3 Secrets You Should Know Before Getting Anti-Wrinkle Injections!
Whether you’ve had Anti-Wrinkle Injections before or you’re considering having them, these are the 3 secrets you probably didn’t know (or no one wanted you to know!) for getting the best results:
Secret Number 1
How ‘Fresh’ is your Anti-Wrinkle Injection product?
The prepared product should not be more than 24 hours old because:
- The longer it has been beyond 24 hours since it was prepared, the less effective your treatment will likely be.
- As the product contains no preservative, there is always a risk that it could become contaminated during storage and cause a serious skin infection the next time it is used.
Why else would the manufacturer clearly state on the label that the product should be used within 24 hours of opening?
Don’t let anyone convince you that it doesn’t matter how old the product is because if that were true, the warning wouldn’t be on the label!
Due to the popularity of Anti-Wrinkle Injections, these treatments have now become widely available through Cosmetic Clinics, General Practices, Beauty Salons, travelling ‘Nurse Injectors’, and now even some Dental Practices & Hairdressing Salons!
While this wide availability may initially appear a positive thing, it must be remembered that each brand of Anti-Wrinkle Injections comes in multi-dose vials capable of treating multiple patients, and the downside of this is that if a clinic does not have enough patients to use up an entire vial on the one day, there is a real risk (due to its high purchase cost) that any leftover product could be stored in the refrigerator and become contaminated before it is next used.
The above aside, there is also the issue of those Doctors and Nurse Injectors who travel around like travelling salespersons to Beauty Salons, Medispas and Hairdressing Salons offering Anti-Wrinkle Injections. So, apart from the issue of ‘freshness of product’, there is the additional concern of the conditions under which the product is kept in cars whilst travelling from one location to another.
My advice:
Only have your Anti-Wrinkle Injections performed in a reputable Cosmetic Clinic that can guarantee you that the product they will inject you with is not more than 24 hours old. Otherwise, insist that a new vial is opened in front of you. If they are not prepared to do that, don’t proceed and go elsewhere!
If you wouldn’t buy food that has gone past its expiry date, why would you allow ‘out-of-date’ Anti- Wrinkle product to be injected into your face?
Secret Number 2
Do you know the dosage you’re getting and is it enough for YOUR lines?
You need to know the dosage of Anti-Wrinkle Injections you’re getting in any particular area because:
- Different Areas Require Different Dosages: For example, Frown Lines typically need at least 20 units, while Masseter Muscles for facial slimming need 50 units. Common complaints we hear from patients having had it done elsewhere are ‘it didn’t work’ ‘or ‘it didn’t last’. When we ask such patients what dosage they were given, they either say they were never told, or they report a small ineffective dose that was never going to give them a good correction.
- Different Products Require Different Dosages: There are three brands of Anti Wrinkle Injections currently approved for use in Australia (with a fourth soon to be approved) but current Government regulations prevent us from naming them. One of those three brands requires 4-5 times the dosage of the other two to get an equivalent result.
My advice:
Your doctor should have the experience to tell you what dose is required to deliver the best possible result according to the strength of your expression lines. In other words, your dosage needs to be CUSTOMISED to the strength of your expression lines for the best possible result!
Always avoid the ‘little bit here and little bit there’ technique (also known as ‘Micro-Doses’) as this delivers only a fraction of the optimum dose to each area – the result being weaker corrections, shorter durations, or both, in ALL the areas treated!
In our clinic, our starting dosage is always the usual minimum number of units for any particular area and then, if indicated, we increase the dosage according to the strength of the patient’s underlying facial expression muscles. In this way, we can always deliver the best and longest-lasting corrections.
Secret Number 3
How do you know your Anti-Wrinkle Injections are being placed precisely into the muscle(s) responsible?
The simple answer is you don’t, unless of course, you’re a doctor with a detailed and practical knowledge of Facial Anatomy.
This is the very reason we only have experienced doctors performing our injectables. Having performed actual surgical facelifts, they know the facial anatomy from the inside out, so to speak!
Accordingly, we are a ‘Doctor-Only’ Clinic. We do not have ‘Nurse Injectors’!
Nurses are admirable and skilled individuals within their own profession but unfortunately, their training does not teach detailed facial anatomy which we believe is essential for delivering the most accurate placement of the product.
My advice:
Choose a doctor with experience and sound knowledge of Facial Anatomy. Don’t ever feel that you don’t deserve to have an experienced injector!
Remember YOU are the consumer, you are spending your hard-earned dollars and you deserve the highest professional standards and the best possible results. Don’t accept anything less!
Now that you know the 3 secrets to getting the best results from your Anti-Wrinkle Injections, you might just want to read on…
What can Anti-Wrinkle Injections do for you?
Anti Wrinkle Injections have the ability to improve or totally remove those facial lines caused by the repeated creasing of the skin by the underlying facial expression muscles.
We’ve all seen lines entrenched on people’s faces after years of frowning (deep vertical lines between the eyebrows), people continually raising their eyebrows when they talk (horizontal forehead lines), or crow’s feet at the sides of the eyes from frequent smiling or squinting – and these are to just to name a few.
By relaxing the underlying muscles, the injections will either improve or totally remove the expression lines or wrinkles they’ve caused depending on how deep they were to start with. Lines that have been there for a long time won’t disappear but at least can be softened. An experienced Anti-Wrinkle Injection doctor should be able to give you a realistic prediction of the degree of improvement you can expect.
