In recent decades, preventative care has dominated the landscape of medicine and healthcare, due to paradigm shifts in the way we approach health and wellness. Similar attitudinal shifts in aesthetic medicine has altered the way in which we approach anti-aging procedures. Injectable neuromodulators, more popularly referred to as “Botox”, is a perfect example of a rejuvenating treatment that has evolved from being traditionally used in mature individuals to relax deep-set existing (static) wrinkles, to a treatment now used in sophisticated younger patients to prevent its formation before it ever appears.
So are you too young to start Botox? While there is no age cut-off for adult men and women, I often advise my patients to start thinking about injectable neuromodulators when they hit 30 years of age. While turning thirty has no magical biological significance, it is the age at which most people start noticing a subtle increase in the signs of aging. Forehead lines and undereye wrinkles begin to be etched in the skin even in the absence of facial expression. The longer the wrinkles are left etched into the skin, the more difficult it is for the lines to be erased later on in life by cosmetic procedures such as Botox.
I often offer my patients a simple analogy for them to ponder. Imagine having two bed sheets that you had folded up and stored in a drawer. You folded one bedsheet one week ago and the other one you folded ten years ago. You take out both bedsheets from the drawer today and unfold both. Which bedsheet will have creases that are most difficult to eliminate?
And that is the simple reason why preventative “Botox” works.