Can Botox® Reverse Sun Damage?

There are many rea­sons that peo­ple choose to have a Botox ^® treat­ment such as migraine relief and hyper­hidro­sis. Botox ^® is also com­mon­ly used for cos­met­ic rea­sons such as reduc­ing wrin­kles and fine lines. Sun dam­age is a com­mon cul­prit of caus­ing wrin­kle for­ma­tion. Luck­i­ly, Botox^® treat­ments can help min­i­mize the appear­ance of wrin­kles caused by sun damage.

Sun dam­aged skin los­es elastin and col­la­gen which results in pre­ma­ture wrin­kles. This is com­mon­ly referred to as pho­toag­ing. Repeat­ed sun expo­sure can deep­en the wrin­kles and lead to a harsh­er appear­ance over time.

When inject­ed, Botox^® tem­porar­i­ly blocks nerve sig­nals that stim­u­late your facial mus­cles. This allows the mus­cles to relax and soft­en fine lines and wrin­kles. Results typ­i­cal­ly occur grad­u­al­ly over the next two to four days, how­ev­er it may take up to two weeks to become ful­ly noticeable.

What to expect:

Before your Botox^® appoint­ment, your provider will want you to sched­ule a con­sul­ta­tion. Dur­ing the con­sul­ta­tion, you should explain the goals you have for your skin and where you would like the provider to focus their treat­ment. If desired by the patient, the pro­ce­dure can often by done on the day of their consultation.

There isn’t a set num­ber of injec­tions that each patient will receive. The num­ber of injec­tions and amount of Botox^® used will be deter­mined by the provider based on the patient’s desired out­come. Dur­ing the treat­ment, a very fine nee­dle will inject bot­u­linum tox­in into the tar­get­ed mus­cles. There is min­i­mal dis­com­fort involved, and side effects are rare.

Pre­ven­tion

To avoid devel­op­ing wrin­kles caused by sun dam­age, fol­low these pre­ven­tion tips:

• Wear sun­screen every day and reap­ply every two hours even on cloudy days.
• Acces­sorize your out­fit with a hat that shields the sun off your face.
• Grab a pair of sun­glass­es on your way out of the house.
• Sched­ule your out­door activ­i­ties accord­ing­ly. Spend your time out­side dur­ing the ear­ly morn­ing or evening hours to avoid the sun at its high­est intensity.

Find out how you can ben­e­fit from Botox^® by sched­ul­ing a con­sul­ta­tion online or by call­ing your pre­ferred location.