Having Botox too soon could make you look old before your time

Cosmetic specialist Darren McKeown on the pros and cons of this treatment

When Alastair and Jean Carruthers published their first paper on the anti-wrinkle effect of Botox, the average age of their patients was 41 years. That was in 1992. I wonder if they ever thought back then that their new wonder drug would one day allegedly be used on little girls who take part in beauty pageants.

Earlier this month, a pageant mum from California, Kerry Campbell, shocked the world when she went on American TV and claimed to inject her eight-year-old daughter, Britney, with Botox. She said her daughter asked for the treatment to take away the wrinkles she gets when she smiles, and insisted that plenty of other pageant mothers do the same. An international media frenzy transpired, leading Californian authorities to take the child into care. The mother subsequently retracted her statements, claiming it was all a hoax to attract media attention.

But this is not the first time the issue of under-age Botox has hit the headlines. Last year, there was another media storm when a British mother, Sarah Burge, the self-proclaimed "Human Barbie", told the world that she was giving her 15-year-old daughter Botox injections, coining the phrase "teen-toxing" in the process.

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Would you risk a Botox boob job? It costs just £700, gives an instant lift without surgery and claims to have no side-effects.

The effects of gravity can be cruel to women, especially when it comes to breasts.

Even with a good bra, the ravages of time combined with breastfeeding and yo-yo dieting conspire to make once pert and firm breasts go droopy.

And then there’s sun damage, which results in crepey, blotchy skin on the decolletage.
In the past, a woman who wanting a breast lift had only one option: a major surgery known as a mastopexy.

This involves removing excess skin and repositioning the breasts. It’s very expensive at £3,000, requires several weeks of recovery time, and can result in a loss of sensation in the nipple area.

Now, however, a new treatment — the Botox breast lift — is available in the UK. This new treatment promises instant results with no side-effects and no recovery time.

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Non-Surgical Lipolysis Banned in France

According to an article in French magazine Anti-Age, the French High Authority of Health (HAS) has recently prohibited the use of a variety of different lipolysis (fat killing) cosmetic procedures.

The online magazine states that :

The implementation of the techniques referred to as lipolytic non invasive, using external physical agents, without breaking the skin (focussed ultrasound, radiofrequency, laser, etc..) has a suspicion of serious danger to human health.

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A little lipo with your facial, madam?

The number of people having both cosmetic surgery and beauty treatments such as botox are increasing.

But in this week's Scrubbing Up, consultant plastic surgeon Fazel Fatah, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), warns lines between the two are being blurred, and more effective regulation is needed.

You wouldn't trust your boiler to an unqualified engineer - so why do people continue to trust their face and body to untrained practitioners?

There is a difference between plastic surgery - facelifts, breast enhancement, tummy tucks, liposuction, etc - and cosmetic salon treatments such as lasers, peels and injectable fillers.

But the two are being confused in a way that trivialises surgery and puts patients in real danger.

Alarmingly, there are many practitioners offering procedures that require specialised surgical training and expertise which they do not have - and there is no regulation whatsoever to protect the public.

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