Botox’s Biggest Misconception: It Won’t Fix Every Wrinkle

In this short, Lily Zelaya, RN, an aesthetic nurse injector at Express Med Spa, explains one of the most common misconceptions she hears: that Botox smooths every wrinkle. It doesn’t. Botox relaxes the lines your muscles create when you move, while the lines that come from age-related volume loss usually respond to filler instead. Knowing which is which is the first step in choosing the right treatment for your face.

Read the full guide: Dynamic vs. Static Wrinkles, and Which Botox Fixes →

Video Transcript

Not every line on your face is caused by muscle movement. One of the biggest misconceptions I hear is that Botox fixes every wrinkle, and I wish it did, but it just doesn’t.

Botox is amazing for treating lines that are caused by actual muscle movement, like your forehead, frown lines, and your crow’s feet. But unfortunately, as we get older, our face naturally changes in other ways too. We slowly start to lose things like your collagen, facial fat, and even some of the bone support that gives our face its shape.

The fat pads that once kept our face looking full and supported start to shrink and shift over time, which is why you might notice that your cheeks don’t look as full as they used to, your smile lines seem to appear deeper, or you’re starting to see marionette lines or little shadows around your mouth. And those changes are not happening because the muscles are pulling on the skin; these changes are happening because the support underneath the skin has changed.

And so that’s why Botox isn’t always the answer. Sometimes the concern isn’t just movement, it’s actual volume loss. And so that’s where filler can be very helpful. It’s not about making the face look bigger or changing the way you look at all. When filler’s done well, the goal is simply to replace some of the support that’s been lost over time, so everything looks a little softer and more refreshed.

At the end of the day, there’s no one treatment that fixes everything. My job as a registered nurse is to figure out what’s actually causing your concern, so that we can choose the treatment that makes the most sense for your face.

Read the full guide on dynamic vs. static wrinkles →