general, most people should have Botox injections once every four months is usually an ideal frequency for this treatment. But because everybody has a different body, you may need your injections more or less frequently.