NIX BOTOX, NO WAY SAY THE MAJORITY OF AGING WOMEN

April 6, 2009
“Celebrity Buzz” in the Sunday, April 5, 2009 issue of online denverpost.com reports that Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nix's shared her innermost beauty secrets with a throng of fans at an in-store appearance at a New York City Barnes and Noble. Nix busied herself bashing Botox and claiming that the results remind her of carnival funhouse eyebrows. She reportedly went on to say, "If you're an unattractive girl who's trying to be beautiful with Botox, forget it. If you are a beautiful girl who's trying to be beautiful with Botox, you will look like you're angry all the time. You'd have to tie me down to get me to do it again."

Hummm. It makes you wonder who administered Nix’s Botox injections—a neophyte at a suntan salon or an American Board certified facial plastic surgeon. There’s a huge difference, you know, or don’t you, Stevie?

Jeffrey Raval, MD, FACS, explains that the sculpturing of one’s face through Botox is a medical science. As one of the select group of cosmetic plastic surgeon Botox injector trainers, Dr. Raval trains other surgeons on the finer points of injecting Botox to achieve optimum results.

“Used properly, Botox should have had nothing to do with Stevie Nix’s smile, or lack thereof, making her appear to be angry,” says Dr. Raval. “Botox is not administered to the face other than around the eyes, between the brows and on the forehead. Botox simply relaxes the underlying muscle tissue to smooth away creases between the brows or on the forehead and the lines around the eyes most often called ‘crow’s feet.’ The only injections that should be administered in the lower half of the face are fillers to fill in the creases, smile lines and to plump up the face and jaw line.”

Possibly Nix got hers done by someone who didn’t have the training to administer the Botox correctly. Or maybe it’s that she’s genetically superior to most women…she does, after all, have that spellbinding voice. Realistically, perhaps, it’s that she’s rich, rich, beyond rich and can indulge in all the beauty services and cosmetics she desires. She is surrounded by professional hairdressers, makeup artists, stylists and every one of us would look glamorous if we had that job benefit.

But the average and above average woman don’t have that kind of excess time on their hands. Neither are they that free-spending. So they turn to Botox to forestall facelifts and other more invasive and more costly procedures, says Dr. Raval who practices in upscale Cherry Creek North in Denver, CO. And if statistics mean anything, the fact remains that Botox is the single most sought-after cosmetic treatment by men and women. The New York Times reported that Americans spent $329 million on Botox in 2008.