Bothered by Lip Wrinkles? Consider Botox

With aging, your body witnesses a lot of changes. Among them, your metabolism slows down, your bones get thinner, your hair thins and greys, and you notice more wrinkles. 

With wrinkles, one of the most common areas people seek treatment is the face. 

The common facial wrinkles include lip wrinkles, which form vertical lines around the mouth. Also called lip lines, lipstick lines, or smoker’s lines, they can be treated in many ways. One effective way of reducing the appearance of lip wrinkles is Botox®.

Residents of the Mamaroneck, New York, and Stamford, Connecticut, areas looking for Botox treatment for lip wrinkles have a convenient option. Dr. Gennadiy Kravets of All Bright Dental can help you with those injections, as well as many other aesthetic and dental needs.

What causes lip wrinkles?

Lip wrinkles are especially difficult to manage because they form both on the lips and the skin around them. A common cause of wrinkles is the loss of essential proteins your body makes as you age: collagen and elastin. 

Collagen makes up about 75-80% of the protein in your skin and helps keep your skin full and more elastic. Elastin is found in your skin with collagen but also found in your organs, helping them keep their shape. As you age, your body makes less of both, and you start to see the resulting wrinkles and sagging.

Other causes of lip wrinkles include chronic skin dryness (also a result of aging), sun exposure, and smoking (the reason why the term smoker’s lips was coined). Repetitive motions with the lips (the pursing of the lips associated with facial expressions or drinking through a straw) also contribute to the appearance of lip wrinkles.

How does Botox help?

Unlike dermal fillers, which are injected into the skin to give the targeted areas more fullness and body, Botox is a muscle relaxer. That means its unique properties temporarily paralyze the muscles under the skin, which relaxes, helping you look younger.

To do this, it utilizes botulinum toxin type A, a safe by-product of a common microbe. Botox is a safe, minimally invasive injection that has been used for decades. 

It was originally approved by the FDA in 1989 for eye muscle problems and was approved in 2002 for cosmetic treatment.

What can you expect after treatment?

After tiny amounts of Botox are injected in specific areas of the lip muscles, you can go back to your normal day. You should start to see results one to three days after treatment. 

For the first day after treatment, avoid rubbing the treated area to prevent the Botox from migrating to other areas. The effects can last for three months or longer, so routine follow-up injections will be needed to uphold your results. 

Botox can be used in many ways, including treating cosmetic issues like lip wrinkles. If you’re thinking about getting Botox to treat wrinkles, make an appointment with Dr. Kravets today to get started.