Botox is not a magic potion. It cannot fix absolutely everything, much as we would wish it, and sometimes when less experienced individuals administer Botox, it can create inadvertent side effects that the patient was definitely not hoping for! One of the most common Botox side effects that people worry about is getting the permanently surprised look – something that some celebrities get when they decide to have too much Botox. So if a patient comes to you with the ‘surprised!’ look side effect, how do you go about fixing that – and how can you yourself make sure that you never make that mistake?
The ‘surprised!’ look is often created because the patient’s eyes are now naturally far too wide and open, giving them that ‘deer in the headlights’ sort of expression. This happens because there are two main muscle groups on our foreheads: one group that pushes downwards, and one group that pulls upwards. Some Botox professionals will only give Botox injections to the muscles that push downwards, and when they relax it means that all that is happening on the patient’s forehead is pulling upwards! This creates the startled look.
If that does happen, or a patient has come to you with that side effect, it is an easy enough problem to remedy. All you need to do is give them two small injections near the top of the forehead, to relax the muscles that are continuously pulling upwards. This balances out the muscles in the forehead, and means that their forehead is able to relax, balancing out their features, allowing the eyes to naturally relax, and removing the ‘surprised!’ look that they had. As this happens with 1 in 20 patients you may find it a common problem that people ask you to fix.
