Can Botox Between Eyebrows Result in Wrinkles Under Eyes?

I had botox for the first time 1.5 months ago to treat frown lines. 32 units were injected between the eyebrows, and another 8 were injected slightly above each eye brow. Now when I smile, I have prominent wrinkles underneath my eyes, where none existed before? What could have gone wrong?

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9 Doctor Answers | Asked by bluejay1 in Vancouver

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Glabellar Botox

Botox injected into the glabellar area that you mentioned is very unlikely to "migrate" to the under eye area. Fortunately, I had a patient with a similar complaint as yours. I luckily had pictures of her prior to the injections of Botox. The pictures revealed, to her surprise, that periocular wrinkles were there before she had the injections.

New wrinkles after Botox.

I would agree that there are two likely causes of your problem. First is the phenomenon of recruitment where once certain muscles have been weakened others try to take over the function of the weakened ones. The second is the all to common phenomenon of seeing things for the first time after a treatment because we are focused on the area as we were not before. This is why all patients need to be photographed before a treatment is performed so a record is made that can be referred back to... more

Botox and wrinkles under eyes

When botox is administered and paralyzes some muscles, it may impact the other protions of the muscle when they strain to perform their function.

Steven Wallach, MD

12 reviews

Manhattan Plastic Surgeon

Facial lines and their perception

I do agree that there can be some increased facial movement after botox in untreated areas. There is one other explanation to consider however. If you can get a before and after photo to compare, there is a possibility that with the current lack of wrinkles in the treated area, you may be noticing lines that were there before but were much less prominant when compared with the wrinkles you had in the treated area. For example, sometimes when we treat a patient for acne,... more

Eye wrinkles after Botox

It may be that you are overly compensating with the "bunny line" muscles due to lack if activity of the corrugators or procerus. This could be one cause. Otherwise, I do not see an explanation for the observed wrinkling.

Otto Joseph Placik, MD

32 reviews

Chicago Plastic Surgeon

Botox for glabella and forehead

Botox when done in the upper forehead and glabella should not be a causative factor in seeing lower eyelid creases suddenly. If the botox injected above the eybrow was around the side and extended to a full Crow's feet treatment , then accessory muscle contraction when trying to squint, may induce more of a lower eyelid contraction.

Can Botox in the frown and forehead result in lower lid wrinkles?

At the doses used, Botox should not travel that far. Even if it did, it should not have skipped all the muscles in between. Either those wrinkles have always been there or something else is causing them.

Botox Injections Require Finesse, and Balance...

I can't answer your question directly, but I will make a couple of comments that might help. A photograph of your eyes before the treatment, and one now would have made this much easier. But apart from that, lets look at a few common issues that I have seen many, many times in 'first-timers' over the past 15 years since I started using Botox (R) (an excellent product in my opinion). Botulinum Toxin is being provided by thousands of practitioners, not all... more

Glabellar Botox Should Not Result in Lower Lid Wrinkles

I cannot conceive a mechanism by which Botox injected into the glabella and forehead would lead to increase wrinkling of the lower lids. First of all, Botox is unlikely to migrate this far and if it did, it should lessen rather than increase wrinkles here. I suspect that you were simply unaware of the condition existing prior to the Botox injections.