Dysport First (And Only) Time - Around Eyes and Forehead

I looked in the mirror tonight and to my alarm have chipmunk cheeks 3 days after Dysport injections in my crows feet. 3 previous injections of Botox never rendered this result. This is my first time with Dysport. The wrinkles around my eyes haven't softened - now I just look fatter, older and weird! How long will this effect last and how can I fix it? Does it happen with Botox too?

Hi VJ (Alarmed) - yes the "chipmunk" effect can happen from any muscle paralyser. It is called CHEEK PTOSIS. Google it. Essentially, when too much botox/dysport is injected into the eye muscle for crows feet or the botox/dysport is injected into the wrong place, then the eye muscle flattens out and is no longer strong enough to hold up the facial fat which droops down the face and creates the "chipmunk" swollen cheeks (especially evident when smiling because they puff out to the sides). Your crows feet are gone. The "wrinkles" you are seeing around your eyes are in a similar place to crows feet but they are not crows feet. Crows feet occur because of a working muscle creating lines. Your muscle is not working. The lines you are seeing occur because of the bunching of loose skin over a muscle that does not work because it has been weakened too much. Check if the skin in that area seems looser to you. Unfortunately, cheek ptosis seems to be the bad botox/dysport effect that takes the longest to wear off completely. I don't want to alarm you further but you should be realistic about how long this will take to fix. Read the review from Beth F - it is 7 1/2 months for her and she is just coming good from cheek ptosis now. Amaxy, Petrified, Learning and I all have cheek ptosis. We are all at different stages and we write to each other about it under Beth F's review. Please feel free to join our discussion or send me a private email if you like. I don't think you can fix it with anything but time. I am so sorry to hear that you also have this result as I know how awful it is. There is lots of support here though. Look forward to hearing from you. Cheers

thanks so much for your response. I guess I will just have to wait until the Dysport wears off.

Hi again VJ - I read my reply again and I realise it looks pretty pessimistic. Sorry about that! Although I understand that Beth F is only back to normal after 7+ months, there will be improvements in the meantime! Also, I think how long you will have to wait depends on the severity of the cheek ptosis. Beth, Amaxy, Petrified, Learning and I are all in the 'severe' category. Do you have any puffiness under your eyes? The puffiness/bags under my eyes (especially the left one) was extreme for the first month or so. Now after 8 weeks, I would classify it as high, which means it has improved a little. If you do not have the puffiness/eyebags, then it is possible that your cheek ptosis is not so bad and will therefore wear off more quickly. From what I can gather, protruding bags under the eyes, strange horizontal lines across the protruding bags and a bizarre crepiness of the skin around the eyes are all markers of severe cases of cheek ptosis. Chloerose described it as a 'dented apple'. I have my fingers crossed for you that yours is only mild and will resolve a lot sooner. Keep us updated. Cheers, K

Im on week 4 after my dysport injection and I have cheek ptosis on my left side. After reading the other stories I realize Im not alone. My doctor first tried to blame it on bells palsy. When he admitted that it could possibly be the dysport he then tried to tell me this was the first time hes ever seen or heard of this happening, which is a complete lie. I just want my smile back. I should have researched the side affects before paying someone to destroy my face and my self confidence. Im also very concerned that this could possibly be permanent. HELP!

Hi Michelle - Bell's Palsy??! I certainly looked like I had a stroke and/or Bell's Palsy but it was definitely the botox. It has now been about 8 weeks for you. Any improvement so far? It is 31 weeks for me and I still look very strange. Would love to hear from you. Cheers

Started to see improvement about a week ago. It comes and goes at first I guess its the muscles trying to come back to life. Im so excited to see my smile start to come back. I have a ways to go still but its heading in the right direction. It could be several more weeks or months before it comes back completely. I cant believe its been 31 weeks for you. I know its hard but hang in there. Have you had any improvement at all? Keep me posted.

