Advanced Anti Ageing Treatments

This varies from person to person, but results can be usually seen for 3-4 months. Results don’t just disappear overnight but gradually you will notice movement returning. This can be expedited by consistent muscle activity – i.e. trying to move the relaxed muscles or by your own metabolism, generally people who do regular physical activity have increased metabolism and may find results disappear quicker. Your wrinkles will not be worse after the toxin has fully worn off; they will return to how they were before your treatment.

Improved results can be seen by having multiple cycles of toxin injections because the muscle is not as strong as it was before your last treatment, as your skin is less creased, and the wrinkles are not being reinforced. We advise to book your subsequent injections at around 12 weeks after initial injections.

If we haven’t met you before or it’s been more than 6 months since your last anti-wrinkle session with us you will need to meet Gemma Tibbs so she can prescribe your toxin. I am a nurse but I am not a prescribing nurse, so I work alongside an amazing prescribing nurse who has a history in aesthetics. A prescribing appointment is a legal requirement as we are working with a prescription-only medication. Once we have gone through a thorough medical history and we agree toxin will be used, we will need to send off your prescription, in some cases the toxin can be delivered the next working day. But we will generally book you in for another day that is convenient for you to return to have treatment.

We cannot legally hold the medication in stock such as doctors and dentists can do. But this also gives you the opportunity to weigh over your options, to balance the risk vs benefit to the procedure and to ensure that this is the right course of treatment to go through with. Some also feel better about this as they do not feel pressurised into deciding there and then as they may feel awkward about saying no.
When you are due your next cycle, we will get in touch with you to arrange a fresh prescription in time for your next treatment.

Follow up appointments are not always needed, however, if this is your first time having these injections, we would like to see you back in clinic at 2 weeks, just so we can assess how well the product has taken and to assess how you feel about your new look.  We will be in contact with you and your more than welcome to return to the clinic for a review, if required we will give you a top-up or tweak as part of the original price.  

There is a very rare chance that you can be allergic to the toxin itself, some people can however be allergic to some products such as local numbing cream is used, we generally do a small patch test first.
Some side effects generally are down to the injection procedure itself rather than the product, such as redness and swelling at each of the injection sites which generally disappear after a few hours. Bruising can occur if a little vessel is hit with the needle, some steps can be done to help reduce bruising if you are prone to bruising due to medications or medical conditions. This can be as easy as avoiding some home remedies the week prior to the treatment. Avoiding medications such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and herbal remedies and oils such as ginsing, cod liver oil, flaxseed/oil, vit A and E as these can increase the risk of bruising.

In rare cases infection at the injection sites can occur but reduced greatly by following the after-care advice such as basic personal hygiene.

Headaches and flu-like symptoms have been reported by some following the few days after injection, paracetamol can help with this.

Eyelid ptosis (droopy eyelid) is very rare and generally down to misplaced toxin injection. There are some eye drops that can be prescribed to help with this should it occur.

Heavy brows – Some people request that only their forehead is treated as they don’t feel the lines between their eyebrows need treating, although this may be the case we strongly advise not to treat these lines on their own because you can become very brow heavy. The frontalis muscle that creates the horizontal lines on the forehead is responsible for keeping your eyebrows raised (elevator muscle), if we stop its main job then you will have low brows on both sides. By treating the glabella complex (depressor muscles) with the frontalis it creates a beautiful balance between the two without the ‘heavy’ look.

Spock brows – occasionally if we miss an area to the side of the frontalis it’s very easy to have some extra lateral pull up at the tail end of the eyebrows creating an odd arch – much like Spock from Star Trek. This is very easily treated with a tiny dose of toxin to relax that odd raise.

For the 4 hours after toxin treatment, it is advised:

• Not to touch the injection sites
• Don’t apply makeup
• Stay upright

For the next 24 hours it is advised :

• No excessive exercise
• No steamy hot showers, jacuzzi’s, steam rooms – we don’t want to sweat the Botox out!
• No tightly fitting caps or helmets

For the next 7 days it is advised:

• no long haul flights
• no facials

For the next 2 weeks:

• No other facial treatments such as chemical peels
• Dermal fillers
• Microneedling etc

It is a neurotoxin made by a purified protein called a gram-positive bacilli Clostridium Botulinum.

Botulinum toxin has been used in the NHS for over 35 years and is a very safe medication when used correctly and in the tiny doses we are dealing with. A Botox should ALWAYS be prescribed for you from a medical professional, so we know it’s been obtained from a pharmacy in the UK and was delivered direct to them from manufacturer.

Botulinum toxin is injected into the muscles to reduce its activity and therefore stops the skin creasing lying on top. It works by preventing the nerve signal reaching the muscle by prohibiting the chemical acetylcholine (naturally made in our cells) from being released, this chemical is the bridge in which the signal needs to cross to reach the muscle. Without the bridge the signal cannot reach the muscle therefore no muscle activity creating smoother looking skin.

Botulinum injections work on the deactivation of muscle activity. No movement can result in smoother-looking skin as the skin is no longer being folded.

Dermal fillers are a medical device containing hyaluronic acid which is a natural substance already in our skin. It is injected into the skin to lift and plump it to create volume where it has been lost.

The injections are given with a very tiny thin needle, you may feel the initial pinch as the needle pierces the skin and tiny bit of pressure as the dose is injected but it shouldn’t hurt. Most people manage this sensation without numbing agents. However, if this is something that really bothers you, we are happy to provide a small amount of local numbing cream to the areas being treated.

