How Safe is BOTOX®? New Jersey’s Dr. Deborah Spey Explains

As a provider of BOTOX® in New Jersey, Dr. Deborah Spey and her team regularly encounter patients who rightly want to know whether the injectable is safe. A commitment to ongoing good health is an integral element of any cosmetic treatment, and men and women seeking a temporary solution to their forehead wrinkles and crow’s feet are certainly encouraged to learn all they can about the product they’re choosing for the job, as well as the provider they’re choosing to inject it.

Because BOTOX® is a powerful agent, capable of relaxing wrinkle-causing muscles for months at a time, its careful application is key to a patient’s safety and its success as a cosmetic treatment. First and foremost is choosing a trained and experience provider who uses the official BOTOX® Cosmetic from maker Allergan. There are several muscle-relaxing injectables that use botulinum toxin as their active ingredient, but dosages and results vary from brand to brand, making each one a unique product that is not interchangeable with any others.

As for the product itself, BOTOX® Cosmetic was subjected to FDA studies and approved by them for smoothing out forehead lines in 2002. An approval for crow’s feet followed. The approval process involves tests, studies, and input from established and reputable doctors familiar with the product long before it became widely available as a dynamic wrinkle treatment.

Prior to that cosmetic approval, BOTOX® had already established itself as a safe and effective medication, as it has been used for years to help patients with a wide range of physical ailments. The same muscle-relaxing property that makes it ideal for addressing wrinkles is ideal for correcting muscle-related problems throughout the body, with more than half a dozen other FDA-approved uses. While Dr. Deborah Spey and Dr. Rachael Hartman use the injectable for cosmetic reasons, they compiled this list to demonstrate to patients in New Jersey and beyond the long record of usefulness and established safety it has in the medical community.

• BOTOX® can calm abnormal and involuntary eyelid spasm, known as blepharospasm, that cause uncontrolled blinking and impair vision. The FDA approval for this use first came in 1989, after several clinical studies, and BOTOX® has routinely been applied to control blepharospam ever since. Patients seeking ongoing relief from the problem can periodically return for new injections.

• Also in 1989, BOTOX® was FDA approved it for patients as young as 12, who can receive injections to relax the eye-problem-causing strabismus. Permanently crossed eyes and walleyes are signs of failure of alignment due to this muscle problem.

• Cervical dystonia is another muscle spasm-based condition. It can cause neck muscles to contract and release, or tighten up entirely, keeping the head  in an uncomfortable position, tilted forward, backward, or to the side. Approval for this use came from the FDA in 2000, when patients began receiving injections to increase neck mobility and reduce pain.

• In 2004, the FDA cleared BOTOX® for use in treating axillary hyperhidrosis, better known as severe underarm sweating. The injectable prevents the sweat glands from producing sweat—which, in severe cases, can lead to soaked shirts and stained clothing.

• Migraines are intense headaches often accompanied by visual distortions, nausea, and more. Some sufferers experience these painful symptoms chronically, meaning 15 or more times a month, with a duration of at least four hours per episode. BOTOX® has been shown to stop an average of eight or nine migraine days before they start in a given month. This FDA approval came in 2010.

• Overactive bladder causes patients to feel the need to urinate frequently, as well as to suffer from occasional leaks. While medication to control an overactive bladder exists, it doesn’t always work. In 2013, the FDA approved BOTOX® for treating the symptoms in adult patients who have tried medication and found it to be unsuccessful.

• Earlier in 2016, the FDA approved BOTOX® for treating lower limb spasticity, which causes involuntary tightening of muscles. It was approved for treating upper limb spasticity in 2010.

To learn more about the cosmetic applications of BOTOX^® in New Jersey, visit dermatologist Dr. Deborah Spey’s Advanced Dermatology & Skin Care or call 973-731-9600.