Just After Botox, How Do I Do The Mimic Movements? (photo)

As the panel members suggested, "mimic movements" is only referring to facial exercises to use the muscles that were treated to, in theory, better cleave or bind the Botox.  Whether or not you comply with this is of real no relevance although it's nice to hear that you are trying to follow all directions.  You should always feel free to direct these questions to your injector for a quicker, more detailed explanation.

There is a suggestion that many physicians propose to their patients which is to exercise the muscles that were just treated with Botox.  This theory, which has never been proven, asserts that the exercise might deplete the nerve-muscle junction of the acetylcholoine, the normal neurotransmitter that is necessary for the nerve to signal the muscle to contract.  As the muscle is exercising and the junction is trying to get more acetylcholine, it finds the Botox and incorporates it instead of the acetylcholine. In this way the Botox acts like a block in the pathway and prevents the signal from going to the muscle.  You can look in a mirror and just try to bring the inner eyebrows together if you had Botox injected in the glabella to decrease the "11" frown lines. If you have forehead lines (horizontal lines) treated then you can exercise by raising the forehead and if it was the crows' feet, then just squint a few times.  Again, this has not been proven and you probably will get an excellent result regardless.

I have done thousands and thousands of BOTOX treatments.  It is absolutely not necessary to perform these exercises to have a great treatment result.   If anything, working the muscle is going increase the muscle bulk rather than help the treatment effect.

basically all your doctor wants you to do is squint, look up and squint...probably wants you to do it several times...over several hours...maybe every 15 minutes for an hour or two with five or ten repetitions each time...sounds like a good idea...can't hurt...and may actually prove of some benefit...no objection to doing it and simple enough...

My only real rule after Botox is that you shouldn't press on your face or massage it for at least 24 hours. There are lots of misnomers out there about what will or won't help your Botox work better. Some people say don't lie down, others will say make sure you don't exercise, others will say do "mimic movements". None of that will help or harm your Botox but it never ceases to amaze me what people are told to do or not do. But to answer your question, mimic movements are when you try to lift your eyebrows high, or scrunch the lines by your eyes, or furrow your brow, and you do these movements again and again. Some doctors think that overdoing these movements post-Botox will help the Botox work faster in these muscles. I've never seen it make one ounce of difference though.