Botox Side Effects

Before deciding on Botox to reduce your wrinkles, your aesthetician should make you aware of some of the potential adverse events that could happen. Because your consultation time with the aesthetician may be cut short, this article will give you a general overview of the adverse reactions that may not have been mentioned.

During clinical trials, the most frequent adverse reactions after Botox injections were headache, flu syndrome, respiratory infection, drooping eyelid and nausea.

Some of the less common adverse reactions were injection site redness and swelling, facial pain, tingling sensation and muscle weakness. Obviously we should expect weakness of muscles that are injected because this is what Botox is meant to do. However, sometimes toxin spread can lead to weakness of the adjacent muscles. Fortunately these adverse events were generally temporary, but there is a probability that they may last longer than several months.

When used in the real life, temporary eyelid drooping were reported in approximately 5 percent of the patients in literature reviews. Other adverse reactions that have been recorded since Botox has gone on the market are blurred vision, abdominal pain, temporary hearing loss, loose stool, noise in the ear, fever, localised parasthesia, loss of appetite, malaise, glaucoma, muscle pain, localised facial paralysis, erythema multiforme, itchiness, psoriasis-like rash, blockage of the retinal blood vessels, myasthaenia gravis and syncope.

Of course, we must be aware that these side effects are reported voluntarily outwith a clinical trial, so whether these can be directly linked to Botox remains unknown. Also, the incidence of these side effects could not be reliably estimated.

In extreme cases, there have been anecdotes of spontaneous death, which may be associated with anaphylaxis, swallowing difficulty and/ or severe pneumonia. Other rare severe adverse reactions are heart attack, arrhythmia and/ or epilepsy.

If you be deterred by this article, don’t. The fact is, most people will never suffer from these severe side effects, and continue to improve their looks through Botox. Even better, since Botox only stay in your body up to a maximum of 6 months, any adverse reactions would subside in due course.