What Exactly Does Botox Do?

October 29, 2024
Woman receiving botox treatment peacefully

As a practitioner with over 20 years of experience as an esthetician and more than 10 years as an injector, I’ve had the privilege of working hands-on with Botox and witnessing its transformative effects on skin health. While Botox is often seen as a quick fix for wrinkles, there’s a lot more to understand about how it works and how you can maximize its benefits for your skin. In this blog post, I’ll share what exactly Botox does, how it works, and why pairing it with other treatments can help you get the most out of your results.

What is Botox and How Does It Work?

Botox is a neuromodulator—a type of muscle relaxer. It works by blocking the signals between your nerves and muscles, preventing those muscles from contracting. This action softens and reduces the appearance of dynamic lines—the wrinkles that form from repeated facial expressions, like frown lines between your eyebrows, crow’s feet around your eyes, and horizontal forehead lines.

Think of Botox as giving your skin a much-needed break from all that movement. When your muscles aren’t constantly pulling on your skin, it allows the skin to rest. This period of rest is crucial because it gives your skin time to heal, regrow, and repair itself. And that’s where the magic happens.

Botox Gives Your Skin a Break, But You Have to Do the Rest

While Botox does an amazing job of relaxing muscles and smoothing out lines, it’s important to understand that Botox alone doesn’t increase collagen. Collagen is a protein that gives your skin its structure and firmness, and while Botox helps by reducing movement that causes wrinkles, you’ll need to actively work to boost your skin’s collagen levels.

Here’s where you, as the client, come in: the time right after your Botox treatment is the perfect opportunity to trigger an increase in collagen production with other treatments. I always recommend combining Botox with in-office treatments like:

All of these treatments work to stimulate collagen, and when combined with Botox, they allow your skin to not only rest but rebuild. The result? Smoother, firmer, and healthier skin.

Maximizing Botox with Daily Skincare

In addition to in-office treatments, your at-home skincare routine plays a huge role in how well your Botox works and how long the results last. Using daily care products that contain collagen-boosting ingredients like peptides is essential to maintaining healthy skin. Peptides are small proteins that signal your skin to produce more collagen, supporting the anti-aging effects of Botox and ensuring your skin stays firm and resilient over time.

When Botox relaxes the muscles, and you support your skin with collagen-boosting treatments and products, you’re giving your skin the ultimate chance to heal and rejuvenate.

What Botox is Best For

Botox works best on dynamic wrinkles—those lines that are caused by facial expressions like smiling, frowning, and squinting. Some of the most common areas I treat with Botox include:

  • Frown lines (also called “11s”) between the eyebrows.
  • Crow’s feet around the eyes.
  • Forehead lines.

But Botox isn’t just for smoothing out wrinkles on your face. It can also be used to address muscles that push and pull, which contribute to sagging and drooping in areas like the lower face and neck.

For example, the muscles that pull down on your lower face, contributing to the appearance of jowls, can be relaxed with Botox. By softening these muscles, there’s less downward pull, which creates a lifted look around the jawline and gives a light, refreshed appearance.

Botox for Neck Bands

One exciting new use for Botox is treating the platysmal bands—those vertical bands in the neck that can pull the skin downward, causing a drooping or sagging effect in the neck and under the chin area. Botox is now FDA-approved for these bands, and by relaxing them, the skin in this area can pull back up, creating a smoother, more youthful appearance.

It’s important to note, though, that Botox works best when the skin has good elasticity. If your skin has lost a significant amount of collagen and elasticity, Botox alone won’t be enough to reverse the sagging. This is why maintaining treatments that support collagen and elastin regeneration is so critical for long-term results.

Supporting Your Skin’s Collagen and Elastin

So, what should you be doing to support your skin’s ability to regenerate collagen and elastin? Along with Botox, I recommend incorporating a combination of:

  • In-office treatments: Chemical peels, microneedling, and laser treatments all help stimulate collagen.
  • At-home care: Peptide serums, retinol, and daily sunscreen to protect and nourish your skin.

When you combine the muscle-relaxing effects of Botox with treatments and products that promote collagen production, you’re giving your skin the comprehensive care it needs to stay firm, smooth, and youthful for years to come.

Why My Experience Matters

As someone who’s worked as an esthetician for over 20 years and an injector for more than 10, I’ve seen firsthand how Botox can transform not just the appearance of the skin but also its overall health. My experience with skin health has allowed me to take a more holistic approach to Botox treatments. I don’t just treat wrinkles—I work with my clients to ensure that we’re supporting the underlying health of their skin through a combination of neuromodulators, treatments, and daily care.

Botox is an incredible tool for giving your skin a break, but to truly maximize its benefits, you need to support your skin with treatments and products that encourage collagen and elastin regeneration.

Ready to See What Botox Can Do for Your Skin?

If you’re curious about Botox or want to learn more about how we can combine treatments to give you the best possible results, schedule a consultation at Luminate Clinic today. I’d love to help you create a personalized plan that addresses both your skin’s needs and your aesthetic goals.

With love and glowing skin,
Dr. Erin Lucie, APRN

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