Botulinum Toxin - Botox and Others

Botox® is made from purified type – A neurotoxin produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum

It temporarily prevents the release of acetycholine from sympathetic nerve terminals. To learn in detail how botulinum toxin injections work, please click on Botulinum Toxin Treatment FAQ.

Prescription only medicine.

It should be used by trained members of the medical profession only. A face-to-face consultation with a prescribing practitioner (i.e., doctor, nurse independent prescriber, dentist or pharmacist prescriber) is required before treatment can be performed by the same person or delegated to another practitioner.

Individuals with a known hypersensitivity to any component of the formulation.

Patients who have generalised disorders of muscle activity (e.g. myasthenia gravis).

Patients where aminoglycoside antibiotics or spectinomycin are already being used or are likely to be used.

Patients who have bleeding disorders of any type.

Pregnant or lactating women.

Bruising or bleeding at the site of injection, headache, and rarely eyelid ptosis or diplopia, and brow droop.

Most clinics and practitioners charge by area of the face treated.

These areas are usually defined as crow’s feet, forehead lines, and glabellar lines (frown lines between the eyes).

Practitioners may charge from around $220 – $380 per treatment area. Our Botox is of the highest quality and costs $12 per unit.

A discounted rate is usually employed if more than one treatment is required, so that crow’s feet, forehead lines, and glabellar lines may cost $630 or less for the complete package.

Most of the literature on Botulinum Toxin, and hence the clinical evidence and statistics, are based on Botox® as this brand represents around 80% of the world’s use of Botulinum Toxin.

Because it is a prescription only medicine; it had to undergo strict clinical trials in the U.S., where it is approved for cosmetic use, in order to gain a license. Remember, the drug has been licensed in the U.S. since the late 1980s.

The graph below shows the results of a study published in 2001.

• 500 patients were injected three times in a year with Botox®.
• They were injected on days 0, 120 and 240.
• The graph shows that over 70% of the patients showed significant improvement in their glabellar frown lines (i.e. the appearance of their wrinkles when trying not to frown) 30 days after their first injections.
• This improvement continued after repeat Botox® injections at days 120 and 240.

Data taken from Carruthers, Lowe, & Menter; One year study on the safety and efficacy of Botulinum toxin in Patients with Glabellar Lines; Presented at the AAD March 2001.

On the basis of this evidence, most practitioners would now recommend an initial course of Botox® treatment every 3 or 4 months for the first year. It now appears that after this, the time between future injections may lengthen, with practitioners reporting that some patients may only need to return twice a year to maintain results.

Before and After

Before and after photographs are real patients, your results may differ.

Photographs courtesy of Dr David Eccleston at MediZen .

Botox ® is a registered trademark of Allergan Inc.