Ten years ago, if you had said to anyone that they would be able to walk into a dentist’s surgery and ask for a Botox injection, they would have said that you were completely mad. The medical profession, after all, likes to keep things separate, to specialize in different areas and then perfect those skills. How many heart surgeons do you see giving a psychiatric consult, or opticians helping with physio? And yet that is one of the latest trends that is now occurring within the dental profession: Botox training and certification so that they can offer their patients a whole new wealth of different treatment options when they come in for the toothache. The question that we should be asking ourselves is this: is it safe?
The last thing that any patient would want is a completely botched Botox job. We have all seen the images of the celebrities that have just gone too far with the Botox that they want, and have ended up horribly disfigured until the Botox administrator was able to put it right – if they were able to put it right. It’s understandable why anyone considering a Botox injection would want a ‘proper’ Botox certified person to do it, not just a dentist. After all, Botox is a neurotoxin that creates a temporary denervation of skeletal muscle, preventing the release of acetylcholine from nerve endings, causing flaccid paralysis. You don’t want to get that wrong! However, that is to misunderstand just how similar Botox injections and all other injections are for dentists. They are perfectly accustomed to giving facial injections to numb and change areas of the face, and so they already have plenty of the skills and techniques required to give Botox.
If anything, you could argue that dentists are the best people to offer Botox treatments! Dr Howard Katz certainly believes so, and as he was instrumental in the development of Botulinum Toxins for facial treatments (and is actually on the patent), he is certainly qualified to make that assertion.
Are you a Dentist looking to train in Botox injection? If so, check out Dr. Katz’s online programs: http://dentox.com/all-courses/botox-training/ and live programs: http://dentox.com/live-courses/
