Should I Wait Until Botox is Completely Gone?

You needn't wait for four months to repeat your Botox treatment if yours is wearing off at 3 months. By treating it before it completely wears off, you have a better chance of improving the skin crease by relaxing the muscle contraction below before it has a chance of scrunching the skin again.

I would plan this around your schedule.  With Botox there is no specific answer for the timetable as it lasts differently for everyone.  If you are trying to plan your injections around an event then do so.  That is if you would like to have the maximum wrinkle reduction effects of the Botox for an event and you feel that the previous treatment has not entirely worn off (or maybe it has worn off in certain areas and not others) then plan to have Botox in those areas which have worn off before your event.

If you want to get the most permanence from your Botox treatment, it will help to get the next treatment before the motion comes back completely. Patients who treat with Botox this way find that the wrinkles come back less and less after each subsequent treatment.Eventually, you will require less botox to get the effects as the wrinkle causing muscles weaken over time from repeat botox treatments.

Great question. On average, Botox will last around 3 months. If you were at the 1 or 2 month mark, I would say to wait. At the 3 month mark, your Botox will either be worn off or getting close to that point. It could not hurt to get a second treatment at this time. Because you may still have some of the muscles in the area partially paralyzed, you may not need as much Botox to get the desired effect. I would recommend going to the same physician who performed your previous treatment, as he/she knows how many units of Botox were injected and would best be able to estimate how much you would need. Thanks and I hope this helps!

Treating before your muscles get back to baseline is preferred, and this will help keep you from strengthening those muscles that contribute to the lines and/or wrinkles.

I have been injecting Botox for aesthetic purposes since 1991, eleven years before it received its FDA approval for these purposes. So, I have quite a bit of experience with this product, as well as with the two other currently available neuromodulators, Dysport and Xeomin. During this extended period I have often noticed that patients who underwent an initial series of four or five treatments at a fixed four month interval (regardless of whether they saw the return of their wrinkles or not) generally enjoyed more prolonged intervals between subsequent future treatments.

Within the past couple of years a similar experience has been reported in the medical literature. A couple of explanations have been proposed for this. One suggests that repeated treatments with neuromodulators causes some mild atrophy (shrinkage) of the expression muscles that are treated and that this translates into diminished muscular activity and less pronounced wrinkling on motion. A second hypothesis suggests that the neuromodulator, by diminishing muscular activity in certain muscle groups, "retrains" them not to be so active upon expression leading to less motion-related wrinkles. 

Whatever the actual mechanism, I explain this to first-time patients and let them decide whether to undergo the initial series at fixed intervals or to simply wait until their wrinkles return. 

 

 

  To best keep wrikles at bay, BOTOX treatments can be repeated before the muscles are fully reactivated. The exact timing is at each patient's discretion depending on how long the product lasts. Generally, injections for most are repeated every  3-4 months for optimal maintenance.

The interval between Botox treatments can vary from person to person.  First off, there is no harm in having it done before it's completely worn off (3 months in your case).  The longevity of the effect from Botox can vary and some people prefer to wait until it's completely worn off and some prefer to have it done before the lines or furrows start to return.  Ultimately, it's just a personal decision as to how long to wait in between treatments.  

You can come back for Botox when you start to see the effects just beginning to dissipate. This way you never give your face the chance to start forming the wrinkles and lines again. There is no contraindication to getting Botox done before it starts to wear off, but you may be wasting your money and not getting much of a change in return. 

I generally advise to book in for your next Botox treatment 2 weeks or so after your previous Botox starts wearing off. This way you can extend the benefit, but also transition gradually into your next treatment. Similarly, you wouldn't wait till your hair was a complete mess before getting a haircut.