How Did Botox Help To Fix A Botched Cosmetic Procedure?

Typically, people opt for non-surgical cosmetic treatments such as anti-wrinkle injections rather than more intensive surgical treatments.

One of the biggest reasons for this is that facial surgeries such as a rhytidectomy require several weeks of recovery, which includes no showers for at least two days, no strenuous activity or massages for two weeks and careful management of bruising and swelling for as much as a month, for effects that may not be visible for up to nine months.

By contrast, Botox and other similar injectable treatments undertaken under the supervision of a professional work faster and can be done as a regular “tweakment” to maintain a natural result, rather than being such a drastic option.

The connection between facelifts and Botox is unusual because the first cosmetic use of botulinum toxin type A was part of a treatment to help treat a facelift that went wrong.

Richard Clark, MD, a Sacramento-based plastic surgeon met a patient who had been left with numbness and paralysis after a facelift went wrong. 

Dr Clark knew that Botox had been effectively used to treat babies suffering from eye disorders, and believed that it could also help with facial muscles and cosmetic treatments as well. He requested approval to test his theory and was granted it by the FDA.

The results helped to get rid of the asymmetrical effect, and when the results were published in 1989, it caused a revolution in cosmetic treatments and is credited as the first cosmetic treatment using Botox, as well as restoring the self-esteem of someone after an unfortunate procedure.

Around the same time as this, a pair of cosmetic doctors based in Vancouver noticed that some of the people they were treating for eyelid twitching had less noticeable frown lines, and wondered if there was a chance to use Botox for minor cosmetic treatments, decades before the word “tweakment” had entered the beauty space.