Shawn: I was wondering what the difference is between Botox and fillers?

Dr. Michael Salzhauer: Okay, great question. Botox is a muscle relaxer, okay? So any wrinkle that's caused by your muscles moving too much can be cured or diminished with Botox. So for example, the lines across the top of your forehead, the lines that are in between your eyes, the glabellar furrows, and the lines around your eyes. Those are all caused by facial expressions that we make, whether it's squinting in the sun, yelling at our kids, or just raising our eyebrows in surprise. So when you put the Botox in, okay first of all it takes about four days for the Botox to kick in, so that needs to be mentioned also, but once the Botox kicks in and the muscles stop contracting as much, what happens is the overlying skin begins to relax and forget all those creases that have been indeled into them over the course of your lifetime. So Botox is great for those wrinkles, and we'll call them dynamic, dynamic meaning to move. Dynamic wrinkles. Now, fillers, like Restylane, Radius, Sculptra, Artifill, etc., fillers work by a different mechanism of action. Fillers go into the skin. They're just like the name implies. They fill up a little indentation, a line, or a wrinkle. Now it doesn't cure the wrinkle, it just masks it. All these products that I mentioned last different–

Jeannine Morrissette: We're going to take a short break, Shawna, but we'll be right back to answer the rest of your questions, okay?

Jeannine Morrissette: If you're just joining us, this is Nip/Talk on 850 WFTL. Our number here in the studio is 1-877-850-8585, toll free in South Florida and around the world, or you can contact us for your complimentary consultation at 305-861-8266, or you can e-mail the doctor at info@balbody.com. We're waiting for your call. Thank you. Dr. Salzhauer?

Dr. Michael Salzhauer: Yes. I was answering a question of a caller before the break regarding the difference between Botox and fillers.

Jeannine Morrissette: Yes.

Dr. Michael Salzhauer: Okay. Just to recap again, Botox relaxes muscles and therefore is good for wrinkles that are caused by muscle contractions or facial expressions that we make. Fillers, like Restylane, Radius, Sculptra, those are names that you might have heard backed by a different mechanism. They fill in the wrinkle and they go right under the skin. Now the problem with using those types of fillers for wrinkles on the forehead and around the eyes that are caused by muscle contractions is that when you put this filler in, and if you can imagine the filler is like caulking you might use in a bathroom. It sounds a little crass but that's basically what it is in a microscopic level. Imagine you're putting this material into a divot and if the muscles around it contract too much, it can push to either side of that wrinkle some of that material that you're filling it in with, and thereby making the wrinkle look a little bit worse by sort of heaping up the mountains that are on either side of the valley that is the wrinkle. So I like to use fillers for those areas that don't move as much. For example, the nasal-labial fold. That's the crease that's right along the border of your cheek and your nose and also just underneath the mouth in an area that doesn't move that much or real deep, deep glabellar wrinkles that are right in between your eyes, and again, Botox, another difference between Botox and fillers is how long they last. Botox, at the most, will last 5 or 6 months, and more typically will last 2 or 3 months. Once the muscles start to move again and the Botox wears off, you have to come back and get more. That can get to be expensive over time, but the results are so fabulous that there were literally millions of people that go regularly every 2 or 3 months to get their Botox touched up. It's a wonder drug in that it really does work. The Restylane, to give you an example of a commonly-used filler, lasts about 8 months. There is something else called Radius which can last anywhere from 2-5 years. It's a little bit thicker so I like to use it only for bigger wrinkles and not for small wrinkles, and again that lasts a little bit longer, 2-5 years, and it is more expensive obviously. Now two new products that we're excited about are Sculptra and Artifill. Sculptra works a little bit differently than the traditional fillers in that it encourages your body to make scar tissue or collagen tissue around what you inject so that it's good for adding volume to the cheeks and the facial areas that start to look a little bit gaunt or wasted as you get older. That's Sculptra. But Artifill is a filler just like Restylane or Radius, but is made of materials that are permanent and it was just approved a few months ago, and the claims are that it can actually last a long, long time. Maybe even part of it might last permanently, but that remains to be seen. So those are the differences between Botox and fillers. I really appreciate the phone call.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 at 11:01 am and is filed under Botox. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.