BOTOX- dental and cosmetic benefits
Botox is becoming an increasingly popular treatment at the dentist. Apart from the facial aesthetics benefits that most of us all know about Botox, dentists also apply Botox to relieve muscular pains caused by teeth grinding (bruxism ) and clenching.
What Is Botox?
BOTOX is a drug doctors have been using for years to treat wrinkles and facial creases. Dentists have been using Botox to relieve muscular tension and pain casued by teeth clenching and grinding. Botox is a brand name of a toxin made by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. There are other brands, such as Dysport and Xeomin. Botox is the term you hear most often because it was the first injectable botulinum toxin.
How Does Botox work and what are the benefits?
Botox blocks signals from the nerves to the muscles. The injected muscle can’t contract. That makes wrinkles relax and soften. In terms of relieving jaw muscle pain, the relaxation of jaw muscles prevents teeth clenching and grinding.
Botox is most often used on
- forehead lines
- crow’s feet (lines around the eyes)
- frown lines for aesthetic smoothening of the skin. It is used to
- relieve jaw pain in the masseter muscles of the jaw ( those muscles you feel when you clench your teeth).
What is involved in the Botox treatment procedure?
Getting Botox takes only a few minutes. You won’t need any form of anaesthetic. The dentist uses a small needle to inject Botox into specific muscles with only minor discomfort.
It generally takes 7 to 14 days to take full effect.
How long does Botox last?