It’s possible now to rediscover a youthful appearance in the time it takes to eat a green apple or two. A new magic needle is here.
Injectables offer a quick fix to turn back the clock. There are three basic kinds of injections: wrinkle removers, sweat stoppers, and volume fillers. A relatively painless poke of Botox or Dysport just under the skin works wonders, almost as soon as the needle slips out. Crow’s feet stop treading, bar codes blazed across the forehead vanish, and those angry furrows between the eyebrows turn friendly.
A few drops of Botox can also dry up sweat glands that tend to gush at the wrong moments. Who might want to completely dam up a sweaty upper lip or armpit? Both men and women. Photographers fearing for their lenses, models on the catwalk, women who don’t want their makeup smearing, and business types are all potential clients.
Originally, Botox was used to stop muscle spasms and twitchings. Botulotoxin A does this by temporarily inhibiting nerve signals; strained muscles stop contracting and freeze into their natural positions. It’s a non-invasive procedure, unlike the cuts and scars of plastic surgery. The minor bruises and swollen red skin caused by the needle usually disappear in a few days.
As people get older, collagen in the skin, the elastic stuff of youth, naturally reduces. Enter silicon oil to the rescue. Bio-Alcamid can fill out an unwanted dent or hollow, a jaw line or a thin lip. The injected molecules act like a scaffolding around which collagen and new skin cells can bind.
Basking one’s face a few times in front of a harmless array of tiny bright yellow lights, combined with a well applied chemical peel, is another way to leave the face looking fresh and smooth.
Social gatherings introducing such aesthetic techniques are a bit like the Tupperware parties of the 1970s. Clients can nibble on sugar cookies, listen to classical music, and socialize while checking out their own digital photos with the projected beauty changes (it’s a little like looking at your own Portrait of Dorian Gray in reverse). Doctors, meanwhile, zap the imperfections out of the willing in another room.
Treatment in Prague costs significantly less than it would cost in New York or London. There are dozens of specialty clinics or dermatologists in clinics in the city, ready to do the job.
But, alas, the miracle effects fade and the wrinkles relentlessly creep back. The Botox effects last three to six months while the filler gels last longer – anywhere from one to five years.
The good thing is if you don’t like the results, just wait a while. The bad thing is if you really do like them, and most do, the costs will continue to add up. A complete smoothing or shaping of a specific area can run anywhere from CZK 5,000 to 10,000.
In addition to financial factors, doctors in the United States also warn about the vicious circle of costly narcissism – also known as surgical addiction – that can develop, as well as the dangers of receiving jabs in the wrong spots from unskilled practitioners.