“Everybody and his brother offers Botox injections these days,” Dr. Jeff Popp said. “It’s getting so you can practically get an injection at your local convenience store along with your pack of gum and Big Gulp.”
He said that’s primarily because, unless you stick the needle into someone’s eye, it’s nearly impossible to create permanent damage with Botox. Any bad work is erased in three months.
“There is no trail,” he said. “It’s not like with a surgical procedure where there could be a scar or paralysis and you would know something is wrong. It’s tough to screw up Botox.”
Yet this widespread use is cause for concern.
“There are people from pharmacists and dentists to nurse practitioners and aestheticians who inject Botox. But these people aren’t properly educated,” he said.
Dr. Popp bases his judgment on nearly 35 years of experience with Botox.
”I was one of the initial investigators back in the ‘80s,” he said. “I was one of only 48 doctors in the U.S. allowed to use Botox for a 10-year period until it was approved by the FDA.”
He said many people are misinformed about Botox. They say they’re told not to exercise, eat or lay down after their injections. The “limitations” keeps increasing.
But they’re simply not true.
“You can do whatever you want immediately after you’re given Botox. You can jump and up down, get a massage, do yoga,” Dr. Popp said. “And yet the myths and misconceptions are perpetuated all the time.”
Some complain they had Botox injected into their foreheads so their eyebrows would go up, so why do they slide down?
“That’s because it is anatomically and physiologically impossible,” he said. “If you inject Botox anywhere above the eyebrows, you paralyze the muscle that raises your eyebrows up for about three months.”
Dr. Popp said he could train someone to inject Botox correctly in a day. Botox is safe and easy to understand if you know the anatomy of the face and where you can inject it. But such training must include accurate information to be relayed to patients.
“You must tell them that, if you want to get rid of horizontal wrinkles in your forehead, there’s a chance you’ll have droopy eyebrows,” he said. “Also, you can’t inject Botox in your lips or around your mouth unless you want to look like a stroke victim.”
With more than three decades of experience, Dr. Popp can properly and effectively use Botox. And he does so without myths, misinformation or urban legends.