I have seen some improvement but I still look like crap! I honestly am starting to think that I am having the worst botox disaster in the world. Just excellent. You hang in there too and I am so happy for you that it seems to be wearing off sooner rather than later! Cheers

HI, having the same problems. I had Dysport done under my eyes, crow feet and forehead on Dec. 2, 2009. Ten days later noticed my skin drooping or sagging about an inch and a half below my right eye and a little below my left eye. I went back to the Dermo office who did the procedure and she said if she injected more around the nose area it would make it better. Stupid me, I believed her and let her put more in. I guess I was desperate to look better for Christmas but it made everything a lot worse. There is way more droopy skin under both eyes now and both cheeks are really swollen. There are like layers of swollen and droopy skin below my eyes about equal to where the top of my checks start, the worse and most noticeable spot on the face that the skin can droop. The droppy layers of skin also have made more lines in my face that look like really deep and long wrinkles. I have been back to the doctor a few times now and he had me on steroids for 8 days which helped with some of the swollen but it all came right back two days after I was done taking them. It did not help at all with the droopy skin or the extra wrinkles. I have read a lot of reviews but it seems like no one ever says if theif bad results from the Dysport have gone completely away. I do believe the swollen will probably go away after months but I am so afraid that after the swollen is gone that the droopy skin will still just be hanging there and that the only way it will be fixed is to have plastic surgery. If anyone knows if the skin will lift itself back up please let me know. I have been so depressed, I barely go out of the house or talk to anyone.

I share your pain and horror at botox/dysport gone wrong. It is the most lonely and depressing episode of my life. It would sesem that cheek ptosis and festoon formation under the eyes from botox/dysport is not uncommon, it is just that there is nowhere to report this adverse effect except by anecdotes on websites like this. I think people are unaware how much it really happens. I don't know how to answer your question about full recovery. You had dysport 11 weeks ago. Tomorrow it will be 32 weeks since my botox disaster and I still look horrible. I don't write this to depress you further but I know how I felt at around the 3 month mark - I was very, very hopeful that it was about to wear off because that is what all the doctors say. When it didn't go away after 3-4 months, I went through a period of shocking depression because I had wanted so badly to believe that it would all be over and then it wasn't. The disappointment was overwhelming. I don't want this to happen to you. After 8 months, I have seen some improvement but I still look terrible. I have no idea when to give up and accept it is permanent. I think I am still seeing changes, so I am not prepared to give up just yet. Keep me posted and I will do the same for you. Hang in there and know you are not alone. Email me anytime. Cheers, K

Hi, I want to thank you for your time and all your information. This is beyond horrible and it is a shame that these doctors, etc. make all this money off Botox (Dysport) at our expense. I was able to get my money back but what good does that really do. The money don't matter when you are this depressed and don't even want to walk out your door. My doctor at first kept saying it wasn't even from the Dysport, they tried saying all kinds of [RS bleep] like this was the way I looked before the Dysport, than they even tried saying it was from stress. Can you believe that? How stupid do they think I am, stress, I don't care how much stress you have in your life, it don't make your skin droop down and your checks and eyelids swell up. It would have been nice if they would have at least recongized to me that it was their fault and try to help me. I actually fought with my dermo for the first 15 minutes of my appoinment telling him that my face never looked like this before the Dysport. (Like I don't know my own face.) I was never so insulted in my life. Here I am going through all of this because of the mistakes they made and they are trying to make me believe my face was like this always. Than after assuring the doctor that I am not an idoit and he is the crazy one my face wasn't like this, is when he started coming up with more excuses like it was from stress. (The nurse in his office is the one who does all the cosmetic stuff and I have known her for 22 years, she is the one who actually did this to me, not the doctor.) May 1st, my only child, Nichole graduates from U of M Ann Arbor and the President of the U.S. is going to be at her graduation cermony speaking and I don't even want to go. I am starting to already believe that I am going to have permenant damage. I find it hard to believe that all this saggy skin is going to go back up to where it was before the Botox (Dysport). Some days the swelling isn't as bad but than it will come right back on other days. The saggy skin and the more very visible deep lines caused by the saggy skin has not gotten better at all. The average amount of time Dysport stays in your body is 4 months, 6 months at the longest. I can already move most of my muscles and the saggy skin is still all there. I think the deep, long lines look the worse especially on the days the swelling goes down a little. It looks like I have ten times more wrinkles than I did when I went in. I was a somewhat attractive 41 year old that took care of herself and now all I do is lay on the couch. I am lucky I have a husband who works and has been very supportive through all of this. I look like I am 61 now and before this no one even believed I was 41 the most they thought I was, was 30. To top it all off, I have two ruptured discs in my neck that cause me a lot of pain and I have been on muscle relaxers for the last four years to help with the pain. But since I found out that the muscle relaxers can make the side effects of Dysport worse and make it last longer I had to give them up. I stopped taking them 6 weeks ago and I went through the worse withdrawls and now I am in severe pain all day long. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening to me. I talk to my family about it but they just don't really understand. They try to make me feel better but nothing can make me feel better expect my face going back to normal. I want you to know that I am here for you too if you need to talk. Thanks Dawn P.S. By the way, do you know that Botox and Dysport is not even FDA approved for use under the eyes. It is only approved for use for the lines between your eyebrows. When I found this out, I was outraged. It makes me sick that these comsmetic people can get away with putting this posion into people where ever they feel like just so they can make money. It's not like they tell you that it isn't FDA approved for other areas of your face. I even asked if there were any side effects before they put this Dysport into me and all the lady told me is that the only complaint she had heard about was that people complained that it didn't last as long as Botox. Which I latter found out she lied, she had other customers who had side affects. They weren't as bad as mine are but when I asked her, she should have told me, especially since I have known her for so long. I probably wented of had it done had I known!

