BOTOX forBeginners

In the name of beauty, though I was admittedly a touch hesitant, I had to lose my Botox virginity and I'mproud to say that I've been deflowered and most definitely not devalued. I left my face's fate in the hands of"Botox Queen" of New Zealand and I was confident in her abilities to help me reach one of my life goals —

being able to roll out of bed looking beautiful sans makeup. Though that may seem like an unreachable andridiculous goal, together with prescribed skincare, religious sunscreen application and other skin treatments

down the line, I firmly believe that this dream can be achieved. BY SOPHIE CHUNG

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or my first step in this,for lack of a better word,'journey', I received Botoxin my jaw from the bestand most expensive Doctor

in New Zealand: Dr. CatherineStone, the first doctor in Australasiato start working full-time with Botoxover 15 years ago. She's the founder ofThe Face Place MedSpa where theyperform non-surgical Cosmedicine

with a large expert team to help people achieve natural-lookingresults. Last year, they won 'Best NZ Aesthetic Clinic', so it's safeto say that they know what they're doing. If someone was goingto stick a needle in my face, I needed to know everything aboutit and of course, bust some myths along the way for my peace ofmind. Dr. Catherine Stone was patient and nice enough to answerall my questions, which I'm sure, will satisfy anyone's curiositiesabout this infamous yet mystical procedure.

This is the big question — what exactly does Botox do? Botox isa prescription medicine which can be used to precisely relax certainmuscles and reduce their ability to create lines, spasm or tensionin the face or body. Botox treatments have been used for over 30years, with no serious or long term effects in the very tiny doses usedcosmetically. Botox works specifically on a neurotransmitter - ormessenger - called acetylcholine, to reduce the messages sent fromthe nerve ending to muscle. The same acetylcholine is the messengerfrom the nerve ending to the sweat glands, which is why it is alsovery effective in treating excessive sweating.

Cosmetically, we create many of the lines and wrinkles with ourrepeated facial expressions. Every time you frown or raise theeyebrows, you bang the skin together, which breaks down thesupporting collagen fibres in your skin. When we are younger, wecan easily repair the damage, as we have lots of healthy active skincells that quickly repair the damage. As we age, the skin cells getlazy and we start to do more damage than what can be repaired, sothe lines to deepen. Botox prevents the lines from deepening andcan help the lines soften over time, by reducing the damage fromthe muscles banging together - giving the skin the ability to repair.

To ensure natural results, we use lower doses more frequently. Anaverage grumpy frown treatment is likely to last about 3 months,but it will depend on the dose we use, the strength of your muscles,and the area treated. There is an art to Botox treatments, withplacing it into the right muscle, right place, and right dose. Thereare over 50 different muscles in the face, which usually sit inslightly different places for different people. This is why a thoroughconsultation and assessment is important. We start with the lowestdose we think will give you a good result, it is very easy to put morein and increase the dose if needed. Many injectors just put highdoses in, which can 'freeze' the muscle and make people look weirdor frozen. It does not have to be like that - our aim is to 'turn down'the activity of the muscle so that it doesn't create the lines, but youstill look natural - just fresher and more relaxed.

Let's bust the myths — what are the most common myths aboutBotox that are untrue? Wow, there are so many myths to bust!!My favourite one is that your face will collapse if you stop havingBotox! In fact, the opposite is true: with repeated treatments, thelines usually continue to soften out as you provide more space forthe skin to repair. We also start to train the muscles not to makethe lines. We have a lot of ladies who stop having treatments whilepregnant or breastfeeding, and if they've had Botox treatmentsregularly for several years beforehand, they usually find they stilllook better than when they started having Botox, even if they havestopped for a couple of years! On the other hand, if you have onetreatment, and decide it's not your thing, it will completely go backto normal over about 3-6 months.

Botox addiction? Botox is not physically addictive, but be warned,it can make you feel good! Some people really like how good itmakes them look (and feel more confident), and want to havemore - just like having your hair or nails done. Some people do'go overboard' because of this, but a good clinician will advise ifyou are starting to go 'too far' - and they should say "No" to you!Another crazy myth is that it comes from cows and is a poison - Ithink people get confused with the name, and call it a 'bovinetoxin'. While an older form of collagen injections used to comefrom cows, Botox itself is a naturally-occurring, non-animal proteinderived from a bacteria. The bacteria itself is dangerous if eaten inlarge amounts, but Botox is just one of the proteins it produces,and is very safe when used precisely into the treatment areas in tiny

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M2 Woman, New Zealand01 Aug 2016, by Sophie Chung

General News, page 70 - 1,810.00 cm²Magazines Lifestyle - circulation 13,024 (Quarterly)

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doses. The calculated dangerous dose for a 70kg human is about3500 units. This equates to 35 vials which is worth $60k-$100k!The average dose for a neck spasm is 700 units and an eye spasm is300-400 units. An average frown line uses about 20 units, and anarea like a gummy smile or upper lip treatment might be 2-4 unitswhich is usually less than $100.

