By Suresh Kumar, CFT
One of the questions I get asked the most is “How does Fibroblast compare to Botox?” Whenever I am asked this question, I know the underlying concern for the person asking is more than likely, “Which works better; Fibroblast or Botox?” So in this article I am going to provide you with some of the information I share with my clients when they ask me these questions.
Now, before I begin, full disclosure: I am a Certified Fibroblast Technician. I do not do Botox procedures. However, I do have many friends and colleagues that do administer Botox to their clients. So in an effort to make this as unbiased as possible, the information I will share on both procedures will be strictly based on facts and already existing data/research. In short, you’re not going to read anything here that you wouldn’t be able to find on your own while doing some digging with Google.
So not to make this a long, drawn out novel, I am going to keep the talking points to as few as possible. I’ll start with what Botox actually is, does and does not do.
Before we begin, let me just address the elephant in the room. Botox is derived from the same neurotoxin known for causing botulism; an illness that paralyzes muscles and can be fatal. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on…
Botox is a “muscle weakener” or better yet, a “muscle disabler” … NOT a wrinkle remover or wrinkle eraser. What Botox does, in essence, is make it harder for you to contract certain muscles where injected. This, in turn, reduces your ability to contract the muscle in the manner in which wrinkles appear and wrinkles are caused (over time). Therefore, if you have already existing wrinkles, Botox cannot help reduce or erase the appearance of these wrinkles. Fillers help reduce the appearance of wrinkles; but that’s a whole other story. Botox can only, in some cases, help slow the process of certain wrinkles getting deeper or worse due to repeated muscle contraction.
Botox can hurt a bit due to the injections. Some use topical numbing agents to help with this but more often then not, the client can and does feel the injections. Most of the people I’ve spoken to that have gotten Botox have said that they do feel the injections but the pain isn’t terrible.
The “muscle weakening” effects of Botox only last for 2-3 months. After that, another trip to the doctor is required. The average Botox treatment to an area such as the forehead is roughly $500. So getting Botox injections 4 times per year (to just the forehead) can easily cost $2,000 or more. Over the course of 5 years, you’re looking at a cost of roughly $10,000.
Botox is NOT a filler. For example, deep wrinkles around the mouth (typically called “smile lines”) cannot be helped with Botox. The same can be said for deep lines around the eyes. And when it comes to loose skin around the cheeks, jowls and neck (or anywhere for that matter), Botox may be of little value. Botox is not a solution for loose or sagging skin. In some cases Botox is used to “tighten” lax muscles in the neck to help ease the look of what many refer to as “turkey neck.” However, tightening of neck muscles does little for someone with a considerable amount of loose skin on the neck.
So now that we have a better idea of what Botox is and isn’t and what it can and cannot do, let’s take a look at Fibroblast plasma skin tightening.
Fibroblast treatment is the process of creating a series of tiny “singes” via a centralized electrical discharge from a pen-like device over a specific area. These tiny singes (which look like tiny little dots) to the skin trigger a biological response by your body which, in turn, promotes tissue regeneration, collagen production and tightening of skin (tissue).
So, in layman’s terms, a tiny little spark emitted from a pen hits your skin and causes a microscopic burn. Your body’s own natural healing response to repair these microscopic burns results in the tightening of your skin and the subsequent elimination of wrinkles and loose skin.
Unlike Botox, there are no needles with Fibroblast. In fact, the tip of the pen used in Fibroblast never even touches your skin. And of course, there is nothing that gets injected into your body. What is used in Fibroblast is a topical numbing cream. This is used to decrease any discomfort caused by treatment. NOTE: 99% of my clients report that after having the numbing cream applied for 20-30 minutes, they don’t feel a thing. I only use high quality, pharmaceutical grade products for the numbing; nothing over the counter.
How much does the average Fibroblast treatment cost? Well, to use the same example as above with Botox, the average cost to treat an entire forehead with wrinkles with Fibroblast is approximately $1,000. Over 98% of my clients require only one treatment. So long as you take care of your skin, your Fibroblast results can last anywhere from 3-5 years. The better you take care of your skin, the longer the results will last (see my recent blog about “Fibroblast Aftercare”)
One of my most recent clients likened Fibroblast to throwing her favorite pair of jeans in the dryer. She said that over time the jeans stretch out and are not as flattering in “certain places.” She said she typically doesn’t put them in the dryer because she didn’t want them to fade and lose their color. But a couple of times a year, she said she throws them in the dryer to tighten them back up. And when she takes them out of the dryer and puts them on for the first time, they fit, look and feel great…just like they did when she purchased them years ago.
Some say comparing Botox and Fibroblast is not an apples to apples comparison. And frankly, in many ways, I agree. Using the above stretched out denim jeans example, Botox would be like injecting your butt and thigh muscles with a substance that prevented these areas from moving/flexing, thus preventing any “further” stretching out of your jeans. While Fibroblast tightens the jeans back up to their original form. Difficult and, in some ways, unfair to compare the two in my opinion.
I hope this helps clear up some questions you might have had about Botox and Fibroblast. If you have any other questions or concerns, send me an email at info@coastallongevity.com – I’ll do my best to answer all of your questions. Learn more about Fibroblast at www.coastallongevity.com
Thanks and remember… Just because you’re a work in progress it doesn’t mean you’re not already a work of art!
