If you’ve been dealing with lines and wrinkles on the face and are looking for a way to minimize or eliminate them, Dysport can be a highly effective option. Here at Nuance Cosmetic Surgery in Folsom, CA, we’ve been treating our local patients from Sacramento and the surrounding areas with this therapy for years now with amazing results, and we offer this service in a comfortable environment with world-class care.
Although it’s used as a treatment for many different medical conditions, this medication has become increasingly popular as an anti-aging therapy because of its effectiveness in relaxing facial muscles, its ability to restore the appearance of aged skin, and its temporary effects, which make it a safer option than many other treatments. So if you’re considering Dysport and are curious about how it works and how long its effects last, here’s what you can expect both before and after treatment.
How Long Do Dysport Results Last?
Because Dysport is naturally eliminated from the body over time, the effects normally don’t last longer than three to four months for first-time patients. As you approach the three-month mark, it’s your choice whether you’d prefer to return immediately for re-treatments or wait a bit to see how much longer the results will last.
Many factors can play a role in how long the effects last, including your diet and metabolism, and some of our patients prefer to take a preventative approach by proactively scheduling appointments every three to four months. Others choose to wait until they begin to see lines, wrinkles, and strong muscle contractions returning. The advantage of regularly scheduling your appointments with us is that it may help prevent new lines and wrinkles from developing.
How Does Dysport Work?
Dysport is the brand name for botulinum toxin, a paralytic that reduces muscle contractions to treat fine lines and wrinkles on the face. Considered to be safe due to its temporary effects, this therapy can be an extremely effective one for anyone who has expression lines, which are those caused by facial expressions and made worse by the aging process.
As we age, our skin begins to produce less collagen, which can lead to permanent lines and wrinkles. This therapy stimulates the skin into producing more collagen while also reducing muscle tension and tone. All of this can help to restore aged skin to a youthful-looking state by improving its texture and reducing visible lines and wrinkles.
What Are Its Advantages?
In addition to its ability to reduce the appearance of lines and wrinkles, this medication offers many advantages over other types of treatment. All of the following benefits are what make it such a popular therapy:
Quick and Convenient
The therapy process itself takes less than 20 minutes and can be scheduled at a time convenient for you.
Minimally Invasive
There are no surgical or other skin-cutting procedures involved and no post-treatment wounds or scarring to worry about.
Corrects and Prevents
This medication can minimize existing lines while preventing new ones from developing in the treated areas.
Painless
Only microneedles are used, which are relatively painless and will only leave red dots on the skin that disappear quickly.
Proven Effectiveness
Dysport has been FDA-approved for certain facial lines since 2009 due to both its effectiveness and safety profile.
Temporary Effects
The effects of this therapy typically wear off within three to four months, leaving no permanent changes to your appearance.
Precision-Targeted
With small amounts of this medication, we’re able to target specific areas while avoiding other nearby areas, making it a precision-targeted treatment.
Does This Treatment Work Immediately?
The effects of this therapy normally start within 48 hours after the initial treatment session, but the medication doesn’t reach maximum effectiveness for most people until one to two weeks later. This is because it blocks the release of acetylcholine, a chemical messenger, and it can take some time for the body to respond.
Your metabolism can play a role in this because any acetylcholine that’s lingering in the body before treatment will need to be broken down and removed from the body for this medication to reach optimal effectiveness.
What Happens During the Treatment Process?
Consultation
Before getting started with your treatment, there will be an initial consultation so that we can assess any skin issues you have and answer all of your questions. We’ll also want to examine your facial muscles, which allows us to gauge how much medication will be needed for each area. We’ll also ask about any health conditions you currently have and any surgeries or other cosmetic treatments you’ve had prior to your appointment with us.
If you’re taking blood thinners, anti-inflammatories, or any other medications that might affect the results of this therapy, we’ll want to know about that. In some cases, you may need to speak to your prescribing doctor to see if you can stop these temporarily if there are possible interactions.
Treatment
The treatment process is a quick and easy one that should take no longer than 15 to 20 minutes. We’ll get started by gently sanitizing the areas to be treated, which is then followed by the injections. Each area we treat will normally require multiple injections, though we use small gauge needles that normally do not cause any pain. If you’re sensitive to needles, we’ll want to know about this beforehand so that we can use a topical numbing solution.
How Long Will Recovery Take?
There is no recovery period for this treatment because it’s minimally invasive and doesn’t involve any surgical procedures or sedatives. Afterward, some tiny red spots may develop, but this is completely normal and will typically fade quickly over the next few days.
To ensure that you receive the best possible results, we’ll give you some take-home instructions with a few precautions, but there is no downtime, and you’ll be able to return to work or regular activities immediately.
How Can I Maintain the Results?
As Dysport is temporary, you’ll normally need to have regular treatments every three to four months to maintain the results, though this timeframe is often longer for those who have had ongoing treatments for years. You can choose whether you’d like to have regular maintenance appointments three to four times a year or every now and then whenever lines and wrinkles become more noticeable.
Regular Maintenance
Having regular maintenance appointments every three to four months can help to prevent lines and wrinkles from returning and, in some cases, can prevent new ones from forming. Also, because Dysport has collagen-stimulating properties, you may notice the effects of the medication lasting longer with regular treatments, as the skin can become more responsive with more collagen. The muscles can also become more responsive as they adapt to the medication and learn to contract less with certain facial expressions.
Wait-And-See Approach
If you’d rather take a more corrective approach, you can wait and see how your skin is faring over time while only scheduling appointments when you notice issues. Wrinkles and fine lines can develop at virtually any age, even after some areas of the face already have some. Some patients choose to only treat specific wrinkles, such as those on the forehead or near the eyes while leaving others alone. This is entirely based on your preferences.
Is There an Ideal Age to Start Treatment?
While the preventative benefits of this therapy can be best achieved when starting regular treatments early, there isn’t one age that’s more ideal than another. If you want to prevent the first signs of aging, then starting in your 20s may be ideal. But if you only want to treat specific areas where lines and wrinkles may be more prominent, then any age can be appropriate. What’s ideal for you will depend on what your skincare goals are.
If you already have wrinkles and lines that you’d like to have treated, this can be done at any age. However, it’s important to note that lines can worsen and become deeper as time goes on, which can make them more difficult to treat. For this reason, many of our patients opt for either preventative treatments or schedule appointments as soon as they see early signs of wrinkling or lines showing up.
Schedule Your Consultation Today
Dysport therapy is an effective way to combat the signs of aging, and the result for most patients is smoother-looking skin with fewer wrinkles and minimized lines, as well as improvements in confidence and self-esteem. To learn more about this treatment and to see if it’s right for you, contact us today at Nuance Cosmetic Surgery in Folsom, CA.