Botox itself is nothing new. In fact, as a beauty procedure, the treatment, which uses a ‘friendly form’ of botulism to paralyse muscles and thereby smooth out skin, has been around for well over a decade. As a treatment, Botox is now something that far from being the reserve of the rich and famous, is used by people from all walks of life who want to look youthful.
However, in the past couple of years, Botox has started to be used in a new way, on people – mostly women – who are too young to have yet seen their first wrinkles appear. This is because of the trend for ‘preventative’ Botox. Read on to find out what this means, and whether or not it is a good idea for you.
Stopping the Development of Lines
A number of factors contribute to ageing of the face, however the deepest lines tend to come from places the skin creases in regularly as you move your face to laugh, smile, frown, and make other facial expressions. Over the years, repeated muscle movement causes the skin above the muscles to develop permanent creases, which show up more when you make those expressions (which is why some wrinkles are called ‘laughter lines’). When you have lines and use Botox, the muscles are unable to move, so the expressions that show the lines don’t occur.
The thinking behind preventative Botox is, that by preventing those muscles from moving while you are young and don’t yet have any expression lines, you won’t develop the lines at all. Skin would still show other signs of ageing which Botox does not address, like a deterioration in collagen and elasticity, but those deep lines should not be able to form.
Does it Actually Work?
The theory here is sound, however the truth is that nobody really knows if it works or not, because preventative Botox has not been around long enough for its adopters to have reached an age where they would usually expect to see deep lines.
Is It Worth Trying It?
If you are someone in your twenties or early thirties who is already expecting to start using Botox later in life when the wrinkles appear, the talk about preventative Botox may be making you wonder if you should just start now and perhaps manage to prevent your wrinkles occurring at all.
Since Botox has been deemed safe for professional cosmetic use, we have to assume there is no health risk involved in starting early (as long as you choose somewhere reputable like this Cheltenham Botox treatments centre), but there is a substantial cost and time commitment given that Botox ‘wears off’ so you need to get it done every couple of months to maintain its effects.
If you feel that the cost and time is worth it to have a chance to try something that might stop you ever getting wrinkles, then why not go for a consultation? If you don’t want to spend time and money on something that hasn’t been proven to work yet, then you may be better off waiting until wrinkles appear to begin your Botox regimen (and you never know – there may be something even better out there by then!).
