When Emily F. recently turned 40 she decided it was finally time to do something about the number 11 lines that were starting to get deeper in her forehead. Actually, it was Emily’s daughter who helped her make the final decision to get a little tweak. “I started noticing that the 11’s I have here we’re always tense, and I was having headaches from it,” she says. “And then one day my sassy little seven-year-old daughter asked me why I had my angry face on, and I knew it was time to do something about it.”
Emily is not alone in her desire to smooth wrinkles and get rid of her frown lines, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ 2020 Plastic Surgery Statistics. Neurotoxin injections remain the number-one nonsurgical treatment patients ask for the most. Botox Cosmetic is the number-one selling neurotoxin and it’s known for delivering subtle, predictable results.
According to Allergan, National Botox Cosmetic Day, which falls on November 17 this year, is the brand’s busiest day of the year. To celebrate, Emily made her way to West Palm Beach, FL dermatologist Kenneth R. Beer, MD for her first treatment.
Treatment Day
Before injecting, Dr. Beer did a full assessment of Emily’s face and facial gestures such as smiling and squinting to identify areas that could use improvement with just a little bit of the neurotoxin. “With Botox, everything is reversed. If we want the brow to go up, we have to inject into the muscle that pulls it down,” he explained while pointing to her brow area above her eyes. “To treat the number 11’s that are causing you tension, I inject into the glabellar muscles, which paralyzes muscle movement and gives smoother-looking forehead. It also gets rid of that resting angry face.”
Dr. Beer injected 25 units into her glabellar lines, along her forehead and in her crow’s feet to smooth the fine lines that had become prominent when she smiled.
Immediately After Treatment
Just 30 minutes after her injections, Emily felt great and said the one thing she was concerned about, pain, was a nonissue. “It really wasn’t that bad. I felt a couple of pinches but nothing more,” she said. “It was a zero out of 10 on the pain scale, I really wouldn’t call it pain at all.”
“It can take two to four days before the weakening of the muscle begins,” explained Dr. Beer. For the full effect, it can take about a week to 10 days to see the final results. To track her progress, Emily documented her results every day to see when her forehead, glabeller muscles and muscles around the eyes would stop the wrinkling, crow’s feet and number 11’s from appearing.
Days 1-3
After the first day, Emily says she started to feel the muscles in her forehead starting to relax. “I still have some movement, but it’s a lot more stiff. I can’t wait to see what it’s like as each day progresses.”
The morning after Day 3, Emily reports there was, “barely any movement left.”
Days 4-7
As early as Day 4, Emily notes how the neurotoxin injections were helping her look and feel good: “My tension is gone and I can already see a softer look in my forehead and brow.”
The Final Result
“No more lines!” Just one week out from her treatment, Emily says her end result has cured her from the resting angry face her daughter noticed. “I should have done it sooner, but I’m so happy with how my results turned out. I still look just like myself, only happier and with less lines.”
