Botox/Dysport/Xeomin

Does Botox make wrinkles worse if you stop?

No. If you stop Botox, your muscles go back to moving the way they did before, and your face returns to its baseline. This is the question I hear more than any other, usually phrased as "if I start, do I have to keep going forever, and will I look worse if I quit?" Botox does not damage your skin or deepen your lines. What changes over the years is your anatomy. Every year adds a little more sun exposure, a little less elasticity, and a few more everyday expressions pressed into the skin. So when someone stops Botox and looks older a couple of years later, that is normal aging continuing on schedule, not the Botox taking revenge. Used consistently, Botox actually slows how deeply those repeated-motion lines get etched in the first place.

Why treat the whole face instead of just the forehead?

Because the face moves and ages as one connected unit. When I only relax the upper face, the lower face and neck keep pulling the way they always have, and the balance starts to look off. I treat from the forehead down toward the neck, and I keep patients on a rhythm of about every three to four months so results stay even instead of fading in patches. Treating top to bottom is also how a result stays natural rather than looking obviously done in one zone. For many patients this works alongside dermal filler or a collagen stimulator in the spots where lost volume, not muscle movement, is the real problem. We map that out together at your consultation so we are treating the cause of each concern, not just chasing the one wrinkle you noticed in the mirror this morning.

What does natural-looking Botox actually mean?

It means you still make expressions, still look like yourself, and simply look more rested. Frozen, shiny, surprised-looking foreheads usually come from stamping the same dose onto everyone regardless of how their muscles move. I dose to your anatomy, which is why two people who both came in for "forehead Botox" rarely leave with the same number of units. The whole industry has shifted this way over the past couple of years, away from heavy, obvious work and toward softer, preventative dosing, and it is how I have always practiced. Part of that is being willing to tell you no when a little less will look better than a little more. I want people to notice that you look good, not that you had something done.