How BOTOX Can Complement Your Cosmetic Dentistry Treatment

You’ve got a lot riding on your smile. After all, your smile and your teeth are among the first features people notice about you, whether they’re meeting you for the first time or the hundredth time. Having a beautiful smile and healthy-looking teeth makes you look more attractive and feel more confident. Plus, when your teeth look great, it shows the world you take the time to care for yourself, and that can go a long way in both professional and social settings.

Few if any of us have naturally perfect smiles. But fortunately, cosmetic dentistry treatment at Rifkin Dental offers plenty of options to correct imperfections and flaws so you can have the smile you’ve always wanted. Still, as important as great-looking teeth are to a beautiful smile, they’re really just one part of your smile. You also want the area around your smile to look great — and that means getting rid of lines and wrinkles. The good news is, at Rifkin Dental, we have a solution for that, too. We offer BOTOX^© treatments using the most advanced techniques to help banish lines and wrinkles around your mouth, so you can face the world with a dazzling smile that looks more youthful and less stressed out. Here’s how it works.

The science behind BOTOX

BOTOX is a neuromuscular solution that diminishes the appearance of wrinkles by blocking nerve signals to your facial muscles. That’s a mouthful, so let’s break it down. Like the other muscles in your body, your facial muscles contract (tighten) and relax in response to specific stimuli. For your facial muscles, most contractions occur when we’re making facial expressions, like smiling or frowning. When a facial muscle contracts, it tugs on the overlying skin, creating folds and wrinkles. Over time, repeated expressions can etch those lines and wrinkles into your skin, making you look tired, worn, and haggard. 

Now, in order for your muscles to contract, they rely on nerve signals from your brain, which effectively “tell” them what to do. The nerve signals are picked up by special receptor cells on your muscles. BOTOX works by blocking those signals at the receptors, essentially preventing your facial muscles and your brain from communicating. Since your facial muscles don’t receive the message to contract, they can’t tug on the skin — and that means lines and folds won’t form. The result is smoother skin and a more rested, more relaxed expression that can help you look younger and feel more confident.

BOTOX only works on dynamic wrinkles, which are lines that form as a result of movement. Other wrinkles that form as a result of sun exposure, gravity, stress, or good old genetics are called static wrinkles, and they need dermal fillers to smooth them out. When it comes to your smile, most of the lines and wrinkles that form around the mouth are dynamic — and that makes BOTOX a great solution to help smooth out the entire area.

BOTOX and your smile

When you think of BOTOX injections, you probably think of treatments to smooth out crow’s feet and forehead lines. And, for sure, BOTOX is great for those issues. But BOTOX can also be a great solution for those tiny lines around your lips — your pucker lines. These wrinkles are often referred to as lipstick lines or smoker’s lines, but you don’t have to smoke or wear lipstick to have them. Pucker lines can show up from regular activities, like years of simply talking and eating. They form as a result of movement — and that means they can be good targets for BOTOX.

During a BOTOX treatment, your dentist will inject the BOTOX solution into the area around your mouth to help block those nerve signals that cause puckering. In addition to reducing those tiny lip lines, BOTOX relaxes your lip area, which just might help your lips appear fuller without having lip augmentation injections. The injections use a very fine needle, so any discomfort you might feel will be minimal. Once your injections are complete, it can take a few days before the maximum results are visible. Plus, you can have routine touch-up treatments every four to six months to prolong your results indefinitely.

An investment in your smile is an investment in greater self-confidence. At Rifkin Dental, we provide comprehensive cosmetic dentistry services aimed at improving the entire "smile zone" so that our patients can feel and look their best. To learn more about the BOTOX treatment we offer or to find out more about other cosmetic dentistry treatments, book an appointment online today.