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Is Botox Cosmetic Safe?
By Dr Barry Eppley
The popularity of BOTOX® for the use in cosmetic facial wrinkle treatment, known as BOTOX® cosmetic, is due to its simplicity and tremendous effectiveness. It has become so familiar by popular culture and media communications that its name is often used as both a noun and a verb. (which is both disturbing and discouraged by the manufacturer) Recent negative publicity with its use in children with neuromuscular disorders has not accurately represented its safety record in cosmetic applications. To allay potential patient concerns, it is useful to review some of the factual information about this drug to clear up any confusion created by these recent media reports.
BOTOX® cosmetic (Botulinum Toxin Type A) is produced and sold by the proprietary company, Allergan, based in Irvine California. It has been 18 years since it was initially approved for the treatment of blepharospasm (excessive eyelid twitching) and 6 years since its approval for the cosmetic treatment of the vertical lines between the brows. While accurate numbers are impossible to know, tens of millions of cosmetic patients have been treated around the world with the manufacturer reporting more than 13 million doses given since 2002. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgery, BOTOX® cosmetic is the #1 cosmetic procedure done in the U.S. since 2002 with over 3 million doses given in 2006. With over 3,000 published medical reports and a large number of clinical trial subjects studied, a welth of safety information is available. Despite the large amount of doses administered and patients treated, significant adverse reactions to the use of BOTOX® cosmetic is extremely rare.I am not aware of any true
allergies to its use. To date, there has never been a single reported death associated with its use either.
These cosmetic experiences must be contrasted with the media reports where its use has been in limb spasticity, which is not an FDA-approved application. Substantially larger doses (up to 100 times) are given in these neuromuscular uses compared to what is given for cosmetic wrinkle treatments and are injected in these juvenile patients who are often sickly from their neuromuscular disease. There simply is not a correlation between these two patient populations. The FDA appears to recognize these differences and has issued no stoppage of its use for any application to any health care provider at the present time.
The accurate portrayal of the safety data on BOTOX® cosmetic should provide great comfort to those patients who regularly receive aesthetic treatments or to those considering it in the near future. By: Dr Barry Eppley Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Dr Barry Eppley is a board-certified plastic surgeon who writes a daily blog on trends in plastic surgery at www.exploreplasticsurgery.com . He is in private practice in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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