Botox Went Wrong - Pstosis (Drooping) of the Eyes / Cheeks / Mouth Are Possible Side Effects !!!

Mine was noticeable immediately but then over time some things got much worse. Right after the injections the fat pads herniated under both eyes giving me what appeared as 2 black eyes. My cheeks were very swollen and dragging down so when I saw pictures of me smiling the following week I was horrified by the loss of my lovely cheekbones. My eyes looked puffy and tired in the beginning and most of my eyelashes fell out within a few weeks. Then over the next few months things got really ugly. The skin on my cheeks was so loose it looked as if it were melting off my face. The left side was much worse than the right. My left eye and cheek started pulling down like bells palsy. My left eye got very baggy and wrinkled. When I talked my left cheek and left side of my mouth pulled down dramatically. The DAO muscle on the left got very strong without the support from the zygomatics. My face began to dramatically change shape. It took another year for the worst things to occur though. After a year my temples had shrunk down to nothing. You could see my veins and skull bones (still can) …and the wrinkles set in. As my eyes were weakened, they became very saggy and wrinkled. I developed a festoon under the left eye where the skin bunches up and looks twice as bad as the right. Over time my left cheek became thick and heavy and the zygomatics still are not firing to this day. The muscles all over my body were effected within a few months of the last botox injections. I noticed marked muscle wasting in my hands and legs. Since then Ive realized there was a good deal of atrophy all over my head. I'm now trying to strengthen those muscles but it's challenging. Over time I realized the zygomatics never healed in part because of a rhinoplasty surgery I had just a year before the botox …the area around my nose became so tight from the rhinoplasty (combined with botox and fillers) that began restricting my cheeks and preventing them from lifting. Basically the muscles around my nose are so tense and tight that my zygomatics have become static as well. I just had a revision rhinoplasty to help my breathing and am hopeful that will help the cheeks to loosen up and become more mobile and then the upper cheeks will begin lifting again. I'm working with an acupuncturist and PT to rehab and mobilize the cheeks. One of the worst outcomes for me has been my corrugator muscle on the left. It finally made a full recovery about 2 years ago but it came back with a vengeance. Now it is overly sensitive to light and any tiny amount of stress. It contracts constantly and I have a wicked headache all the time. I look as if I'm scowling hard. It contracts harder every time I smile (this is a medical condition called synkinesis that was caused by botox) so people often look at me like I'm crazy when I smile at them. I've taken to wearing a hat and or sunglasses all day ..even when I'm home because the light in my house is unbearable. On a positive note …over the last 6 months I have made enormous improvement in the asymmetry around my mouth by working with a PT and doing daily exercises. The saggy skin on my face has also made drastic improvement although it's nowhere near where I was before botox. However I still look a good 10-15 years older than I did prior. My skin has little elasticity and was very damaged by the stretching and the enzyme injections. My eyelids are still very weak and I just lost a patch of eyelashes a few months ago where there is weakness in my eye. My temple on the right has just begun working again in the last few months. It is sore all the time from my exercises. My forehead is still very narrow but it's slowly improving with daily exercises. Over time I'm looking healthier and a little younger but know I will never again have the symmetry the taut skin the muscle volume and the mobility I once had.

Meltyface I just read your most recent addition. So sorry you are still struggling with this. Keep up the acupuncture ..I believe it has helped me quite a lot. Also have you tried weight training and yoga? Ive been trying to start again at the gym. My thinking is since my muscles wasted all over my head and scalp I need to build them up again by doing exercise that involves stabilizing. It is likely your face will build up again if you are doing whole body workouts and especially upper body weight training. My PT says my neck muscles have become especially weak and she's helping me strengthen them. I'm certain the muscles all over my head and neck have exacerbated the sagging skin on my face. Best of luck with everything and feel free to private message me if you just need to rant. I'm always up for a b*tch fest lol. xx Tori

When you talk about under the eyes is that what you mean? I had Botox at the side for crows feet/wrinkles is this the same thing?

What do you mean under the eyes? Do you mean crows feet at the side? I recently had Botox and filler in nose to Mouth lines and I'm happy with it but reading the issues people are having is making me wary of having more.

Hi melty. I've been following your posts for a few years now. It's been 2yrs 3months for me. And I haven't improved really at all. In fact, I think I've gotten worse. Dents all over my face, saggy skin, sunken in eyes with disgusting skin that bunches up when I smile etc. I no longer hav full cheeks, they are practically by my chin! This [RS bleep] is still in my face, I can feel it pulling and tugging when I make certain facial expressions. There isn't one part of my face that botox hasn't affected (for the worse) and to top it off, I now have acne! Never even had a pimple in my teens, twentys, and very early thirties. All my problems began as soon as I had botox. Can you still feel the effects of botox in your face?

