REVEAL MAGAZINE – BOTOX: IS IT WORTH THE RISK?

Ashton Collins from Save Face, a government approved register of accredited practitioners that independently assesses clinics, gives her verdict…

WHAT IS IT?

Botox is an incredibly popular treatment, and it’s been used extensively by celebrities for decades in a bid to hold back the years. The toxin works by blocking the chemical messages sent from the nerve that causes the muscle to contract. Without these messages, the muscle stays in a resting state until the ‘messengers’ recover – eliminating those forehead wrinkles and eye crinkles.

THE PROS

If you want to improve your appearance, but are unsure about surgery and the possible risks, then a non-surgical cosmetic procedure, such as Botox, could be the answer. Non-surgical procedures use products and techniques to enhance your features by adding volume or to improve the appearance of a wide range of problems, including lines and wrinkles. Treatments are created to enhance your best bits and reduce the appearance of flaws, all without significant discomfort or inconvenience.

Less invasive than surgical procedures, they don’t require incisions or general anaesthesia, and can often be carried out with minimal interruption to your daily life. As well as being relatively straightforward compared to surgical procedures, the results of non-surgical procedures tend to be more subtle than those of their surgical counterparts, so are great for those who want to keep people guessing.

THE CONS

While this wrinkle cure is incredibly popular, a Botox backlash is brewing. Worryingly, the sector is almost entirely unregulated. Botox and fillers can be provided by anyone, anywhere, and practitioners who administer them aren’t legally required to have any qualifications. Untrained practitioners often purchase cheap, unlicensed products over the internet and the implications of this can be dire. If performed incorrectly, the procedure can result in a range of complications such as burning, scarring, infection and even blindness. In the last 12 months, Save Face has had an alarming increase in reports of procedures that have gone wrong – in fact, complaints have almost trebled compared to the previous year. A staggering 30 percent of procedures involving complaints were performed by people who’d set themselves up with no relevant training and were believed to be buying their products over the internet. The consequences of this lack of regulation are severe, and means that those who have Botox are currently protected by the same level of regulation as they would be when buying products such as ballpoint pens and toothbrushes!

STILL CONSIDERING BOTOX?

Here’s what you need to know before going ahead…

• Botox is a prescription-only medicine.
• You must have a face-to-face consultation with a licensed prescriber to ensure you are suitable for treatment.
• This must be with a doctor, dentist, nurse prescriber or a prescribing pharmacist.

All Save Face practitioners have been assessed and verified against a set of stringent standards.

Visit saveface.co.uk for more info.