Cosmetic Medicine and Anti-Wrinkle Injections.
Anti-wrinkle injections or muscle-relaxing injections are purified proteins with specific actions in the skin and muscle. They have come a long way since their discovery by Canadian doctor Jean Carruthers. She introduced the cosmetic smoothing of crow’s feet, frown lines and forehead lines. Over the decades, the popularity of this unique injectable has grown, and it is now the world’s most commonly performed cosmetic procedure. However, from the original three areas, anti-wrinkle injections are now used extensively across expanding cosmetic and skin treatments.
Currently, three commercially approved anti-wrinkle injection formulations are available in Australia; they are also widely used off-label for various other purposes. (Unfortunately, due to TGA regulations, we cannot name these cosmetic injectables in Australia). Please book an appointment with one of our cosmetic doctors in Brisbane for more information.
New Cosmetic Uses of Anti-wrinkle Injections
The aesthetic applications for anti-wrinkle procedures are growing as new actions on the skin (besides relaxing muscles) are discovered. Anti-wrinkle injections are also commonly used with other aesthetic procedures, such as dermal fillers, topical skin care, lasers, Tixel, HIFU and PDO threads. Recently, novel application techniques such as the Microtox Facial have shown improved skin quality.
How Do Anti-wrinkle Injections – Muscle Relaxing
The mechanism of action of anti-wrinkle injections involves muscle relaxation by blocking nerve signals at the nerve-muscle junction (NMJ). However, the NMJ is restored over the next 3 – 6 months, and the action wears off. So injecting tiny amounts of the purified protein into the facial muscles brings about relaxation and smooths the lines and wrinkles on the skin surface overlying them. It is more complex than simply relaxing the muscles, though.
Many of the muscles that allow for facial expressions, such as smiling, blinking, expression of anger and surprise, as well as eating, speaking, and blinking, do so by changing the tension in adjacent skin. This is important when planning a muscle relaxation treatment approach because different groups of muscles act in opposition. So you have muscles that lift and muscles that pull down the face. Cosmetic treatments aim to open around the eyes and lift the mouth, jowls, and neck and are achieved through selectively relaxing facial muscles, allowing opposing muscles to lift.
Anti-wrinkle Injections for Skin Quality
Aside from the neuromuscular effects of anti-wrinkle injections, they have an array of impacts to increase skin quality, which is generally accessed using a more recent cosmetic technique, the ‘microtox facial’, where tiny doses of the anti-wrinkle are administered to the dermis rather than the face or neck muscles. The result is smooth, glowing skin as the injections improve skin quality, shrink pores, decrease sweat gland activity, and constrict superficial blood vessels.
- Increase collagen and elastin: Anti-wrinkle injections may increase collagen and elastin production in the dermis and reduce MMP synthesis (an enzyme triggered by the sun that breaks down skin collagen).
- Decrease sweat and oil glands: Microinjections smooth and tighten the skin by inducing shrinkage of the sweat and sebaceous glands and weakening superficial muscle fibres that insert into the skin, reducing the pulling effects that cause fine lines and wrinkles.
- Reduce pore size and skin oiliness: Anti-wrinkle injections have been shown to reduce sebum production and pore size in people with oily skin.
- Calm redness: relieving people with recalcitrant flushing and erythema.
Muscle Relaxing Injectables. Eyes, Forehead and Frown
Forehead: frown lines, forehead wrinkles, 11 lines
The most common cosmetic injectables are the treatment of the forehead, including frown lines (11 lines) and forehead wrinkles. Commonly these are included in 2 or 3-area anti-wrinkle packages to allow customisation of treatments.
- Before treatment, the frown corrugators and procerus target muscles will be mapped through a series of facial movements. Mapping the surface area of the muscle to be injected allows the calculation of an individual dose and pinpointing of injection sites. This personalised approach is especially beneficial in people with asymmetric muscle movements.
- Men often have a more significant muscle mass, especially in the corrugators, requiring increased dosing to smooth the frown lines effectively. Increasing the dose also can improve the onset and duration of the effect.
- Bunny line or brow lift treatment can be added to frown line treatment to give superior results.
Anti-wrinkle for eyes; crow’s feet, under eye wrinkles, brow lift
Cosmetic injectables for eyes most commonly include crow’s feet (eye wrinkles or smile lines ). In addition, cosmetic injectables are used under the eyes for under-eye wrinkles (often combined with dermal fillers or laser treatment) or as a non-surgical brow lift.
Anti-wrinkles for the eye area are customised treatments, as everyone has unique expression lines. The most common pattern for crows’ feet is a fan pattern at the side of the eyes. Upper fan patterns are uncommon (found in only 5% of patients), lower fan patterns were more common in males, and full fan patterns became more prevalent with age. More severe wrinkles were also associated with complete fan and lower fan patterns.
The fan pattern guides injection patterns for crow’s feet and consideration for a brow lift. Though anti-wrinkle injections are used for under-eye, it is more common to use fillers or lasers for under-eye wrinkles.
Please book online or call 07 3350 5447 for a free consultation or appointment with our Cosmetic Doctors.
