Is It OK to Take Codeine for Pain Relief Before a Botox Appointment?

There usually should not be so much pain that narcotics are needed.  Our office uses topical numbing medicine.  We use small needles as well.  Best to talk to a couple of experienced injectors and see how they do their Botox.

There have been great comments already. I
have five strategies that help to minimize pain with Botox or other neurotoxin
injections:

1. Pretreat with a topical numbing medicine for
5-10 minutes.

2. Use vibration, either manually or, better, with one
of the new devices on the market that minimize pain with injection. There is a
gate theory of pain, the body can only sense a certain number of things from a
certain area at time. Thus, vibration can mask or crowd out some of the
pain sensation of an injection.

3. Use a cool pack for 5-10 seconds prior to
treatment of an area.

4. Inject with small-bore needles. I usually use a
32-gauge needle.

5. An
injector’s technique makes a difference. Quickly performed, 90-degree
injections to minimize the amount of pain sensation fibers encountered can
decrease pain.

I try to use all of the above to minimize
discomfort during injections.

Pretreating
with a narcotic is probably overkill. Especially if there is aspirin or
ibuprofen in the pill, which can exacerbate bleeding and bruising.