Look Your Best for the Holidays: A Guide to Botox and Daxxify

About 10 million neuromodulator injections, such as Botox® and Daxxify®, are performed in the United States annually, helping both women and men look and feel more youthful, relaxed, and confident.

These popular, wrinkle-smoothing injections are not only effective in relaxing wrinkles from your forehead to your chin, but treatment sessions are quick — and that makes them an ideal way to freshen up before the events of the upcoming holiday season.

At beYOU bioidenticals, our team offers Botox and Daxxify to help each patient reach their unique goals to get the results they want. Here, learn how neuromodulators work, how these three agents differ, and why they’re a great choice to help you get ready for the holidays.

Neuromodulators: What they are and how they work

Botox and Daxxify are named neuromodulators because they modulate or alter specific muscles. In wrinkle treatment, these agents target the muscles responsible for facial movements, blocking nerve signals that cause these muscles to contract. As a result, the muscles don’t tug on your skin, and lines and wrinkles don’t form.

These movement-related lines are called dynamic wrinkles. Common examples include: 

• Crow’s feet
• Forehead lines
• Frown lines (or glabellar lines)
• Pucker lines or smoker’s lines

Over time, repeated movements in these areas result in permanently etched lines that can instantly make you appear older, more stressed, more worn out, and even angrier.

Making these injections part of your routine helps smooth out wrinkles and prevent deep lines from forming. In fact, many people opt to begin treatment in their 20s to help prevent lines and wrinkles from ever showing up.

What to expect during and after treatment

Neuromodulator treatments are quick, with each area typically taking just a few minutes to treat. Injections use fine needles — much skinnier than the needles used for vaccines — and most people report only a mild pinching sensation as the agent gets injected.

After treatment, it’s common to have some mild swelling and redness at the injection sites, sometimes accompanied by very light bruising. You can apply ice, but be gentle and avoid running the area to prevent spreading the agent over a larger area, which is less effective.

There’s no downtime afterward, which means you can have your treatment and then return to your routine. Results for all three agents last for several months, and afterward, you can have touch-up treatments to prolong your results indefinitely. 

Understanding the differences

While all three agents can be effective in treating dynamic wrinkles, some subtle differences can help you and your provider decide which agent is the better choice. 

Botox

Botox, approved by the FDA, treats wrinkles around the eyes, between the brows, and throughout the forehead area, and relaxes taut neck bands (platysmal bands). But it’s also widely used in other areas, such as around the mouth and chin, or to gently lift a drooping brow.

Its formulation makes Botox ideal for precision treatments targeting small areas, and it has a long history in both cosmetic and medical applications. For most people, the effects of Botox last about four months, but with repeated injections, they may last longer.

Daxxify

While Botox uses animal-derived proteins as part of their formulations, Daxiffy is vegan, employing a peptide derived from plant sources. It still smooths wrinkles and lines, but it does differ from the other two agents in a couple of key ways.

While the protein in Botox acts primarily as an inactive carrier, the vegan peptide in Daxxify has some activity of its own. As a result, Daxxify results may appear a little faster than the other agents and last longer, too — up to six months. Currently, it’s approved to treat frown lines, but like the other agents, it’s applied off-label to treat additional areas safely.

Customizable treatment for your unique goals

Neuromodulators can smooth lines and wrinkles, which helps you look your best for the holidays and year-round. To learn more about these three agents or to schedule a pre-treatment consultation, request an appointment with the beYOU bioidenticals team in Leawood, Kansas, today.