How Does Botox Work?

How Does Botox Work?

Answering this question requires delving a little bit into the science behind the drug. A good jump off point is the basic understanding of the nervous system. Now, before you scurry away, we’ve got the perfect analogy to something unscientific but we’ve got to get the technical discussion out of the way first. Don’t worry, we promise to make this quick and painless…

The nervous system is composed of organs in charge of the body’s internal communication – this is how the brain tells the different parts of our body to move. For a muscle to contract, it needs to receive the signal that the brain sends through a series of nerve cells. The cue that it’s waiting for is a chemical neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. When the muscle receptors recognize the chemical, it knows that it has to tighten and bunch up.

What Botox does is cleave the protein necessary for the release of acetylcholine. If acetylcholine is not released, the muscle will not know that the brain is already telling it to contract.

You can compare this to the network of wires that connects our telephone system. Imagine 2 telephones, one owned by the brain, the other by the facial muscles.

Without Botox, both phones are working and the message to contract is received clearly.

With Botox, the brain is already calling with the message to move but the phone on the muscle’s side has been yanked out from the wall so, it stays in bed, lounging nonchalantly. Because the muscle remains immobile, the overlaying skin also stays flat. This allows the skin’s natural tension to yield to its inherent tendency to smooth out, reducing the appearance of dynamic wrinkles.

Botox is a pretty neat little toxin, right? Once you get the confusing science stuff out of the way, it becomes easy to appreciate how it can work for you.

And now that we got the technical part out of the way, you might now be wondering:

Am I a Good Candidate for a Botox Treatment?