Lifestyle Choices

As you now realize, most of our larger wrinkles are caused by repeated facial expressions: frowning, squinting, smiling, grimacing or raising our eyebrows, or sometimes by moving one side of our face more than the other. With time, our facial wrinkles begin to show our facial habits.

Why Hibernation Wrinkles?

You have learned how facial expression lines can be filled and softened by soft tissue injections. You may be surprised that a relatively new procedure actually addresses the cause of the wrinkles by controlling and limiting facial movement.

Through this hibernation treatment (as named by one of its inventors, London practitioner and plastic surgeon Mr Dev Basra), a protein is injected to weaken or temporarily paralyze the facial muscles in order to prevent the patient from making unwanted facial expressions. Not only do the facial muscles temporarily “hibernate”, but over the period of their hibernation the habit of making certain facial expressions may also be at least partially broken, yielding longer-term benefit.

How does Hibernation Wrinkle work?

The material that is injected to induce this static state is botulinum toxin type A (Botox), made for doctors by the Californian company, Allergan. Botulinum toxin was first used in the 1970s by ophthalmologists to weaken very strong eye muscles that caused a child’s eye to wander involuntarily. It has also been used over the last few years for treatment of facial spasm.

As with soft tissue implants, the procedure takes only a few minutes and is not painful. The dermatologist or surgeon will ask the patient to frown hard so that he or she can observe the pattern of forehead creases (or to squint if crow’s feet wrinkles are to be treated). After injection, the muscles usually start to weaken within two days and are maximally weakened after one or two weeks.

Very occasionally there is only minimal muscle weakening, in which case the treatment may have to be repeated after two to four weeks. The paralysis, or hibernation, of the muscle lasts for about three to four months. After this time, the patient has often broken the habit of moving those muscles that have been treated, so the facial expressions remain softer. Follow-up treatments are also an option.

The body’s reaction to Hibernation Wrinkle

Adverse reactions reported after this treatment have been minimal. Although botulinum toxin does indeed weaken or paralyze facial muscles, the effect is only temporary. In rare instances a facial expression with some drooping may temporarily result immediately after the treatment due to the botulinum toxin having set the muscles in an unattractive facial expression. Also, some patients report slight flu-like symptoms lasting for no more than one or two days following the treatment. Patients do become resistant to the drug after about four to six treatments as the body creates an immune reaction to the toxin, rendering it less effective.

Some physicians feel that “hibernation treatment” is an optimal treatment for wrinkles as it treats the cause. Others doctors do not favour it.

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