Dawn - I have sent you a private email with my real email address on it. I too got the denials and deflections after my Botox disaster: it is stress, it is natural ageing, it is weight loss, it is in your mind etc etc etc. That is CRAP. As if you don't know your own face!! Botox/Dysport in the wrong places can make you look like a monster. It is that simple. Botox/Dysport in crows feet area can drop your cheeks. Botox/Dysport directly under the lower lashes of the eyes can cause festoon formation as the fat pads that are normally held back by a strong muscle bulge forward. It ages you ten to fifteen years in ten days. These results do not happen to everyone when Botox/Dysport is administered in these places but they certainly CAN happen. Injectors just don't want to admit it when they have made a mistake. The whole injectables industry is MASSIVELY UNDER-REGULATED. I am sure there are some very skilled providers (like the doctors on this website who are not afraid to be known and stand behind their work) but it would also appear that any old hack with a medical licence can administer injectables. I understand that it is common practice to use prescription medicines 'off label' (ie without FDA approval) but they should have to tell us this in advance. I am still hiding at home 32 weeks later and I still look rubbish. This is a horrible, horrible experience that I wouldn't wish on anyone. Hang in there Dawn. You will see improvement before 1 May! Cheers, K

I had Dysport around my forehead and crowsfeet, that's it! About 4 weeks ago. On mother's day I had to go home and lie down. I still have flu-like symptoms and what looks like bells palsy on only one side. My eyes are extremely sensitive and I can barely open them in the mornings. It is like someone has dialated them and shining a bright light into my eyes. However the other side is as you describe the cheeks seem to be paralyzed. I am freaked out and will never use this product again. Is 7.5 month recovery the norm. I feel depressed and do not want to go out of my house.

Hi too scary - is this the first time you have had dysport? How many times you have used it makes a big difference to how long it takes to wear off. Also, do you know how many units you had? This also makes a big difference to how long it lasts and it sounds like you had way too much. Hang in there with the flu-like symptoms etc as they should go away in another month or so. K

Hi, I had dysport injections in my forehead and crows feet areas around the end of May 2010. Ten days later I was at the emergency room with bells palsy. I thought I had a stroke. My face looked and still looks awful. I had this done for a trip to the beach. Now I've missed my 29 year class reunion. I feel terrible. I don't want to be seen and am very depressed. I was a pageant winner in my younger days and was always complimented on my "beautiful smile" and "beautiful eyes". Over the years I have gained weight but still had confidence in myself because of these two features. I feel helpless. Please let me know how you are now.

