In the UK, you must see a registered prescriber before this treatment. Doctors and Dentists all have the prescribing ability as a standard. Many nurses, pharmacists, and other medical professionals have a prescribing qualification, and this will be visible on their relevant governing body registration. Your consultation should be face-to-face, involve your past medical history, and give you the opportunity to have the risks, benefits, and details of the treatment to be explained to you clearly. It is important that you give as much information as possible, to ensure we can maintain your safety.

Anyone who has completed a training course. The UK industry can be a minefield and I make no secret of the fact that I personally feel that aesthetic injectable treatments should be caried out by people who have relevant medical training and experience. However, there are a lot of skilled non – medical injectors, who are attached to a prescriber and following the best possible safety standards that they can.

There is no regulation around injector training, and anyone can set up an ”academy”.

However, as a prescription only medicine, you must see a prescriber, face to face, before your treatment if it is being administered by a non – medical injector.

Your muscles moving under the skin, causes the skin to move and wrinkle. The lines that form when you move are called dynamic lines. Over time, the repeated movement cases lines or wrinkles in the skin, called static lines. This treatment acts in the receptors in the muscles, stopping or reducing the muscle movement, reducing the static lines and preventing them from getting worse.

This is most commonly used in the upper face for forehead, frown lines and crows feet. It can also be used for lip treatment, pebbled chin, downturned mouth, excessive sweating, gummy smile and jaw clenching/facial slimming as well as neck treatments and migraine.

The optimum action of treatment is at around 2 weeks. It is normal to start seeing some movement returning at around 5 – 6 weeks. Movement will gradually return to normal over the following weeks, with full movement returning at around 12 weeks. You should not have treatment any sooner than every 3 months. It is a good idea to allow the muscles to regain some strength before re – treating to prevent excessive weakness or atrophy of the muscles. The ideal time to retreat is as the static lines are starting to return.

Discomfort is minimal – the needle used is very small, and you’ll feel a sharp scratch.

The drug used is well – researched and it is widely used for medical treatments, but all treatments do have associated risks.

The most common risks are that of redness, swelling and bruising (though this usually settles quickly and risk of bruising is minimal). Rarely, the drug can move from where it is placed, to surrounding muscles. Your injector will avoid “high risk” areas and you will be given after care instructions to follow to reduce the risk of this happening. If it does happen, the risk is that you may experience an eyelid or eyebrow droop or ptosis. Whilst this doesn’t look particularly aesthetically pleasing, It is not something that causes you any harm as such, and does not usually last for the length of the treatment. If you do experience a ptosis, it is important to let your injector know. There are things that can be done to minimise the effects such as injections to lift the brow, or eye drops to help with lid drooping.

More rare side effects or risks can include mild headache after treatment, reactions or infection. Risks and benefits will be gone through in detail, and you should be given a consent form to sign prior to treatment.

Treatment must be avoided in pregnancy & breast feeding. Patients with myasthenia gravis should avoid treatment, and we are often a lot more cautious in patients who have had Bells Palsy previously. Treatment is not suitable for patients under the age of 18.