How many areas of Botox will I need?

If you’re looking to quieten lines on the forehead or around the eyes, you may be considering injections of wrinkle-relaxing toxins, and the best-known and most widely used of these is Botox. When considering Botox for the first time, it can be a little daunting when equating the cost and trying to assess how much you will need. While the right amount of Botox for you can only be determined in a professional consultation after a medical assessment and all other treatment options have been considered, this guide will provide you with a basic understanding of how Botox prices work by the area.

What is Botox?

Let’s start with the basics – Botulinum Toxin Type A is a dilute form of nerve toxin. When injected into the facial muscles, it interferes with the nerve signals that tell the muscles to contract. These effects last until the body disperses the drug, and the muscles recover their function once again – usually after three months. It doesn’t take much Botox to have a cosmetically pleasing effect of calming down the muscles, which leads to a subtle relaxation of lines and a fresher-looking face.

How much will I need?

Botox injections are commonly injected into three main sites – forehead lines, crow’s feet lines around the eyes and the vertical ’11’ frown lines between the eyebrows.

Now you may be thinking “I’d like my crow’s feet and forehead lines treating – so that’s two areas, right?” Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as that. A good practitioner would never treat the forehead without treating the frown lines as well. This is because it could lead to heaviness (brow ptosis), but the frown lines can be treated without the forehead.

So, in short, if you’d like to improve the horizontal lines across your forehead, you can expect this to be two treatment areas. If you’d also like to soften the lines around your eyes (crow’s feet), this is classed as one area if treated on its own or three areas if treated alongside the forehead and frown.

There are other more advanced treatment sites such as chin lifts and bunny lines (the lines that appear on the side of the nose when you wrinkle it), but these aren’t as commonly needed. Ultimately, the amount of Botox you require depends on the results you’d like to achieve. Some people want to get rid of the visible lines altogether, which requires more substantial treatment. But most people who opt to have Botox, just want their face to look a little softer and fresher, but still to be able to move.

A good practitioner’s work is cautious and subtle, and every treatment is personalised to suit a patient’s face and style. Medical practitioners see your face in a three-dimensional way which is entirely different from how you see it. During your consultation, be open and willing to listen to recommendations, even if they’re not what you had initially thought of.

How to avoid ‘Bad Botox’.

To put it simply, choose an experienced practitioner who has patient reviews openly available and a reputation for giving people a natural-looking result. During the consultation, be sure to ask how long they’ve been performing aesthetic injections and how they were trained. You may also like to check whether they are registered with a regulatory body such as the Care Quality Commission or Save Face.

Also, always book in a review two weeks after treatment by which time the full effects of the treatment will be showing. That way if you’re not entirely happy with the result, your practitioner can make a small adjustment to even things out.

What are other treatment options available for treating lines and wrinkles?

Botox works to relax the muscles beneath the skin, but it isn’t treating the skin itself. If you don’t feel ready to start your journey into the world of injectable aesthetic treatments just yet, many other treatments work directly on the skin to soften and smooth the forehead and plump up the skin itself. Here are a few:

Chemical Peels 

Chemical peels aren’t as invasive as they sound. They’re a deep exfoliation treatment which includes ingredients such as salicylic, glycolic or lactic acid. When applied to the skin, they remove the outer layers (dead skin cells) that may be suffering from signs of sun damage and environmental exposure. Those dead skin cells are then swept away to reveal brighter, more youthful skin underneath.

Radiofrequency Skin Tightening 

Radiofrequency uses an alternating electrical current to create an electromagnetic field of radio waves. It heats the skin – bearably to the point where collagen within the skin tissue contracts and tightens, to reveal an instant tightening effect while also kicking the skin cells into a wound-repairing mode. This results in the creation of newer collagen to keep the skin tight and firm.

Microneedling 

Microneedling is a minimally invasive procedure which uses a device with small needles to make tiny punctures in the skin. This stimulates the skin into renewing itself to create a fresher, smoother and firmer surface. Microneedling can also be combined with chemical peels as microneedling will increase the penetration and therefore the activity of the peel.

Retinol

Retinol speeds up the rate at which ageing skin cells renew themselves. It has an exfoliating effect on the skin, reduces oiliness and decreases the production of excess pigment. In short, retinol is the anti-ageing gold standard of skincare and will make the skin look clearer, smoother and less wrinkled. Our favourite is the Skin Better AlphaRet Overnight Cream.

Disclaimer: Please be aware that results and benefits may vary from patient to patient taking into consideration factors such as age, lifestyle and medical history.