Hi, I´ve had some problems logging into this site. Melty good to hear that you´ve had tiny changes. Now that one month has gone again, any improvement for you? Mouth, frontalis..?

Botox can last up to 2 years.. nice.. To my PS I would say 2 weeks my a**. (when he said this effect will be gone in 2 weeks) I´m now on 3 month mark and about 40% healed. My smile is still lopsided and I don´t smile as widely any more. In the mornings it´s worse. Are the mornings worse for everyone? I suppose it´s because muscles relax during night and it takes some time for them to wake up.

My daughter says that I have a banana smile. Well this is one experience in life, learning to live with banana smile. :/ But I have to say that I don´t think about my smile that much any more.

Happy healing to all!

How you doing Sara! And Hello to everyone else too! Sara, you are doing much better than I was at three months, nice one!!

I have some good news, my under eye areas have really improved...I'm still not totally convinced that my eyes will return to the line free way they were before BUT in the past few months I have seen big improvements. MY right eye has been consistently improving quicker than the left eye so my left has some catching up to do but it is catching up....I am 14 months post botox under the eye (1 unit on the lower lash lines) and my eyes are very close to looking normal again, yahoo!! My under eye area is definitely pulling up and tightening but like I predicted the lines that were created with the collapse are still visible, even though they have tightened....BUT they are lessening day by day so maybe the more they tighten the less they will get? Whatever this is GOOD news and I hope it is good for people reading this that worry they wont recover...I think there's a good chance I will get back to the way I was with a probably a little change in skin texture but hopefully that is all.

I also sent off 130 photographs to my solicitor the other day for my botched filler procedure (they injected five syringes of filler in my face and made me a look like a balloon head).....I was quite emotional looking at the photographs as somehow they looked distinctly worse on photographic paper than on the computer screen! :O Probably because I could compare myself before and after, side by side, the difference left me speechless and angry with myself and the nurse for doing that to me. It is taking SOOOO long for the filler to clear, I am now on month 19 since the first syringe and month 16 since the last and my face has still got alot of that crap in it. I feel positive about my case though after seeing the photographs so I will keep you updated...hopefully I get compensation out of those rats!

I think society is starting to catch on to these cowboys and more solicitors are taking on cases like ours...The solicitor told me that rarely do the cases end up in court...as the clinics settle before it gets there...so here's hoping.

How are you all getting on, have you got any good news to report? Hopefully not bad!!

I think we will all recover from this, but I reckon it takes about two years....I am 14 months on and I probably have another 20% healing to do to get back to base....

[RS bleep]

Hey Melty, Sara and Ghoul eyes

Good to see you post on here!!

Im doing ok, 12 months next month, disappointed as I thought I would be feeling 100%.

Forehead still feels constrained, sinus still pressure. Nose still goes very red. Its as though I cannot control the temperature on my face, its either very cold or very hot.

Really trying to be positive and not worry, as I feeling a lot better than I did when I first posted on this site. So Im hoping eventually I will get better. Fingers crossed.

Sounds like you guys are going in the right direction..

Happy Healing
xxxxxxx

HI Trippy...

Yeah, I know the feeling....I was at 12 months and that was the worst but i've seen miracles in just the last six weeks....I think you will start to see progress soon, it's soooo slow but I think it will get better for you!!

I am curious how much botox you had for 4 grand? You are 100% correct-it comes with risk.

Botulinum Toxin in Clinical Dermatology By Anthony V. Benedetto extract available to view on google books pg 229..link here http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ViacvgI6NY0C&lpg=PA229&ots=HbUw1hDyAf&dq=how%20to%20make%20botox%20wear%20off%20faster&pg=PA230#v=onepage&q=how%20to%20make%20botox%20wear%20off%20faster&f=false in clinical practise patients with BTX-A induced brow pstosis or excessive relaxation of zygotomaticus major and minor seem to recover faster if they attempt to exercise the affected muscles for 5 minutes, 5 times a day for several weeks

Hi butterfly, had frozen forehead / slight droop before but it was not very noticeable .. this time they went too deep..and hit major muscles left with hourglass deformity of the temples,orbical ?? muscles (both eyes) ...hit the zygotimacus on one side which gave the appearance of a stroke so they 'balanced' it on the other ... my face became elasticated, skin like crepe around the eyes..so distressing as they would not explain / admit to any errors ?? also the worst possible swelling in the morning as the lymph couldn't work (muscles pump it around the face)- NEVER AGAIN !!