My final favourite myth is that Botox will make you look plastic. Inhigh doses, it can 'freeze' the muscle and make a face look stiff andexpressionless - and let's be honest, it looks a bit weird. However,when used artistically by an experienced injector, the aim is to'turn the muscle down' without turning it off - giving a fresher,more relaxed and natural look. The 'plastic', white, shiny lookto the skin can usually come from too much laser resurfacing,deep peels or even repeated fractional treatments such as Fraxel,which can all create microscars in the skin - scar tissue is usuallywhiter, shinier and denser than normal skin and gives the sameplastic' appearance. We prefer treatments that build the skin upand provide good health and nutrition for the skin. A healthy skinis a beautiful skin!

When should one start having botox? Can it be used in apreventative way? Botox helps to relax the muscles that create lines,and so the best time to start using Botox treatments is likely to bewhen you first start noticing the lines forming. If you start early,you'll usually find that the lines soften very quickly, and if youcontinue with treatments you may not develop the lines. There is adefinite trend for men and women starting to use these treatmentsin their 20's and 30's, often for prevention, or when they first startto notice the changes.

How can Botox be used for jaw slimming? Jaw-slimming withBotox is a very popular treatment in China, and has been used"off-label" in NZ for over 13 years. Usually a wide, square jaw canbe treated very effectively with Botox to relax the Masseter muscles- the big chewing muscles you can feel at the sides of your jaw ifyou bite your teeth. People with big masseters will often clenchor grind their teeth, chew a lot or will naturally have very strongmuscles. The muscles get bigger with more 'exercise' in the sameway that your body muscles get bigger by working out at the gym.Using Botox to relax the Masseter muscles means that they don'texercise as hard, and will slowly soften and shrink down over about4-8 weeks. For example, if you had your arm in a cast and couldnot exercise it, the muscles get smaller, but are still there, and can/will get bigger if you start exercising again. One of the bonuses oftreating the jaw is that it will often reduce the pain in the jaw andthe damage to the teeth with teeth grinding/clenching.

Can it be used for non-cosmetic reasons? Botox can be used forover 300 different medical conditions, so cosmetic use is actuallyonly a small fraction of the available treatments. I first used Botoxnearly 20 years ago, in cerebral palsy babies, where we use it intheir legs to help them walk. In babies as young as 18 months oldwe used about 300-400 units of Botox.

At The Face Place, we use Botox treatments for quite a few medicaltreatments: with great success for excessive sweating (almost 100%success rate!); tension headaches and migraine; minor forms offacial spasm; facial asymmetry like Bell's palsy; and for teethclenching/grinding. We have also successfully used it for RepetitiveStress Injury (RSI) in the forearm, hand and shoulder.

How much does it cost? When we opened The Face Place in2001, we were the first clinic in NZ to start charging for whatwe use. This meant we were able to tailor' the treatments to eachperson in terms of the dose they wanted, how much movement theyliked and what areas they wanted to treat. An area like the upper

lip or 'sad' mouth corners might only require 4-6 units (often lessthan $100), while areas that need higher doses like the frown orjaw muscles might be $250-700, or occasionally more, dependingon the strength of the muscle, who is providing the treatment, andthe final result desired. It's great to see that this is now the mostcommon way of charging for Botox in NZ.

While in general, NZ has a very good cosmetic medicineindustry, it's important to be careful of 'cheap' Botox and itsproviders. Visit the best practitioners, do your own thoroughresearch, expect a thorough consultation (if not, then leave - acookie cutter approach to Botox is never a good approach) anddevelop a long lasting, trusting relationship with an expert whomakes you feel comfortable, informed and, most importantly,listened too.

Provided for client's internalresearch purposes only. May notbe further copied, distributed, soldor published in any form withoutthe prior consent of the copyrightowner.

M2 Woman, New Zealand01 Aug 2016, by Sophie Chung

General News, page 70 - 1,810.00 cm²Magazines Lifestyle - circulation 13,024 (Quarterly)

ID 621040333 BRIEF MEDIAJ(W INDEX 1 PAGE 2 of 2