During the consultation, we will assess if you are a candidate for these injections but as a rule, we can inject:

• The frown lines between your eyebrows
• The horizontal lines on your forehead
• The crow’s feet around your eyes and just below
• The creases on your nose – bunny lines
• Lip lines to create a smoother or upturned lip
• Gummy smile – when you show more than 2mm of gum on smiling
• Marionette lines – disappointment lines to help lift your corners
• Chin to relax its position and smoothen it out
• Bruxism – teeth grinding or clenching
• Vertical neck bands
• Hyperhidrosis – excess sweating under the arms, soles of feet, or palms of hands

As not everyone is as anatomically perfect as a textbook, we can get it wrong occasionally.

If the toxin wasn’t injected into all the desired areas, the muscle activity will remain and can create a pull above the tail end of the eyebrow creating a “Spock brow”. This can be very easily treated with a tiny bit of toxin above the pointy brow bit!

Occasionally yes, this can be an effect of too much toxin, or the toxin being diffused into the muscles it wasn’t intended for.

This can occur if you didn’t follow the after-care instructions or because the toxin was injected a little bit too low.

We can help if this happens to depend on what muscle has been affected. We can add a little bit of toxin to the eyebrow to give it a lift. Or provide you with eye drops to open the eyelid if the problem sits with the lid.

The toxin treatments don’t last very long and the worst of these effects only lasts around two weeks with the aid of muscle stimulation activities.

The most common and desired effect is muscle deactivation. Very occasionally other muscles can be affected too, see above.

Reactions around the injection site such as pain, tenderness, itching, swelling or bruising are common – most of these disappear before leaving the clinic except bruising may take a week or so to resolve.

Patients who are particularly nervous could experience generalised reactions such as fainting, circulatory problems, nausea, or noises in the ears. Relax we will assess you and make sure you leave the clinic well and at ease. Everyone can be afraid, but we won’t push you into anything you don’t want to do.

Occasionally some clients can get a headache or flu-like symptoms after their injections, these settle after a few days. No one really knows why the flu-like symptoms, but we have had a few.

Occasionally you can be left with an uneven result, but don’t worry, we are happy to review you on day 14. This is so we can assess the movement you have and make a few alterations. But once the toxin is injected, we cannot reverse it.

In general, the injections take no longer than 10 minutes but for a first-time client we suggest 45 minutes for your pre-treatment consultation.

Yes, you will need to come for a pre-treatment consultation to take a full history etc, and to order your toxin in. You will need to make a second appointment for your treatment. This gives you enough time to make an informed decision about whether this is the right treatment for you.

Your toxin injections are charged per muscle group, starting from £200 and £60 per additional area on top. If you need a top-up at review this is part of the original cost.

Other toxin treatments such as vertical neckbands cost £350 and excessive sweating will cost £400.

Additional small areas such as top lip and chin will be an additional £35.

No, you won’t look any worse than you did before your treatment. As the nerve cell starts to re-release acetylcholine, the muscle activity will slowly begin to reactivate, providing you with a slow gradual change to your skin, eventually, you will be back at what you were before the treatment, but no worse.

Toxin injections only work on lines affected by muscle activity or dynamic lines how we like to call them.

Toxin won’t be able to get rid of a line that has been deeply etched into the skin caused by super strong muscle movement over many years, we can soften them, but we can’t promise they will totally disappear. With repeat treatments before all muscle activity is returned you can get a much softer appearance, or we could advocate a different treatment option.

It is very unlikely you will be allergic to botulinum toxin, but we can never say never.

However, if you were to take ill in clinic rest assured, I am a very experienced nurse who has worked in emergency and acute care field and are fit to deal with an emergency with yearly anaphylaxis training.

Everyone is different, but the average person sees movement returning from around 6-8 weeks after initial injections, but effects of the toxin can still be lingering up to 6 months.

Depending on your metabolism or degree of physical activity you do, you may find your toxin treatment burns off quicker than someone with a more sedentary lifestyle.

With each additional treatment some find results last longer and get better even better with time.

We will also use the information gathered from the first treatment and the review to alter doses the second time around to improve things in your next cycle.

Most people can resume normal activity straight away as there is very little downtime, but we suggest you leave the area treated alone for a few hours to reduce the risk of infection.

We suggest for 24 hours no vigorous exercise, drinking alcohol, or exposed sun exposure succeeding your injections.

• A pregnant or breast-feeding woman cannot have treatment.
• Patients with neurological diseases such as Myasthenia Gravis, Eaton Lambert Syndrome or Parkinson’s.
• People with hypersensitivity to human albumin, sodium chloride.
• Patients on a course of antibiotics.

Very rarely client’s treatments don’t work, but sometimes people can become desensitised either because of their genetics or because you’ve had it too often. If this is the case, we can try you with a different brand of toxin.

Yes, you can have a peel immediately after a filler or toxin injection as long as it’s done by the same practioner. If you choose to have micro-needling or derma abrasion its best to wait a few days before getting your treatment.

If getting a treatment of filler or toxin by another clinician wait until your skin has stopped peeling before having your treatment.

It is fine to get a peel or micro-needling/derma abrasion before toxin or filler treatment.
Semi-permanent makeup and treatments ideally should be done first. This is because having the tattoo first can give you a lovely shaped eyebrow at natural rest and the toxin injections will just bolster the result.

Having an eyebrow lift with either toxin or filler before having the tattoo gives the tattooist or beauty technician a newly symmetrical face after two weeks, but to remain symmetrical you will need to keep up with toxin /filler injections – your finances will have to be considered. This is because as your face returns to a normal resting position i.e. the toxin has worn off your eyebrows could look a bit uneven/symmetrical.

If you do choose to have semi-permanent, make up such as lip line or eyebrows you should wait 2 weeks before having your filler to ensure you’re fully healed.