Botox Safety
An Informative Article by Dr. Frederick G. Weniger, Hilton Head Plastic Surgeon
On April 30, 2009, Botox was in the media after the FDA placed a “black box warining label” on all botulinum toxin products. This move by the FDA has worried many patients and spawned questions about the safety of Botox Cosmetic.
This morning at the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery annual meeting in Las Vegas, I confimed the facts about the new warning label and Botox safety data with a representative of Allergan, the maker of Botox and Botox Cosmetic. In brief, the FDA is now requiring the warning label on ALL botulinum toxin products, such as Botox, Botox Cosmetic, Myobloc, and now Dysport. This was in response to adverse reactions, including death, in medical patients treated with very large doses of botulinum toxin for therapeutic (not cosmetic) reasons. Doses for such patients tend to be hundreds to thousands of times larger than doses used for cosmetic reasons, and these huge doses are often used on small debilitated children who are very ill to begin with. In fact, almost all of the severe outcomes were in children with cerebral palsy treated for severe painful contractures of large muscles, such as leg, arm, or neck muscles.
Clearly, these cases are far different than the small cosmetic injections used to relax the tiny muscles of facial expression which cause wrinkles. This explains why no severe or dangerous reactions have ever been reported for the cosmetic use of Botox Cosmetic. The worst effects have been occasional headaches for a day or two after treatment, dissatisfaction with the cosmetic result (extremely rare), and rare reports of eyelid ptosis (droopiness), which can last for up to 2 weeks after treatment.
I personally have performed over a thousand Botox Cosmetic injections, and the worst side effect I have seen is a mild headache lasting several days in 2 patients. The overwhelmingly vast majority of patients have no side effects and are happy with their cosmetic results in only a few days.
In summary, Botox Cosmetic is one of the most effective and safest drugs in use, and its safety for cosmetic purposes is not in question. The risk of using botulinum toxins in massive doses to help debilitated children is a different story, and must be addressed on an individual basis between parents and their childrens’ neurologists.
We at Weniger Plastic Surgery would be happy to answer any questions that people have about Botox Cosmetic or any other cosmetic treatment. Please contact us at 843-757-0123.
