BOTOX^®

What is Botox^®?

BOTOX^® Cosmetic is the brand name for a type of botulinum toxin manufactured by Allergan, Inc. BOTOX^® is a toxin produced by a strain of bacteria, Clostridium botulinum. In case you're wondering, this is the same bacteria that can cause botulism, which is a type of food poisoning. In high enough quantities, the toxin can cause death by paralysis. This is why preventing botulism food poisoning is so important.

Scientists found that small, diluted amounts of this toxin could cause muscle paralysis when injected directly into the muscle. If the amount is small enough, it causes controlled weakening of the muscle, and not full-blown muscle paralysis.

Botox^® was originally approved in the latter half of the 1980s for treating certain types of conditions caused by muscle spasms, such as dystonia (involuntary muscle contractions), strabismus (crossed eyes or lazy eye), spasmodic torticollis (uncontrolled neck movement), and blepharospasm (uncontrollable blinking).

In 2002, the FDA approved Botox^® for the treatment of moderate to severe frown lines between the eyebrows. Today, it is used to treat other areas of the face, including the forehead and the crow's feet at the corners of the eye.

Botox^® injections were the number one most popular cosmetic treatment in 2002.

Using FaceForum's BOTOX^® section

We've have taken the information on BOTOX^® and broken it out into pages, with the information grouped by subtopic.  Our goal was to provide you with useful, relevant BOTOX^® information already grouped in a handy format.

Each of our BOTOX^® section pages has previous/next navigation links for those of you who prefer to proceed through the information in an orderly fashion. If you happen to be the kind of person who likes to skip around from topic to topic, we have also incorporated a Quick Topic Navigation index at the bottom of each page.

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Botox^® and BOTOX^® Cosmetic are registered trademarks of Allergan, Inc.

BOTOX^® - Quick Topic Navigation

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