Do you see lines or wrinkles on your face and feel they’re there too soon? As if your youthful appearance has been yanked before you’re ready? Don’t worry – you’re not stuck with the signs of aging. Dysport, an injectable neurotoxin, can quickly and easily smooth away wrinkles. We at Advanced Dermatology Center in Wolcott, CT, have seen the results and happily recommend this treatment to many patients.
What Are the Benefits of Using Dysport?
This non-invasive muscle relaxer is, by composition, a botulinum toxin that temporarily freezes muscles. It’s injected under the skin and works on targeted areas, meaning it only prohibits muscle movements in a specific locale. This mechanism allows treatment to erase moderate to severe wrinkles.
We’ll name this as the first benefit, then: the ability to stop wrinkles from showing. To provide more clarity, muscles under your skin relax almost as soon as the injection is administered. This happens because the injectable’s main ingredient, botulinum toxin A, blocks the transfer of messages between nerves and muscles.
The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is comprised of two nerve types:
- Afferent nerves, which deliver sensory information to the central nervous system (CNS)
- Efferent nerves, which transfer motor commands from the CNS to muscles
Relaxed Muscles
It’s important to note the active ingredient, botulinum toxin A, is provided in very small doses so its effects are drastically weakened. This doesn’t impact the efficacy of treatment but rather ensures a safe therapy for you. Once the muscle can no longer receive messages, it relaxes in a way that makes wrinkles invisible.
As a short-term treatment, this neurotoxin helps your face look softer, smoother, and more youthful. But in the long-term, it prevents lines and wrinkles from forming more deeply. What we’re saying is that by reducing muscle activity, lines don’t have the opportunity to form. Treatment, therefore, preserves your skin’s integrity and will continue doing so for as long as you receive injections.
Versatile Treatments
This injectable is highly effective in treating dynamic lines – those caused by repetitive moments, such as laughing, frowning, and wrinkling the brow – in places like the:
- Forehead
- Near the nose
- Corners of the mouth
- Crow’s feet
- Sagging neck skin
Treatment doesn’t just stop muscle contractions, however. It also fills in empty spaces around the muscles, caused by collagen and elastin degradation, to create an overall smoother appearance.
A Natural Appearance
Cosmetic treatments have come a long way in recent years. Decades ago, you could count on leaving a session looking like you’d had “work done.” This translated to an overdone appearance with exaggerated features. Thankfully, technologies and application methods have evolved so both are more refined.
Today, the goal of therapies like fillers is to deliver invisible results. That is to say, results that don’t alert anyone to the fact you’ve had treatment. This ensures your features stay proportionate and your natural beauty is enhanced rather than distorted.
Smooth Consistency
The consistency of injectables is important to the results you see. Dysport is formulated with a lower protein concentration so it spreads evenly across the treatment site. This contributes to the natural results we mentioned just a moment ago without fear of lumps, bumps, and other unsightly effects.
Lasting Results
This treatment has earned FDA approval to last four months but may in fact last longer. Some patients see their results persist for six months. And here’s an unexpected boon: after about a year of consistent treatments, you can usually start spacing sessions further apart because less of the injectable is necessary to relax your muscles.
Keep in mind you can stop treatment at any time, and once you do, your muscles will recover their previous range of motion. Wrinkles will then also start to reform, but we like to point this out so patients don’t think the effects are permanent.
Prevents Wrinkles
We’re circling back to this concept because we need to make another point. Many patients ask when they should start neurotoxin injectables, and our answer is always the same: sooner is better. Starting early will reduce the number of wrinkles you need to treat and prevent existing wrinkles from getting worse. It’s also far easier to prevent wrinkles than to try to correct them.
It’s Convenient
You’ve probably heard injectables referred to as the “lunchtime facelift” because sessions can take as little as 10 to 20 minutes. And with little to no potential for side effects, your face won’t be subject to unwanted bleeding, incisions, or scars.
Your appearance will change very little. Wrinkles will be diminished in a matter of days, if not sooner, but you won’t experience any dramatic or rapid effects that completely alter the way you look.
No Downtime
Many aesthetic treatments require at least a day or two of rest so your skin can heal. But this treatment allows you to immediately return to work, attend a family event, or even sit by the pool. Because it’s minimally invasive, recovery is also minimal. We recommend just four simple steps:
- Practice common facial movements like frowning and squinting after treatment to help the serum work into your muscles
- Avoid strenuous exercise, facials, and saunas for four hours
- Do not rub or massage the treatment site for about four hours
- Do not lie down right away to keep the treatment site free of inadvertent pressure
Works When Botox Doesn’t
Although not well-known, some people develop resistance to the effects of Botox. In the earliest cases, healthcare providers thought the product had been stored improperly or the injector had not used the right dosage or technique. They believed the solution was to offer more injections.
