MODERN MEDICAL MIRACLES IS THE CATEGORY

drfoxx — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:23:42 +0000

by Richard M. Foxx, MD

If you were on Jeopardy the answer might go something like this: “The most effective, predictable, and clinically-proven pharmaceutical product used in cosmetic dermatology today.” The question, couched of course in the form of a question, would have to be “What is BOTOX®?”

So why is it that a product used more than four million times a year, a product that is at once reliable, dependable, and associated with fewer side-effects than just about anything else, be so badly misunderstood?

The answer to that is a little more complex. BOTOX has almost become a cliché, a symbol of what people do when they want to look younger and more relaxed. Written about almost monthly in virtually all of the “glamour” magazines, BOTOX is often lumped in the same category with dermal fillers and plastic surgery, and stirred around so much that all the casual reader remembers is a few disjointed facts.

Believing, with Madame Curie, that nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood, herewith are just the facts based upon seven years of experience and over 3,000 patients personally injected by me.

BOTOX has been around since the early 1980’s. At first used to relax eye muscles in patients with lazy eyes it was up to a Canadian physician, Alistair Carruthers, to discover its application to facial wrinkles. After being used for almost 20 years and amassing an enviable safety record, it was finally approved by the FDA for use in certain areas of the face in 2002.

Unlike traditional drugs that have to be metabolized by the body before they begin working, BOTOX remains where it is injected. It is administered with a very tiny needle in or near the areas where muscle relaxation is desired and works by locally blocking the nerve impulse before the muscle can respond.

The blocking phenomenon is a chemical reaction that begins to work immediately but is usually not complete for three to five days. This explains why the full effects of BOTOX are not seen for that long. The body begins to overcome that block and finally succeeds somewhere in the third to fourth month when muscle activity returns. BOTOX does not have to be excreted in the kidneys or by the liver.

When I administer BOTOX, I start by determining exactly what each patient desires and what the facial anatomy calls for. After obtaining a picture, I apply a numbing cream for 10 to 15 minutes and then mark the areas where the product will do the most good. Prior to actually injecting, using a needle only slightly larger than a mosquito’s stinger, I apply ice to the actual injection site to make it even more comfortable.

Patients may return to work immediately.

BOTOX is an ideal way to get your feet wet and introduce yourself to the wonders of modern cosmetic dermatology. Find the most experienced injector you can by asking around, have the brief, relatively painless treatment, and watch the years melt away.

THE NEW, NEW FACE

drfoxx — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:57:34 +0000

THE NEW NEW FACE

Richard M. Foxx, MD

NEW YORK magazine enjoys an often well-deserved reputation as one of the major arbiters of “the look” so when they write a cover story on one of the latest trends in aesthetics you tend to give it more than a quick read. The lead article in their August 11, 2008 issue, called “About-Face,” deals with the judicious and careful use of fillers, lasers, and BOTOX® to create a face of “indeterminate age.”

Recreating the face of your youth by placing fillers in the hollows under the eyes, the so-called “tear troughs,” is clearly the solution to the gauntness left by the changing anatomy of the bony skeleton and the decrease in collagen and elastin that occurs with advancing years. Think Madonna or Kim Cattrall (although no one is really saying what they had done).

Calling the result “The New New Face” the article summarizes the philosophy of famed NYC dermatologist Pat Wexler, MD, and other noted NYC cosmetic derms in saying: “The New New Face is really your old face.” According to Doctor Wexler “…you need volume to keep a face looking young.” This is, in fact, what I have been doing here at The Medical and Skin Spa, lecturing about, and teaching other doctors for some time.

Madonna’s dermatologist, Frederick Brandt, MD, talks about the aging face as losing “youthful convexities.” And the convexities, he goes on to say: “are the fullness and the roundness. A facelift…doesn’t do anything for volume loss, and a lot of people still don’t understand this concept.”

An idea whose time has long-since come, tear trough filling, or mid-face plumping, is exactly what was described in the last issue of NEW BEAUTY.

This kind of what is euphemistically referred to as a “correction” was not really possible until the advent of really long-lasting fillers such as RADIESSE®. In the right hands, the improvements that can be effected with this long-lasting product (that will last far more than a year) are truly amazing. When I lecture on it or train doctors one-on-one, I often refer to “the WOW factor” because patients looking into a mirror for the first time after the treatment is performed are usually compelled to say some variation of that.

The article goes on to discuss what they call “the overinflated-lip craze.” Their conclusion is that it is finally over. Thank goodness. It was over for me even before it took off. My constant belief is that true beauty come from balancing all of the elements of the face: general health, supplements, good product use, and judicious use of the magic treatments at our disposal.

More on overinflated-lips in articles to come.

Doctor Foxx is the Founder and Medical Director of The Medical and Skin Spa in Indian Wells, CA, at Hyatt Grand Champions Resort. He may be reached at drfoxx@medicalandskinspa.com or at 760-674-4106

Medical and Skin Spa » BOTOX

MODERN MEDICAL MIRACLES IS THE CATEGORY

THE NEW, NEW FACE