YES, YOU ARE SO RIGHT !! The Plastic Surgeon that I used in Boca Raton, Florida, used Dysport on me on Friday, January / 2013 and I look awful, and I am all that you have described .. My right eyeld is nearly closed and the skin is hanging over my sight, and I now have, what I never had before, BAGS under my eyes .. When does this stuff wear off ? or will it keep on spreading, and causing me more damage ? .. To day is 13 days since I had the Dysport injection and I am not getting any better and can see where more damage is popping up .. I went back to show the doctor but he had a cavalier attitude about it and said, in three weeks it will all be back to normal .. From what I have read, it takes three to six months, to a year, and sometimes never to get back to normal... I see where you had your injections Sept. 9 / 2009 three years ago, PLEASE tell me how you are to day .. I pray that you are back to normal .. I am very anxious to hear from you ..

Iam sorry foe what happened to you iam daying from dysport was my first injection it's destroys my life wish to die not worth it to stay like that please would u tell me did u get back to normal iam 29 years old please let me know

outlaw all products

If they come to this site to make confident choices,, DON'T MAKE A CHOICE FOR ANY BOTOX OR DYSPORT. That would be my warning to anyone. Please Don't

I am so sorry to tell you that in my case, the damage to my face caused by Dysport is permanent. It has been 4 1/2 years now and it still looks like I have chipmunk cheeks, in other words they still look swollen all the time. I still have the big pouches of saggy skin under both of my eyes and I have a million more lines that look like wrinkles than I did before Dysport. Of course, all these lines are not actually wrinkles, they are from the Dysport moving my skin down and to the side of my face. It is so hard to describe. After all these years, I barely leave my house because of how my face looks. I am always depressed and moody. I don't think I have smiled in the last 4 1/2 years. I have lost all of my friends because I don't go out anywhere. It was the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life! The fact is I am not even sure why I did it, I always looked a lot younger than my age. I am 45 now but because of what Dysport did to my face, I look like an 80 year old woman! There are some people who do have a full recovery, it all depends on where you got your injections. The sad part is that both Dysport and Botox are only FDA approved to be used on the forehead (at least that was the only area it was approved for back when I had it done 4 1/2 years ago) but yet these doctors inject this stuff in all areas of their patient's faces and the doctors never get in any kind of trouble. When it first happened to me, I did report my doctor to the FDA because she injected me in a lot of other areas of my face besides my forehead and nothing happened to my doctor. All the FDA did was send me a letter telling me that there are risks with all procedures and I took that risk on when I had the procedure done. I still have that letter. I couldn't believe this letter, if my doctor would have told me that Dysport was only FDA approved for the forehead area than I would not have allowed her to inject me in other areas of my face! I totally understand feeling suicidal, I felt like that for most of the first three years and even now after four and a half years, I still think about it at times. The only reason I didn't go through with it was because of my daughter and what it would do to my mom if I took my own life. Please hang in there, just because my face never went back to normal, your face could recover, you just have to be patient because it will take some time. I wish you all the best and I really hope your damage isn't permanent like mine is!

So sorry to hear about your problem! Fortunately my face is fine now and there are no leftover problems. Investigate...maybe someone can fix your problem!

This is Emmy, I just read your post about brow ptosis after dysport...and I am experiencing the same problems as what you had.... it is very very depressing and especially I am a bride to be.... I am wondering how long it took to wear off completely?? and how's your situation now?? Thx so much and Wish u everything best!!!!

Let me know what he tells you since I also have paralysis from Dysport/Fraxel treatment and am anxious to know what I can do to hasten healing.

Let me know what he tells you since I also have paralysis from Dysport/Fraxel treatment and am anxious to know what I can do to hasten healing.

Hi Escondido - sorry, no joy with finding anything to hasten healing and recovery. Time, time, time seems to be the only answer. I feel your pain as it has been 8 long weeks for me and many, many more to go. Sorry I don't have better news. Cheers.

did your face ever go back to normal? im freaking out! my face is ruined from dysport

Absolutely back to normal...it took about three and a half months to do so! The idiot doctor should have known better than to do disport and fillers on the same day she did the facial peel! Oh well!

There is literally nothing you can do....but it wears off after a few months! Sorry for the negative reply, but that's what happened to me!

did your face ever go back to normal? dyport has ruined my face and im freaking out

Hi its been long ago but please give me some hope and tell me u all did recover , im so terrified :(