Today, we understand the proteins contained within Botox cause some patients to produce antibodies that neutralize the injectable’s activity. To speak plainly, some patients don’t respond to Botox at all or, with repeated doses, develop immunity to its effects.
Fewer Proteins Mean Less Resistance
Dysport can take over when Botox proves ineffective. It contains fewer proteins, so your body is less likely to produce antibodies that resist its effects. And although the preference to have one of these neurotoxins over the other is entirely personal, many patients like the former because its effects typically show more quickly than Botox.
This Treatment Versus Botox
Now is the perfect time to address the differences between this and Botox. Let’s start with their concentrations; Dysport is more diluted because it uses smaller protein molecules. This makes it less susceptible to immune reactions – which we just discussed a moment ago – and is beneficial when treating larger areas of the face. This formula is ideal for eliminating lines in the forehead, where it can spread quickly and easily.
Fewer Injections
These two treatments also differ in their molecular weights. To explain, Botox has a more consistent weight that rarely falls victim to variability. Dysport, on the other hand, contains more size variability in the proteins used to deliver its active ingredient. What does this mean from a treatment perspective?
Again, we’ll go back to the size of the treatment area; Dysport, which diffuses easily, usually requires fewer injections than Botox to achieve the desired results. But the consistency found in Botox makes it better suited for targeting precise locations like the “11” lines between your eyebrows. It’s also ideal for treating lines around the mouth and under your eyes.
More Alike Than Different
In most cases, these two treatments can be used to benefit the same facial concerns. They contain the same active ingredient, working mechanism, and safety profile. The greatest discrepancy is in what they should be used to treat. As mentioned earlier, Botox is effective in erasing the “11” that appears between eyebrows, whereas Dysport is better for crow’s feet and forehead lines. Both can additionally be used on the:
- Sides of the nose where bunny lines form
- Nasal flares
- Corners of the mouth
- Jawline
- Eyebrows
Frequently Asked Questions
We’re pretty sure we know the first question you want to ask: is it safe? The answer is yes. Dysport received FDA approval for treating wrinkles in 2009 and has been used countless times since then. It’s also been approved for other medical uses to further prove it is a safe and effective treatment.
Is It a Poison?
While it may sound like it is, this injectable is neither poisonous nor toxic. It’s delivered as a natural, purified protein and administered in minute doses. It comes from a naturally occurring bacterium, much like penicillin is derived from mold. You would need more than 35 times the dose of 100 units, which is normally administered in a session, to become sick from having too much of it.
How Long Does Treatment Last?
Once the results take effect, which they’ll do in about three to five days, you can expect them to last between three and four months. This is just an average, however, and every patient might respond a little differently. If you schedule treatments on a regular basis, such as once every four months, results will likely start to last longer.
Does It Hurt?
Again, everyone is different, but most patients report feeling nothing more than a slight pinch at the injection site. Many are so surprised by the lack of pain they ask, “Is that all?” when their session is complete. We, therefore, encourage you not to let a fear of pain interfere with your decision to have treatment.
Will My Face Look Worse If I Stop Treatment?
The short answer is no. Neurotoxins do not degenerate skin or tissue quality. They serve only one purpose, and that is to temporarily freeze muscles so lines and wrinkles can no longer show.
If you stop treatment at any point, your appearance will simply return to what it was when you started Dysport – your baseline. But keep in mind that throughout treatment, you’ll prevent additional lines and wrinkles from developing, so you’ll actually look better than if you’d not chosen to have this injectable.
Will I Look Frozen?
Absolutely not. Your face is comprised of 42 total muscles, and by restricting the movement of less than a handful, you’ll still be able to fully emote without looking fake or frozen. Our goal is to help you look rested, refreshed, and more youthful, which careful application can achieve.
Say Good-Bye to Wrinkles
Now that you know how the treatment works, we encourage you to bid goodbye to wrinkles and embrace a more youthful appearance. All of this can happen quickly, rather than waiting weeks or months for results to develop. Sessions are fast, treatment is safe, and maintenance sessions can be easily scheduled. Learn more today by calling the team at Advanced Dermatology Center in Wolcott, CT.
