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Published: April 15, 2024

How Many Units of Botox Do I Need to Remain Young and Beautiful?

Contemporary aesthetic medicine offers a wide range of aesthetic procedures to help a patient remain young and beautiful for as long as possible, Botox treatment being among them. But how many units of the product would one need to achieve the desired results?

Well, there is no definite answer to this question. Why is it so? Let us figure it out together by going through the article below!

General Information About Botox

Botox is a brand of injectable treatments that aim to temporarily relax muscles. It does a great job when it comes to the reduction of numerous medical conditions and aesthetic concerns related to muscle contraction (starting from chronic migraine and ending with dynamic forehead lines).

Below, you will find general information about the composition, manufacturer, purposes, possible side effects, and expected results of Botox.

Composition

The main active substance in the composition of Botox is botulinum toxin (type A). It is a naturally occurring relaxant of body and facial muscles produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. After being intramuscularly administered into a patient’s body, it works as follows:

  • Botulinum toxin (type A) temporarily blocks nerve signals attached to muscles around the injection site;
  • As a result, it eventually creates muscle relaxation and takes care of many medical and aesthetic issues related to muscle contraction.

IMPORTANT:
Botox injections do not include prefilled lidocaine hydrochloride in their composition. Still, a healthcare provider might apply a topical numbing anesthetic to treatment areas before starting the procedure (for instance, a topical numbing anesthetic might be applied to the forehead before injecting Botox into the frontalis muscle).

Beautiful woman with clear skin after Botox

Manufacturer

The manufacturer of Botox is Allergan (now a part of AbbVie). It is a global pharmaceutical corporation specializing in the production of professional aesthetic medicine products. By combining innovative technology and profound experience, it manages to create safe, effective, and long-lasting treatments.

It is also worth mentioning that the reputation of Allergan gives Botox treatment a profound credit of trust. These days, it is considered to be one of the most qualitative botulinum toxin treatment options available in the aesthetic medicine market.

IMPORTANT:
Apart from Botox treatments, you might also come across Bocouture treatments, Dysport treatments, Xeomin treatments, and other products when looking for a high-quality cosmetic treatment based on botulinum toxin.

Purposes

All purposes of people undergoing Botox treatment might be divided into two major groups, namely health purposes and aesthetic purposes. More precisely, it helps people achieve desired results when it comes to the following medical and cosmetic issues related to muscle contraction:

  • Medical issues: neck pain, lazy eye, overactive bladder, excessive sweating, chronic migraine, and so on;
  • Cosmetic issues: dynamic facial wrinkles (including forehead lines, glabellar lines, smile lines, marionette lines, bunny lines, and crow’s feet), thin lips, droopy eyebrows, facial asymmetry, and so on.

In other words, Botox is a typical treatment usually chosen by a skilled injector to both address neck pain and treat fine lines around different facial areas since it has been FDA-approved as a treatment for numerous issues related to muscle contraction.

IMPORTANT:
Botox treatments are usually used to take care of dynamic forehead lines, glabellar lines, smile lines, marionette lines, bunny lines, and crow’s feet. If a patient would like to treat facial wrinkles of a static nature, injections of dermal fillers might be a better option.

Possible Side Effects

Under normal circumstances, Botox is an effective treatment that effectively reduces muscle contraction without causing any serious adverse reactions or complications. At the same time, however, a patient might experience the following side effects for the first few days after the procedure:

  • Skin irritation around the injection site (including redness, itching, and swelling);
  • Nausea;
  • Flu-like symptoms;
  • Pain;
  • Overall muscle weakness.

In the majority of cases, these side effects have a temporary character and do not require any medical help. According to many patients who have tried out Botox, they fade away on their own within the first week after the treatment.

IMPORTANT:
In case of noticing any serious allergies or body reactions after Botox treatment, a patient should immediately contact his or her healthcare provider. Here, emergency medical assistance might be required.

Expected Results

The expected results of Botox injections vary from one treatment to another. Namely, they strongly depend on multiple factors, such as:

  • How much Botox has been administered beneath a patient’s skin (still, it is a false assumption that the more Botox units you inject, the longer the results of the treatment are going to last);
  • What muscles have been affected by the treatment (it does make a difference when a healthcare provider uses Botox to relax forehead muscles or cheek muscles);
  • What is the current age, skin type, and health condition of a patient (moreover, even the lifestyle of a patient makes a difference in this regard).

By working in a combination, these and many other factors define how long Botox is going to last in each individual case. On average, however, it has a duration of about half a year (regardless of the number of Botox units that have been used and the multiple injection sites that have been affected).

IMPORTANT:
Only a certified healthcare provider with a valid medical license is eligible to buy Botox online and administer it beneath the skin of a patient. The main reason for this is that it belongs to professional medical and cosmetic injectables NOT intended for home use.

Main Aesthetic Indications for Botox Injections

As already mentioned above, Botox might be effectively used to treat both health and cosmetic issues related to muscle contraction. When concentrating more on the latter, the following aesthetic indications are definitely worth mentioning.

Wrinkle Reduction

When used for aesthetic indications, Botox relaxes different groups of facial muscles and, therefore, reduces different wrinkles of a dynamic nature, starting from horizontal lines on the forehead and ending with vertical lines on the cheeks. In most cases, it is applied to treat crow’s feet, nasolabial folds, and smile lines.

Lip Flip

The so-called Botox lip flip is a cosmetic treatment used to visually enlarge the upper lip of a patient. Unlike an injection of dermal fillers, it does not actually add extra volume to it. However, the procedure effectively flips the upper lip outwards and makes it look bigger by affecting certain facial muscles.

Facial Asymmetry Correction

Apart from creating a more youthful appearance through wrinkle reduction and enhancing the shape of the lips through lip flip, Botox is also an effective treatment of facial asymmetry. With its help, a patient is expected to arrive at a more symmetrical and proportional facial oval.

IMPORTANT:
Although some healthcare providers use Botox to get rid of the double chin, it is not a primary aesthetic indication for the treatment. Just in case it is the main concern of a patient, an injection of a lipolytic might be considered.

Number of Units of Botox One Might Need

Since questions like “How many Botox units do I need to maintain my youthful appearance?” or “What is an average amount of Botox required to perform a smile lift, brow lift, eyebrow lift, and so on?” belong to the most frequently asked ones, let us take a closer look at them right away.

Average Units of Botox Needed for Cosmetic Treatments

Above anything else, it is worth mentioning that there is no definite amount of Botox units required for this or that treatment. While some patients would need a significant amount of Botox to get rid of crow’s feet, others might require fewer units of the product to achieve the same cosmetic goals.

Still, there exists an average number of units of Botox a patient would most probably need to address this or that aesthetic issue. For instance:

  • 10 to 30 units of Botox for forehead wrinkles;
  • 5 to 15 units of Botox for crow’s feet;
  • 10 to 20 units of Botox for bunny lines;
  • And so on.

Factors Influencing the Needed Amount of Botox Units

The exact number of Botox units needed for a particular treatment should be defined individually for each particular patient by a healthcare provider. The main factors influencing this decision include:

  • The current age of a patient;
  • The lifestyle a patient adheres to;
  • The skin type of a patient;
  • And so on.

IMPORTANT:
It is a false assumption that the more units of Botox you inject, the better the results of the treatment are going to be. In some cases, too many units of the product might even spoil the results instead of improving them.

A Bottom Line

All in all, there is no definite answer to the question “How many units of Botox do I need to remain young and beautiful?” While depending on numerous factors, the exact number of units required for this or that treatment should be defined by a healthcare provider in the individual order.