Hi Meltyface - you know I am already aware of your whole story and I am right in the same boat with you. You have been badly let down by the medical profession and so have I. Botox does not only last 3-6 months as claimed, particularly if you have had it more than once. Botox lasts a whole lot longer than that and if you get a bad result then being stuck with it for months and months and months and months is a DEVASTATING experience. My heart goes out to you but know that you are not alone. The effect of botox is also cumulative because the time frames given by the medical profession to market botox encourage people to have botox again when the previous lot has not completely worn off. This accounts for the often-repeated experience of good result, good result, good result, DISASTER. Further, if doctors are going to administer botox then they should have the ability to recognise a bad result and they should also have high enough ethics to admit the bad result. If these doctors can't recognise a bad botox result then they should not be administering botox. Simple. I got the same denials as you did when I sought help after my botox horror and I still can't decide if they were really so inept that they couldn't recognise it or they were lying to cover it up. Either way, is is INEXCUSABLE. Doctors' denials about bad botox results are also why lots of people who had filler and botox at the same time can be led into error that the problem is all filler-related - like you, me, Happywithme, eyeschicago, swolleneye etc etc etc, which just compounds the problem. All procedures have risks and had I been informed of them, I would have said NO to botox. I was not given proper information about the risks before any of my procedures and I signed nothing. That being said, even if you have signed a waiver or consent or release detailing all the risks, doctors still MUST perform the procedure at the appropriate standard of care. They are NEVER released from this obligation no matter what you sign. And rightly so! It was week 37 for me yesterday and the botox effect has not gone away. As you know, I got extreme cheek ptosis (full facial drop) and festoon formation under the eyes, particularly the left eye. I have approached recovery in a similar way to someone recovering from Bell's palsy or a stroke. I am also using heat and exercise and I used the Tua Viso for a while. Apparently the Tua Viso is not as effective as resistance exercises, so I have just started Carolyn's facial fitness and I am crossing my fingers that this will work... Like you, I am mindful that botox affects skin because muscles and skin are connected in the face. This is why skin after botox initially feels tight and looks shiny and then it loosens up and becomes crepey as the botox wears off. Apparently the skin tightens up again as the muscles strengthen, but I have yet to see that happen in my case. I am taking silica gel (that I suggested to you on your hyaluronidase review) and I have looked into the CACI facials but they are unavailable in the city I live in. I can't think of any other remedies to expedite your recovery, Meltyface, but I will certainly post anything else I can think of. I did not start to see improvement until week 26 and I have seen some an increase in improvement in the past few weeks (ie weeks 34-37). I was repeatedly told by doctors that the horrible result I got from botox was 'natural ageing' and they actually expected me to believe that I had aged 10 years in 4 weeks like I was a complete gullible moron. I knew it was crap so I just waited it out. And guess what? They were wrong. If it was 'natural ageing' then I have 'un-naturally un-aged' in the past couple of weeks and I have a lot of photos that clearly demonstrate the 'un-ageing' process. Medical miracle? I think not. You are not hysterical or neurotice or a perfectionist. Botox CAN make a person look older. Botox CAN make a person look like they have had a stroke. Botox gone wrong made me look like a monster. Hang in there! I will let you know how Carolyn's facial fitness works for me. Cheers, K

Meltyface - I see you are at week 9. I am at week 37 and still not recovered. I hope my timeframe does not upset you. Waiting for this to go away has been truly awful and I hope you don't have to wait as long as me. I had a minimal amount of botox - 15 units total dispersed across forehead, crows feet, bunny lines and infraorbitally. It is a very small amount compared to the amounts other people have, but my botox effect was grotesque because the botox was potentiated by the tetracycline antibiotics I was taking. And the botox effect has certainly lasted a long time. Allergan & the FDA are aware of the bad interaction between certain classes of antibiotics and botox but there is no further information available about what impact (if any) the interaction has on the duration of the botox effect. As you would already know, botox works by blocking the transmission of acetylcholine from the nerves to the muscle. Even after the nerve-muscle connection is re-established, it takes more time for the muscles to build up strength, particularly in the case of cheek ptosis and facial drop. Our poor muscles are trying to pull up our facial fat back up against gravity! I too read the studies about lecithin increasing the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, particularly in relation to the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. I took a lecithin supplement (soy based) for a few months but I can't say for sure if it helped or not. A diary keeping track of remedies is a very good idea! I have also kept a written and photographic record of my experience with botox. And I agree with you - NEVER AGAIN!!!! Good luck and please keep us updated, K