Puffy Eye After Botox? Here’s What You Should Know
Noticing puffy (or droopy) eyelids after Botox injections is not uncommon. It is basically one possible side effect many patients experience. But what causes puffy eyes after Botox? How can you minimize the risk of getting them? When are they expected to disappear? And what could you do to get rid of them?
By going through this article, you will be able to find answers to all the questions you might have regarding puffy (droopy) eyelids after Botox injections. Let us go through them together right away!
ON A SAFETY NOTE:
Only a certified healthcare provider with a valid medical license is eligible to order Botox wholesale and retail. The main reason for this is that it belongs to products intended for professional use.
What Is Botox?
Botox is a brand of medical and cosmetic injectables based on botulinum toxin (type A). It belongs to the category of muscle relaxants that effectively fight muscle contraction and, therefore, treat a wide range of health and aesthetic issues, such as:
- Health issues: overactive bladder, lazy eye, excessive sweating, neck pain, and other problems related to the contraction of the muscles;
- Aesthetic issues: dynamic wrinkles (including fine lines between the eyebrows, crow’s feet, nasolabial folds, and so on), facial asymmetry, and thin lips.
ON A SIDE NOTE:
The manufacturer of Botox is Allergan. It is a global pharmaceutical corporation that produces a wide assortment of medical and cosmetic treatments by combining profound experience and the latest innovations in the pharmaceutical sphere. Apart from Botox, Allergan is also famous for manufacturing Juvederm dermal fillers based on hyaluronic acid.
How Does Botox Work?
After a patient gets Botox injected beneath their skin, it immediately starts working by temporarily blocking nerve signals attached to muscles around the injection site. This way, Botox causes muscle relaxation and, as a result, helps a patient to arrive at the desired results.
Under normal circumstances, Botox injections look as follows:
- A healthcare provider applies a topical anesthetic to the intended injection site in order to minimize the level of pain a patient might feel during the procedure;
- As soon as the topical anesthetic numbs the skin of a patient, a healthcare provider starts to administer small amounts of the toxin with the help of multiple injections.
In most cases, the above-mentioned procedure lasts up to 30 minutes. It does not usually require any downtime and allows a patient to get back to their usual lifestyle almost immediately.
ON A SIDE NOTE:
To maximize the effectiveness of Botox treatment and minimize the risks of complications after it, a patient has to adhere to several post-treatment instructions for at least 48 hours after the procedure. They include the avoidance of strenuous exercising, saunas, hot bath tubes, and direct sun exposure. It is also recommended to avoid rubbing the skin around the injection site.
What Is the Expected Result of Botox?
Botox injection creates a long-lasting but nevertheless non-permanent result. The main reason for this is that its effect goes away due to the power of a temporarily blocked muscle to renew with time. Depending on the individual peculiarities of each patient (such as their current age, health, and lifestyle), the expected result of Botox treatment has a duration from a couple of months to half a year.
Also, it is worth mentioning that injections of Botox cause an exceptionally natural-looking result. It usually becomes noticeable almost immediately and is fully revealed within two weeks after the procedure (no matter whether a patient has undergone an injection of Botox as a part of their cosmetic treatment or medical treatment).
ON A SIDE NOTE:
An injection of Botox is a minimally invasive cosmetic or medical intervention. It is a generally safe and effective treatment with minimal potential risks of serious adverse effects. The vast majority of patients claim to have no complications after undergoing a Botox treatment performed by an experienced injector.
What Are the Possible Side Effects of Botox?
Normally, Botox works without causing any serious adverse effects or allergic reactions. However, a patient might experience any of the following potential side effects shortly after undergoing Botox treatments: temporary pain around the injection site, overall muscle weakness, flu-like symptoms, and nausea. In most cases, these potential side effects do not require any medical intervention and fade away on their own in a couple of days after the treatment.
Moreover, it is worth mentioning that a patient who has undergone facial Botox injections to take care of aesthetic issues related to muscle contraction is at a greater risk of noticing droopy eyelids (more precisely, both a lower eyelid and an upper eyelid) after the treatment. Below, you will find detailed information regarding this side effect of Botox injections.
ON A SIDE NOTE:
If a patient notices any of the above-mentioned symptoms (or other side effects) after undergoing Botox treatment, it might be a good idea to inform a healthcare provider about them. This way, a patient will likely be provided with several special post-treatment instructions to follow.
What Causes Puffy Eyes After Botox?
There exist two main reasons why a patient might experience eyelid puffiness after undergoing an injection of Botox. Namely, it occurs likely due to:
- Excessive relaxation of the frontalis or the forehead muscle (especially when Botox has been used to create a brow lift or to get rid of forehead lines);
- Excessive relaxation of the orbicularis oculi (which eventually leads to ptosis).
In some cases, a patient might also experience droopy eyelids as a result of an allergic reaction to the Botox treatment. It happens quite rarely, though, as a healthcare provider usually makes sure that a patient does not have an allergy to botulinum toxin before administering it to facial muscles (for instance, the forehead muscle).
ON A SIDE NOTE:
Patients with excess skin in the forehead zone are more likely to notice drooping eyelids after Botox. As well, they have a higher chance of developing ptosis within a few weeks after the treatment.
How to Minimize the Risk of Puffy Eyes After Botox?
It might be sometimes difficult to prevent eyelid droop after the administration of Botox since it occurs pretty unexpectedly. At the same time, however, these simple recommendations are likely to minimize a patient’s risks of seeing a droopy eyelid after the procedure:
- Choose an experienced healthcare provider who is both well aware of facial anatomy and has profound experience in injecting Botox;
- Start with a lower Botox dose since it substantially reduces the risk of getting eyelid edema. Please remember that the high Botox doses have higher risks of a droopy eyelid;
- Do not rub the skin shortly after the treatment and follow other post-treatment instructions of your healthcare provider.
ON A SIDE NOTE:
A healthcare provider might provide a patient with other recommendations on how to minimize the risk of the upper eyelid droop or the lower eyelid droop after an injection of Botox.
How Long Do Puffy Eyes After Botox Last?
The good news regarding droopy eyelids is that a patient does not have to wait until the Botox wears off to get rid of them. In most cases, the lower eyelid and the upper eyelid fade away on their own within a few weeks after the treatment. Moreover, they do not usually require any medical supervision (although a healthcare practitioner might offer guidance to accelerate the process of getting rid of droopy eyelids after the injection of Botox).
ON A SIDE NOTE:
If puffy eyelids do not fade away within several weeks after Botox treatment, a patient has to contact their healthcare provider and ask for medical advice.
How to Fix Puffy Eyes After Botox?
In most cases, the answer to the question “How to get rid of swollen eyelids after Botox injections?” is quite simple – most healthcare providers recommend simply waiting a couple of weeks after undergoing the procedure. At the same time, however, droopy eyelids treated with the help of special eye drops or electrical stimulation are expected to fade away more quickly.
ON A SIDE NOTE:
Special eye drops that help with droopy eyelids do so by stimulating the receptors that tell eye muscles to contract and raising the eyelid up to two millimeters. While electrical stimulation is usually used to activate certain muscle groups and, therefore, fix the eyelid droop.
Final Words
All in all, Botox is a great treatment for those patients looking for an effective way to prolong their youthful appearance. It functions as a minimally invasive alternative to plastic surgery without causing any severe adverse reactions. In some cases, however, an injection of Botox around the forehead zone might lead to puffy eyelids. Luckily, they tend to fade away on their own within a couple of weeks after the treatment and do not usually carry any serious risks.