Reducing the Discomfort from Injecting Botox
The use of Botox for controlling excessive facial expression and resultant wrinkles is both exceedingly effective and rapid to perform. It works particularly well for forehead wrinkles and crow’s feet around the eyes. Because Botox requires needle injections to reach the desired muscle sites, some pain and patient apprehension may be experienced. As the injection sites are often done in the forehead and around the eyes, some patients will experience more sensitivity and anxiety than if done in other facial or body areas.
The use of a topical anesthetic cream applied to the skin prior to injecting Botox has been a technique that I have used over the past five years. EMLA cream or LMX4 are well known topical anesthetic creams that produces numbness of the skin. It costs just a few cents to apply. The longer the cream is applied, the better the numbness gets. For Botox injections, I apply it first as dots or spots where I intend to do the injections. This also communicates with the patient exactly where I am going to inject to make sure that is where the patient wants it. I usually like to wait at least five minutes after it is applied before injecting, but waiting fifteen to twenty minutes is even better.
Next time you go for Botox, ask for it. It makes getting Botox even better!
Dr Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana