While it’s no secret that BOTOX can ease the creases in your forehead and Radiesse can smooth out deep wrinkles, there are a bunch of weirdly awesome other ways to use injectables.
- Fillers for your earlobes. “Earlobes elongate with age especially when burdened with years of supporting heavy earrings,” explainsUlysses H. Scarpidis MD, Director of Plastic Surgery, Scarpidis Aesthetics and ASAPS member doctor. “Often times, a small office based surgical procedure can help remove the excess earlobe skin restoring its natural, youthful, round shape. For this reason, the use of hyalurinuc acid injectables is a popular alternative to restoring the shape of earlobes and reinforcing the earring holes. Although this procedure will not rejuvenate the overall size of the earlobe, enough support can be recreated around the earring hole to avoid the need for a surgical procedure and allow a patient to resume wearing earrings right away.” That means a little Juvéderm might just be the answer to wearing those door-knocker earrings you saved from highschool.
- Xeomin is being used to chisel faces. “Xeomin is FDA approved for treating the lines of the glabella.” If you’re not already familiar with Xeomin, here’s a quick rundown of what it does. “Physicians often times use the proven power of medications for off label procedures with equal efficacy. I like to use Xeomin to reduce the size of the masseter muscle. This muscle runs along the cheek from the cheek bone down the posterior aspect of the mandible and can contribute to a rounder, fuller, lower face. Using Xeomin, I can weaken the masseter muscle, and reduce the muscle’s thickness thus creating a more chiseled jaw line and overall more slender look.”
- You can plump up the bags under your eyes, giving you a more rested look. “The eyes are one of the first signs of fatigue and aging. There’s no wonder why women are opting to have fillers help camouflage the under eye bags, improve the tear trough valleys formed between the nose and lower eyelids, and improve dark under eye circles. Only a small amount of filler is needed to improve the lower eyelid contours and provide a refreshed, well rested and rejuvenated look. I prefer to use thin, smooth HA’s such as Belotero or Juvederm Ultra to re-contour the lower eyelids because they provide the most natural results while lasting up to 9 months.” Think this is too good to be true? I covered this for Smart Beauty Guide recently and took video of the whole thing. It works.
- You can walk on clouds. Just kidding, not literal clouds, but if you’re the type to wear heels on a regular basis, you know that more cushion = more cushion. “Fillers can help pad the pressure points of the foot relieving some of the discomfort of walking in heels.” Give us ALL the fillers in our feet!
- You can restore youth to old-looking hands. Ever see a woman with a gorgeous face and grandma hands? That’s a real thing, because we’re all guilty of paying more attention to our faces than our hands (SPF, skincare, you name it). Radiesse was recently approved by the FDA to help fill, smooth, and rejuvenate old looking hands. High five!
- Scalp Botox. Yup, that’s a thing! Apparently it works the same way BOTOX does in the underarm area– by depressing sweat glands. That means you can get a blowout and not skip your pilates class (haven’t we all done that? ruined our fitness plans to save a good blowout?). It may be an extreme measure for most, but hair enthusiasts are getting into it.
- You can fix your tush. I wish writing this was a joke, but it’s not, and it was brought to my attention by my best friend and beauty writer, Aly Walansky, “Whether you got a tear in your anus from a really aggressive poop or just a really intense date night, anal BOTOX can help deal with anal pain and tears.” It’s true. There’s research to back it up (no pun intended).
- You can have puffy, youthful labia. “Many women develop laxity and deflation of the labia majora as they age,” explains Dr. Christine Hamori’s website. “Decreases in estrogen may contribute to aging in this delicate area just like in the face. After child birth and around menopause are common times when women notice this problem. The wrinkling and laxity can be addressed non-surgically with the injection of fat.” Fat or HA injectables are used for this.
- You can plump your tush, too. Celebs swear by plumping their skinny tushies with Sculptra, an injectable that works by stimulating your own collagen growth for up to 2 years at a time. I wrote about that here, because it’s one of the most fascinating ways to use injectables.
- Neck injections are a thing. “I often inject Botox into the neck bands (also called platysmal bands) to cause them to smooth out temporarily,” Dr. Anthony Youn MD, a board certified plastic surgeon and ASAPS member, explains. “The results last 3-4 months, after which it must be retreated, otherwise the platysmal bands return back to how they used to be. It is an off-label use of Botox.” Read more of what Dr. Youn has to say about all that, here.
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