How Safe is Botox?
In the wake of the recent case of a 32-year-old woman on March 8th 2020, who allegedly died in March 2020 after receiving a Botox treatment from a beauty clinic in Singapore; many people have now started to question the safety surrounding Botox.
As the doctors deemed a heart failure as the cause of death, not many could determine the role of Botox in it. So, the question remains, what exactly happened? Should people be afraid of Botox now? From all the news headlines, it seemed that blame had been pushed to Botox right from the start to sensationalize the unfortunate incident. However, there is much more than meets the eye! From a doctor’s perspective, death caused by Botox is highly unlikely. The reason being that with proper Botox training from a reputed aesthetic institution, such as Aesthetic Academy Asia, the practitioner will be intensively trained to prepare and execute the treatment and remove all causes of concern pertaining to the treatment. Patient safety is our utmost concern, and Aesthetic Academy Asia focuses a lot of training our students in avoiding and addressing complications.
However, before jumping to conclusions, there are certain facts about Botox that we would like to establish first.
A certified aesthetic clinic performs more than one injectable procedure. In fact, botulinum toxin is only one of the most common cosmetic injectable procedures, there are many more like:
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Hyaluronic acid dermal filler injections, such as Perlane, Restylane, Juvederm etc.
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Skin booster injections such as Redensity I, vital light, vital.
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Sculptra filler injections.
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Ellanse filler injections.
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PDO thread lifts
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PDRN and Polynucleotide injections
“Botox” is just the name of the brand of the chemical “botulinum toxin” used in the whole procedure. There are various other brands of “botulinum toxin” present in the market. People often tend to refer to botulinum toxin injection as a “Botox” injection because it is “catchy” and “easily remembered”! There are other brands in the market, such as Dysport and Xeomin, which are equally good.
Botulinum toxin is a strong neurotoxic protein and should be administered under the guidance of well qualified aesthetic doctors with proper Botox, Dysport & Xeomin training. Also, Botulinum toxin should be manufactured and stored under strict medical guidelines and controls. This, in turn, allows it to be correctly purified, extracted, packed, and stored, resulting in a consistent, predictable, highly effective medicinal product that can be relied upon.
Even though death due to Botox seems very unlikely. In the rarest of cases, there could be scenarios that might cause complications, however, none of them mean that Botox is to be blamed. We bring your few theoretical situations that can occur:
Case 1: Botulism caused by Botox leading to cardiorespiratory failure
Botox ® is the brand name of a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. When administered in large lethal amounts, this toxin can cause a form of muscle paralysis known as botulism.
The various clinical signs of botulism may include difficulty in breathing, muscle weakness, ptosis, facial droop, and difficulty in walking. At Aesthetic Academy Asia we train our students to give proper advice to all their patients. We help them to prepare a checklist for their patients.
Case 2: Manufacturing and Production Accidents
As mentioned earlier, since Botulinum toxin is a strong neurotoxic protein, it should be manufactured and stored under strict medical guidelines and controls. This, in turn, allows it to be correctly purified, extracted, packed, and stored, resulting in a consistent, predictable, high effective medicinal product that doctors can trust every time he or she opens up a new bottle of Botulinum toxin!
For example, higher than normal dose of Botulinum toxin packed into the containers and manufactured in huge batches can be fatal for the consumers, such as the incidence in Florida in 2014 where the doctor administered unlicensed Botox.
Similarly, there are several unlicensed Botox-like substances that can be purchased on-line. These products are not only unstable, but they may also cause toxic reactions. At Aesthetic Academy Asia we ensure all trainings are conducted using licensed products only such as Botox, Dysport and Xeomin.
Case 3: Hypersensitivity (anaphylaxis) reaction due to Botox
Similar to peanut allergies or bee sting allergies, during anaphylaxis, your body’s immune system tends to go into overdrive after exposure to a specific trigger, leading to the crashing of your blood pressure and heart rate and shutting down of the circulatory and respiratory system of the body. At Aesthetic Academy Asia we make sure all our students are trained to manage such reaction swiftly.
Case 4: Pre-existing medical conditions of the patient
Certain pre-existing medical conditions such as neuromuscular conditions such as Myasthenia Gravis of the patient tend to aggravate the various side effects of the Botox.
People with Myasthenia Gravis will have tell-tale signs such as weakness of the eye muscles (called ocular myasthenia), drooping of one or both eyelids (ptosis), blurred or double vision (diplopia), a change in facial expressions, difficulty swallowing, shortness of breath, impaired speech (dysarthria), weakness in the arms, hands, fingers, legs, and neck (paralysis). Our Professional Diploma and Professional Certificate training will coach you to identify these contraindications and you can simply avoid them. Our scope of training revolves around the fact that avoiding complications is better than managing complications.
Case 5: Other medications, along with Botox
At times, various medications, given along or separately with the Botox injection, can trigger adverse reactions in a patient. In addition, various other cosmetic injection procedures done along with Botox can result in catastrophic reactions on the patient’s body. Aesthetic Academy Asia’s Professional Training in Botox, Dysport & Xeomin will coach you on proper mixing of the drugs and using different dilutions to achieve natural and effective results.
Hence it can be said that proper Botox training is extremely crucial in order to execute the procedure and under proper conditions. It is very important that injections be placed precisely in order to avoid side effects. Botox therapy can be dangerous if it is administered incorrectly.
Botulinum Toxin training at Aesthetic Academy Asia
At Aesthetic Academy Asia, we take aesthetic education with utmost seriousness and help our students learn and practice effective aesthetic procedures, so they are confident enough to start their career in aesthetics. We have a faculty of globally renowned aesthetic doctors who are exemplary in their skills and knowledge. Furthermore, our Advanced Training in Botulinum Toxin will coach you on different dilution, injection techniques and indications that you have never heard of before.
