How much for Botox?

July 11, 2006 12:54 AM

How much does a Botox treatment cost? Is $500 about right? And how long does it last? I have a lot of wrinkles around my eyes. thanks
posted by zackdog to clothing, beauty, & fashion (4 comments total)

$500 does sound about right. The only pricing data I could find was here. Also, that is 1999, so $500 seems reasonable, if not on the low side.

Botox will last between 3 and 7 months, but this varies depending on the site of the injection.

Most doctors reinject ever 4 to 5 months. However, this seems to be a point of debate among doctors - and will definitely vary depending who you ask. One site says:

"At this point, I am usually asked how long BoTox lasts. Two years ago, I would have told you to get injected every 4-6 months. But things have changed. In the old days, we would inject a lot of BoTox and wait as long as we could before re-injecting. This never made sense to me because the muscle was given a chance to get big again ..... Our recommendations, therefore, are to inject 1-1.5 cc BoTox on the first treatment, wait one month, re-inject 1cc, wait another month and inject .5-1.0cc. Then we wait for first movement and re-inject another .5-1.o cc (usually 4-5 months later)."

Your doctor will be able to handle these questions much better than Google and myself.

Good Luck submitter, let me know how things go.
posted by ifranzen at 1:11 AM on July 11, 2006

Pleasepleaseplease make sure you go to a reputable DERMATOLOGIST for Botox. You get what you pay for.

Don't go overboard with the Botox. You don't want to look plastic!
posted by radioamy at 11:01 AM on July 11, 2006

If the wrinkles are around your eyes, you might do better with some sort of peel or resurfacing. Botox seems to work best on the sort of lines you get from frowning or smiling, the deep muscle creases. It's not going to do much for those tiny wrinkles you have around your eyes. Anyway, it depends on what sort of wrinkles we're specifically speaking of.
posted by astruc at 1:27 PM on July 11, 2006

It all depends what you want treated. Cost should be on a "per unit" basis and not on a per syringe basis. How much is in a syringe? How do you know? In my area $12-15 per unit is standard, and a typical treatment for stuff like "the number 11 in my forehead" is about 20 units. That comes to $240-300. Needless to say, nobody can tell you exactly how much you will need before actually seeing you. So $500 is way high around here if all you're doing is a forehead. It turns out Botox can be used for other things too, but I have no idea how many units most of that stuff would take! =)

My personal experience is that the early treatments lasted 4-5 months, but lately they have lasted longer. There's a perfectly logical reason this might be so. A muscle that is relaxed (and therefore not used) is going to get weaker, isn't it?

More info from the nice folks at Botox Cosmetic of all places. Another FAQ here. And no you do not need a dermatologist for Botox. You just need somebody who is actually trained by a certified Botox trainer. Ask the doctor "who trained you to use Botox?" For that matter ask if he has before/after pictures you can see (and if he does, ask if they are his work!). You can decide for yourself if it looks too "plastic."

Astruc is correct that Botox is only for muscular creases. It works by relaxing the injected muscle. Obviously I don't know your face. A doctor who specializes in cosmetic medicine (regardless of what kind of residency he took) will almost certainly by able to tell you if Botox will actually help your problem, and if not he will be able to suggest something more appropriate.

If you are in the Seattle area, I can help you find a good doctor for this stuff, fwiw.
posted by ilsa at 2:06 PM on July 11, 2006