Botox Touch-Up at 7 Days? Why We Wait 14 Days (Video)

Thinking about a Botox touch-up one week after your appointment? In this 91 second Short, Lily Zelaya, RN, Aesthetic Nurse Injector at Express Med Spa, explains why she does not touch up Botox at day 7. She walks through the timeline of how tox works and why waiting for the full 14 days before adding units can help avoid a heavy result.

Read the full guide: How Long Does Botox Take to Work? A Day-by-Day Timeline

When to Get a Botox Touch-Up: What the Video Covers

• Day 1: Lily explains that the tox usually has not kicked in yet, so you still have your natural movement.
• Days 3 to 7: results start to show, and one side may settle sooner than the other. That is not the final result.
• Days 7 to 13: the effect keeps settling, so an area that looks like it needs a couple more units at day 7 may look different by day 14.
• Why she waits for day 14: adding units too early can leave patients feeling very heavy, especially in the frontalis (forehead) muscle. As Lily puts it, more Botox can be added, but units already administered cannot be taken away.

Our Botox treatment page follows the same timeline: results typically appear over 3 to 14 days, and any touch-up or dose adjustment is handled at a 2-week follow-up visit. If something still looks uneven once you reach day 14, that visit is the time to reassess with your injector. Results vary from person to person. You can book at our clinics in La Grange, Frankfort, Shorewood, Mount Greenwood, and Manteno.

Video Transcript

Lily Zelaya, RN: I do not touch up 7 days post-Botox treatment, and here’s exactly why. It essentially takes 14 days for your results to fully kick in. So tox results on day 7 are not the same as tox results on day 14. And so why I say I’m not going to touch up your day 7 tox is because you still have another 7 days for the tox to fully kick in.

Let’s break down the timeline of how tox works. Day 1, your tox has not kicked in at all. You’re still going to have all of your natural movement. Now, days 3 to 7, this is where things can start to look a little weird. Your Botox results are essentially kicking in, but you may notice one side is starting to settle in a little bit more than the other side.

Now, there’s a lot of nuance on why that could be happening. A lot of what I see, even in myself, is that one side is stronger than the other side. For me personally, my left side takes a little bit longer to kick in than my right side. At days 3 to 7, that is not the final result. So, if you’re noticing one side still moving or lines that are still there, that does not automatically mean that you need a touch-up, especially if we’re still between day 3 and day 7.

So, now at about day 7 to day 13, the effect of the toxin still continues to settle. So, something that looks like it needs a couple of units touched up on day 7 may look different by day 14. And so to avoid adding more units prematurely, which can often end up leading patients feeling very heavy, especially in the frontalis muscle, we wait for the full 14 days to touch patients up. You can always add more Botox, but I cannot take away units that have already been administered.

Read the full guide on how long Botox takes to work