Two cosmetic physicians weigh in.
Botox seems to be the buzzword on everyone’s lips right now. Clinics are booking up well into the New Year and with party season rapdily approaching, many people are looking for a little facial refresh and rejuvenation. For people who have already had Botox or been getting it for a while, their main priority is getting a slot at the clinic. For anyone who hasn’t tried it yet, their main priority is figuring out if they actually need it.
It’s a question that a lot of women find themselves asking in their twenties, particularly if their friends have started considering preventative wrinkle treatments. Of course, any kind of procedure involving your face can seem incredibly daunting, but for anyone finding themselves half-on/half-off the fence, there’s an alternative to the big B that might feel more palatable.
Enter, baby Botox. The little sister of Botox who offers a lower dose with less noticeable results, but boasts an entryway into the wide world of cosmetic injectables. While everyone will have their own opinions on the matter, it’s important to be well-informed before diving into any kind of cosmetic procedure, which is we why leaned on two leading cosmetic physicians to give us the answers we crave. Below, everything you need to know about baby Botox.
WHAT IS BABY BOTOX?
“Baby Botox is a technique for using Botulinum Toxin,” Dr Naomi McCullum, founder of The Manse and Dr Naomi Skin, told ELLE Australia. “It’s really a marketing term that implies a smaller dose and more natural result.”
So to put it incredibly plainly, it uses the same thing that Botox uses, but less of it. Similar to the ‘no-makeup-makeup-look where you’ve done something so minimally that it’s barely obvious you’ve done it at all, baby Botox is like the ‘no-cosmetic-injectables-injectable.’ You’ll likely notice a difference and others might too, but it won’t be overly obvious.
While we’ve pretty much passed the hysteria of the ‘frozen face’ looks that came to be associated with Botox in the ’90s and 2000s, people naturally still have concerns about how it will take form on their face. Using a smaller dose is a great way to test the waters, suss out the downtime and any associated side effects and see how you feel afterwards. Once you’ve done that, you can always go back and increase the dosage when you’ve built up some more confidence.
HOW IS BABY BOTOX DIFFERENT TO BOTOX?
As we’ve come to understand, it’s all about the dosage. Baby Botox doesn’t differ to regular Botox in terms of what is being used, it’s just the amount.
Dr Dr Scott Allison of Ascension Clinic, broke down the Botox basics to ELLE Australia, for anyone keen to understand what it’s actually doing.
“Botox works by relaxing the muscles that pull on the skin and create lines and wrinkles,” he explained. “One of the main ways we use Botox is to prevent those dynamic wrinkles from becoming static wrinkles. It kind of chemically cuts the nerve supply off to the muscle for a certain amount of time, which for most people is around three to four months. Then as that muscle nerve connection regenerates, you get the return of function and the muscles start moving again. When we talk about baby Botox, or preventative Botox, it’s really talking about relaxing the muscles before the onset of those etched in lines.”
WHAT AREAS ARE COMMONLY TREATED WITH BABY BOTOX?
So now that we know what it is, the next question is, which areas are people commonly treating with it?
“Baby Botox is most commonly requested for patients who are having injections in the horizontal forehead lines, the frown lines and crows feet,” Dr Naomi said.
“It’s used in areas where patients want a subtle and natural effect and where smaller doses can achieve their aesthetic goals.”
And when should people not be getting baby Botox? Dr Naomi said there’s a few procedures where she’d advise against it.
“For other areas like face slimming, and neck bands, trapezius muscle slimming or calf slimming, I would be careful to avoid wasting my time or the patient’s time with baby Botox. For those areas, too small a dose may not achieve the desired results.”
WHAT IS THE BEST AGE TO GET BABY BOTOX?
While there’s no magic formula for Botox use, there is a generally agreed upon age bracket that people can start thinking about it.
“Mid twenties is really common,” Dr Naomi revealed. “The ideal age is before the lines start etching in.”
“When people come in, it tends to be in their early to mid twenties,” Dr Scott revealed. “There really isn’t an age that’s too young. The main thing is just before the lines are there, because if you miss the boat with that sometimes you’ve missed the boat. If it’s really early, you can often reverse the lines and make them disappear, but ideally it’s started before that point in time.”
Dr Scott went on to explain that the exact age is quite variable. “There’s different skin types, different degrees of sun exposure and using good skincare etc. So, that will affect the age of onset to some extent. but mid twenties is probably a reasonable time to start.”
As for whether the procedure is better as a preventative measure or a reactive one, Dr Naomi says prevention is key.
“Preventative of course!” she said. “I want to prevent frown lines from etching as I never want to inject filler in that area of the face. The risks with filler injections in the frown lines are catastrophic (eg blindness and necrosis) vs the risks of Botox there are so minimal. Prevention in this case is so much safer than cure.”
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME TO GET BABY BOTOX?
Given the amount of time most people spend looking at themselves in the mirror, nobody knows your face better than you. While this can sometimes be an exhausting thing, it also means we’re in tune with the appearance of new features, including, you guessed it, wrinkles. But what type of wrinkles indicate you might need Botox versus ones that may not be an issue for a couple of years. Dr Scott said there’s a clear tell.
“Once you have developed static wrinkles, so when you’re not animating and the line is still there,” he explained. “They might not be there in the morning because you’ve obviously been sleeping all night. But, by the end of the day, when you’ve been talking and expressing yourself and the lines are present even at rest, that’s when you know you should have potentially already started.”
HOW MUCH DOES BABY BOTOX COST?
Dr Naomi revealed that the smallest dose The Manse Clinic utilises is around $400, while the most commonly used dose is around $700-800 for an upper face treatment.
She also explained that most people return for a top-up every 3-4 months, pending individual results/satisfaction levels.
