An increasing number of 20 years try to prevent wrinkles from forming on their face with a preventive treatment called “baby botox”, which freezes the facial muscles to limit the movement.
Mary Louise Kelly, host:
An increasing number of 20 years receive a treatment known as Bébé Botox. It is designed to prevent wrinkles. He freezes the facial muscles to limit the movement so that they do not form lines. Health journalist Sarah Boden examines which stimulates this aesthetic trend.
Sarah Boden, Byline: Filling in Pittsburgh is different from any doctor’s office to which I went. It smells like a fancy hotel, looks like a nightclub and specializes in non -invasive aesthetic procedures. Lawyer Stephanie Moore comes here about four months to get Dysport. Very similar to Botox, Dysport is another brand of injectable medication that temporarily paralyzes the muscle.
Stephanie Moore: This is one in my favorite ways to treat me.
Boden: Moore paid $ 462 for today’s treatment. She started coming here three years ago at the age of 27. Dr. Christian Bosquet’s medical director administers injections. He asks Moore to blur his smooth face …
Christian Bosquet: rinsing up. Perfect.
Boden: … then uses a green marker for the point where the folds and the ridges appear. This is where he injects.
Bosquet: His muscles in certain areas have been extinguished from the moment I met her for the first time.
Boden: The doctors to whom I spoke for this story said that they had seen an increase in the 20 years and even some teenagers in research from the Pandemic Covid-19. Dr. Kristy Hamilton is a visual artist surgeon in Houston.
Kristy Hamilton: Tiktok really resumed. There are many more this content on social networks and probably also a degree of boredom.
Boden: sociologist Dana Berkowitz wrote the book “Botox Nation”. She says that because young people live so much about their online lives, they are more aware of their appearances. And this is more motivated by influencers on Tiktok and Instagram.
Dana Berkowitz: They get a free botox or a filling or a micro-needle or something else if they film it, then they publish it because it is advertising.
Boden: Food and Drug Administration has not approved cosmetic injectable for minors. And Hamilton, the plastic surgeon, says that there is no good age to start.
Hamilton: And sometimes we see people in the middle of the twenties who have a lot of wrinkles, and it’s just life.
Boden: These drugs are derived from the same bacteria that cause botulism, but because it is administered in small doses, doctors say that it has no risk. But the plastic surgeon based in Miami, Dr. Paul Durand, says that Botox can cause too much muscle atrophy, which can make your face hollow over time.
Paul Durand: As we get older, we lose volume opposite. So you don’t want to worsen this with muscle atrophy.
Boden: He says the hollow look is easy to avoid not doing too much. But there are people who end up looking frozen. Durand says that if a patient is sufficiently determined, he will be able to find a clinician to give them more aggressive injections. This is partly because it is a lucrative field of medicine. Because insurance does not reimburse, people pay from their pocket. In addition, sociologist Dana Berkowitz says that once patients are starting to get Botox or a similar medication, they generally do not stop.
Berkowitz: So, once you have people in their twenties, you have a life consumer.
Boden: Berkowitz is one of these consumers for life. She explains that when you stop obtaining injections, the effects ends up descending, so that people have forced themselves to continue.
Berkowitz: And Botox is not only addictive in this way, but it can also be a bridge medication in other cosmetic procedures.
Boden: which means that those who start at 25 years can spend thousands of dollars in the middle of the thirties. It is a lot of money that a youngster could invest elsewhere.
For NPR news, I am Sarah Boden.
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