Those are the very reasons why Anti-Wrinkle Injections are so popular amongst males & females between 20 and 60+ years. They’ve now become a part of everyday maintenance & grooming just like having your hair done!
What can Anti-Wrinkle Injections treat to make you look fresher?
The three most popular areas are:
- Frown Lines – the vertical lines between the eyebrows that give us a ‘worried look’.
- ‘Surprise’ Lines – the horizontal lines across the forehead.
- ‘Crow’s Feet’ – the lines at the sides of each eye.
Other commonly treated areas include:
- Gummy Smile – showing an excessive amount of upper gum on smiling.
- Lines Under The Eyes
- Droopy Brows – to lift the brow and open up the eyes.
- ‘Bunny Crunches’ – on the sides of the nose.
- Masseter Muscles – for facial slimming.
- Horizontal Neck Creases and Vertical Neck Creases
- ‘Flaring Nostrils’ on smiling
- Hyperhidrosis – excessive perspiration of armpits, groins, hands & feet
- Bruxism (teeth grinding)
Do you need a consultation before booking your treatment?
There are two types of consultations in our industry: the ‘free’ consultation that is always geared to sell you something (unfortunately, sometimes something you don’t really need!) and the paid professional consultation to find out everything there is to know about a treatment or procedure and what it’s going to do for you.
I would always recommend the latter as it is a much more personalised and honest consultation!
At the Sydney Cosmetic & Plastic Surgery Clinic, we don’t charge a consultation fee if a new patient has had Anti-Wrinkle Injections before. However, if someone has never had Anti Wrinkle-Injections, we do charge a consultation fee of $165, $100 of which can be redeemed off the first treatment’s cost. This means that if you decide to proceed with treatment, you will have paid only $65 for a professional ‘Doctor-Only Consultation’ to get the right advice.
How much do Anti-Wrinkle Injections cost?
The cost varies according to the area being treated and the dosage (number of units) an area requires for the best and longest-lasting correction.
For example, to have Frown Lines injected at our clinic with either of the two main brands, a common dosage is 20 units, and at $16.50 per unit, this makes the cost $330.
Now such a cost may initially appear dearer to some cheaper clinics but very importantly, when comparing costs between clinics, always compare apples to apples! As a theoretical example, if you find Clinic A is quoting $250 for Frown Lines you’d be forgiven for thinking that was a better deal than our $330. But is it really? The truth of the matter is that if Clinic A is giving you only 10 units for your $250, you’re paying $25 per unit which is much dearer than our $330 for 20 units ($16.50 per unit).
Moreover, not only are you paying above average per unit, a dose of only 10 units is likely to deliver a weaker correction, a shorter duration, or both!
I also feel genuinely sorry for those people who fall for the tempting deals that regularly pop up on social media and coupon-style e-commerce sites – for example, $3 per unit, or 3 areas for $450 dollars, or a package deal of various areas, etc, etc – those deals are never of any quality or in the patient’s best interests.
As they say, ‘you always get what you pay for’!
How often do you need to have these injections?
Statistically, 80% of people will get 3 months’ correction and the other 20% will get either slightly less or slightly more. What I always tell patients is that until they’ve had the treatment (performed correctly, of course!) they really won’t know.
Very importantly, the trick to getting longer durations from each treatment is to not let the muscle recover completely between treatments. In other words, book your next treatment as soon as you see the expression muscle starting to become active again.
How are the injections done?
The treatment is a walk-in, walk-out procedure and most people can return to their normal work and social activities immediately – making it an ideal lunchtime treatment!
Are Anti-Wrinkle Injections Safe?
Since first being used in humans in 1977, Anti-Wrinkle Injections have proven themselves to be extremely safe. Unlike chemicals such as lead or mercury, they are not cumulative in the body with repeated treatments and they also have HUGE safety margins. For example, one would have to inject into a person of average weight over 2,000 units in a single session in order to produce any internal side effects – and most patients are being treated with less than 100 units each time!
To further illustrate, Anti-Wrinkle Injections are given to children with spastic paralysis in much greater doses than those used cosmetically to relax their leg muscles and allow them to walk more easily.
You may not know that our clinic was the first to introduce Anti- Wrinkle Injections into Australia way back in 1994, so no Clinic has been using them longer than ours! And over those years, we have never seen any serious adverse reactions.
Is the treatment painful?
Everyone has a different pain threshold, so opinions as to pain will also be different.
My personal experience is that there’s a very quick and mild sting at the moment of injection but it’s then gone.
My advice is ‘don’t look at the needle’ and ‘no pain no gain’!
Will the product give me a ‘stark’ or ‘frozen’ look?
Anti-Wrinkle Injection products are muscle relaxants and do not cause this type of ‘look’. I think these terms have been coined by journalists to describe surgically overcorrected Hollywood celebrities. These stars do not look that way because of the Anti-Wrinkle Injections but instead from having too many or sometimes over-corrected surgical procedures – and often, not very good ones at that!
Can I have Anti-Wrinkle Injections if I’m pregnant or breastfeeding?
As the safety of Anti-Wrinkle Injections during pregnancy and breastfeeding has not been established, we do not recommend injections during these times.
Finally,
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article and if you’ve never had Anti-Wrinkle Injections, or are not entirely happy with the results you’re getting from your current injector, feel free to pick up the phone and speak with one of our friendly Clinical Advisors on 9267 3322, or book now.
