Botox: Q&A
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Is the Orbicularis Oculi Muscle Ever Frozen with Botox Injections?
I read the paragraph below on an Oprah.com article, and was wondering if this muscle is commonly or ever frozen by botox injections? "When someone smiles out of genuine delight, a facial muscle called the orbicularis oculi involuntarily contracts, crinkling the skin around the eyes. Most of us are incapable of deliberately moving this muscle, which means that when a person fakes a smile, her orbicularis oculi likely won't budge."
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15 Doctor Answers |
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anon
+4
Obicularis occuli
The obicularis occuli acts as a sphincter for the eye. It is a ring like muscle that squeezes the eye shut. There are other sphincter muscles such as the mouth sphincter (obicularis oris) and the anal sphincter (under appreciated until it doesn't work properly).
Botox to the crows feet weakens the obicularis occuli and it is never injected to totally wipe it out. A very, very nice improvement to the crows feet can be made with careful injection that...
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+3
Botox uses
Botox is FDA approved for cosmetic purposes only in the glabella. However, it is commonly used "off label" in other locations. I commonly inject it on the side of the eyes, partially weakening the lateral extent of the orbicularis oculi muscle. This helps to soften crow's feet when smiling. When used here, I have never seen it create an un-natural or fake appearance with facial animation.
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Botox used for crows feet lines
Yes, the orbicularis oculi muscles are often "frozen" with Botox to treat crows feet lines. That muscles is the one that closes the eyes, so the whole muscle isn't frozen, just the part infer the crows feet. I do believe that the smile of true delight shows much differently than a fake smile. Artfully done Botox shouldn't change that.
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Orbicularis Occuli Muscle and Botox
I have not looked at Oprah's explanation, but it is not true that the orbicularis muscle is inactive during a fake smile. It is very easy to voluntarily activate that muscle and a fake smile would most certainly include the orbicularis. In fact, it would require a great deal of concentration to fake a smile and not use the orbicularis muscle to any appreciable degree. It is true that a faked smile is different than a real smile, but it has to do with the fine details of...
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BOTOX® is mainly used to relax muscles, seldom to freeze them
In particular when used in aesthetic medicine, BOTOX® is mainly used to relax muscles, seldom to freeze them.
Almost all of my patients want a natural, wholesome, relaxed appearance. This can usually be achieved by simple treatment with moderate doses of BOTOX®.
In subsequent treatment sessions the dose of BOTOX® can be adjusted up or down [as the patient wishes] to adjust the degree of relaxation of the orbicularis or other muscles of facial expression. For example, in...
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Botox for "crow's feet": keep the smile, lose the wrinkles
The eyes and the mouth have a circular muscle around them called orbicularis, which puckers the lips (causing "smoker's lines") and crow's feet wrinkles lateral to the eyes. Botox works well for crow's feet when palced into the lateral part of the orbicularis oculi. Keep in mind though that smiling involves a lot of muscles (not as many as frowning according to popular wisdom) so you shouldn't lose all expression by treating the orbicularis with Botox.
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The Eye's Orbicularis Muscle, Botox and Oprah.com
What makes us APPEAR human is our ability to show facial expressions. The muscles of facial expressions, also called ANIMATION muscles are so named based on the Latin word of Anima or Soul. It is therefore an outward expression of our soul to facially express our inner feeling and emotion.
Unlike what Oprah.com states, the Orbicularis Oculi muscle CAN and IS moved deliberately every time we smile, forcibly close our eyes or squint. The repeated contractures of the muscles crease...
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Botox freezing eye muscles
In a large enough does, the Botox can weaken the orbicularis muscle to a large extent. When one smiles, typically both the orbicularis muscle and the cheek muscles contract and the crow’s feet or wrinkles form from both muscles. Even if you totally weaken the orbicularis muscles, upon smiling, you will still have crow’s feet, maybe less, but still some.
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Orbicularis eye muscles not totally "frozen" with Botox Cosmetic
These muscles, the Orbicularis Occuli, are sphincteric muscles that are partially weakened but not totally frozen or paralyzed with Botox, in order to reduce the appeaance of crow's feet around the lateral eye area. Typical dosing is 8 to 12 units per eye for this purpose in my experience, and it works quite well in reducing these lines and wrinkles for about 4 months on average.
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Is the Orbicularis Oculi Muscle Ever Frozen with Botox Injections?
Yes, all the time when Botox, Dysport or the newer Xeomin is injected into the Crow Feet area of the face. This is the outer edge of that muscle.
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Orbicularis and botox
Quite often patients have the crow's feet treated which consists of injecting Botox into the orbicularis muscle which makes up the crow's feet region.
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Botox relaxes the orbicularis oculi muscle in the crows feet in Oprah's article
To minimize and soften the crows feet lines, the Botox is purposefully injected into the outer corner of the eyelid to affect this muscle. This is the muscle that allows us to squint and most people can squint voluntarily so I disagree with the statement to which you referred in the article.
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Botox treatment of the muscles around the eyes
The orbicularis muscle is treated when we treat the crow's feet with Botox and when one attempts to get a slight lift of the brow. I think Dr Smith said it well, our goal is not to freeze the muscle but to relax the muscle to achieve a more relaxed look.
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Crows feet might not be eliminated completely after botox injection.
Botox would weaken the outer portions of the orbicularis occuli to reduce / improve crows feet. It is true that crows feet treatment may not result in complete resolution. This is because when we smile, our cheeks would elevate independent of the activity of the orbicularis. Thus you might have some residual crows feet formation upon smiling even if botox has done its part of weakening the outer posrtions of the orbicularis oculi.
see video
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This statement is a classic oversimplification.
When we smile we do activate the orbicularis oculi muscle on the top of the cheek. Over treatment with Botox will affect the activity of the orbicularis oculi muscle. In fact over treat with Botox will create a frozen or locked in effect which is aesthetically undesirable. The goal of Botox should be the subtle and favorable adjustment of the balance in facial muscles. This the reason why I introduced Microdroplet Botox. This patented method creates a forehead lift without the...
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