CC's are irrelevant

Dear Di,

Botox is packaged as a 100 unit vial of freeze dried material, which has essentially no volume (cc's).  We, the physicians, then add any volume (cc's) of saline solution (salt water) that we choose to add.  This gives us a number of units per cc. 

In general, there is a range of units required to treat an area of the face.  The number of cc's used to treat an area will therefore depend on the amount of saline that was used to reconstitute the freeze dried product in order to inject the required amount of units to treat the area. 

For example, if your area being treated requires on average 20 units and the product is reconstituted with 2 cc's of saline then 0.4 cc of solution needs to be injected.  If the same product is reconstituted with 4cc's of saline then 0.8 cc of solution needs to be injected.  Charging by the cc and using a high dilution may be a way of increasing the price. 

I suggest calling around and getting prices from a number of different practitioners. 

Happy New Year!

Di,

You are correct, people sell Botox by cc, which is a measure of volume, or by unit, which is a measure of total Botox. Additionally, they may sell it by areas, which tells you nothing about the volume or the total Botox. It is best to always know how many units you are receiving. This way, the next time you have a Botox treatment, you will know if you need more or less in specific areas. Most careful injectors keep tract of how many units they inject in each area and mark this in their chart. If they are unable to tell you how many units they are injecting, then they probably do not know what they are doing.

I hope this is helpful.

5 of 5 found this helpful

Helpful?

Contact the doctor

Botox vials are measure in cc's. However, there are 100 units per vial. Everyone does it differently. I usually dilute 2 cc's for the bottle. I don't per se charge per unit or per cc's. I charge per area.  The forehead costs more than the glabellar region or the crow's feet.  Around the country, I would say there probably is a large range. Even in NY there is a large range. The forehead which probably uses .5 cc or 25 units is about $500-800,  The other areas are less, and the three areas together average less than the individual regions.

4 of 5 found this helpful

Helpful?

Contact the doctor

The problem with selling it in cc's is that it doesn’t tell you how much actual Botox you are getting. If it is diluted less than in other offices, you might be getting more units, if diluted more, then you will be getting less with the same number of ccs. That’s why only units should be discussed

3 of 4 found this helpful

Helpful?

Contact the doctor