Botox backlash: Evidence reveals the so called 'miracle jab' may actually GIVE you wrinkles

By Alice Hart-davis

Created: 12:39 EST, 9 May 2010

Miracle cure? Botox injections could create new lines

Over the past 15 years, Botox has been embraced by thousands of women - and men.

The market in the forehead freezing drug is worth almost £18 million in the UK alone.

But one of its least-known, and most deliciously ironic, side-effects is that if you use it a lot, or have it injected by an inexperienced practitioner, Botox can actually give you wrinkles.

Cosmetic experts have noted that knocking out some of the facial muscles can bring others into play.

In a piece for the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology in 2002, Dr David Becker, an assistant professor of dermatology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, observed that 'wrinkles caused by untreated muscles of facial expression paradoxically can become more prominent'.

'Paralysis of a set of muscles,' he suggests, 'might lead to recruitment of other muscle groups in an attempt to reproduce the conditioned activity being blocked - resulting in more prominent muscle activity in adjacent regions.'

In other words, your face will still find a way to make expressions by using different areas than where you've had Botox, leading to more lines.

The main place where these wrinkles appear is across the bridge of the nose. These 'bunny lines', as they have been christened (twitch your nose like a rabbit, and you'll get them, too), have been seized on with glee as one more clue to guess which celebrity has been Botoxed.

You may have seen them on the faces of Dannii Minogue and Amanda Holden. These beauties have lovely smooth foreheads . . . and peculiar little wrinkles across the nose which pop up when they smile.

Bunny lines: Amanda Holden, left, and Kylie Minogue show the signs of Botox through wrinkles across the bridge of their noses

Some people have them naturally, but increasingly, bunny lines are being seen as a dead giveaway that the person in question has submitted to the needle.

Leading cosmetic dermatologist Dr Nick Lowe, of the Cranley Clinic in London, says: 'If you inject the forehead with Botox, the muscles at the sides of the nose and on the lower bridge of the nose often act a bit more strongly, just because the adjacent muscles have been reduced in strength by the injections. That's why you get bunny lines.

'You could always pre-empt the problem by getting your nose Botoxed, too. 

'I routinely inject the nose,' says Dr Lowe, 'particularly if I'm injecting around the eyes to soften crows' feet. If you inject crows' feet and leave the bunny lines, the muscles that cause the bunny lines can also increase the under-eye lines.'

Generally, botulinum toxin type-A wrinkle- relaxers are considered very safe. Originally used to treat debilitating neurological diseases such as post-stroke spasticity, blepharospasm and foot spasticity assocciated with cerebral palsy, Botox is classed as a prescription drug.

When used for cosmetic purposes, it's in far smaller quantities. Side-effects such as lowering brows and drooping eyelids are rare, but in smaller ways Botox can distort a face, making it look not quite right; a bit 'off', somehow.  

This distortion becomes clearer when we see faces that remain immobile as their owner's voice goes through a whole range of emotions, but even when Botoxed faces are at rest they can look faintly peculiar.

Five years ago, this look might have puzzled most of us. But now we know what it is, Botox has become something of a joke and has become less acceptable.

'As we age, we should still want to look like ourselves,' says make-up guru Bobbi Brown.

Her campaign, Pretty Powerful, is all about showing how much we can improve our faces with a dab of concealer and a dash of lip gloss, and makes a point of featuring real, un-Botoxed women.

'Botox is a poison,' she says: when we are so careful about what we put into our bodies, why do we want someone to shoot poison into our faces?

'I tried Botox once, a couple of years ago, between my eyebrows. I didn't like it. I looked unnatural. Going down this route is a bit like weeding your garden. When do you stop? A face without lines lacks warmth and personality.'  

So are we likely to start seeing a rash of new wrinkles in publicity photographs and on TV? Who knows?

In an ideal world, such minor signs of ageing might just become fashionable - the mark of a genuine, as opposed to Botoxed-and-airbrushed, type of beauty. We can but hope.

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