Botulinum Toxin - Botox^® and Dysport^®

Botulinum Toxin is a very specific natural poison that is naturally is made by a bacterium called Clostridium Botulinum. Poisin by this toxin is called Botulinism.

 

You can get this poisoning from eating rotting fish and some other foods that have gone rotten. When taken in massive doses, as the poisoning happens, the toxin blocks the nerves that make you breathe and move, causing you to suffocate.

However, advances in the pharmaceutical industry have meant that very pure Botulinum Toxin can be made - Botulinum Toxin A.

This precise method of manufacture means that minute doses can then be given very accurately, in measured doses, for medical uses. These doses are large enough to have a local effect where injected, but are far too small to have any effect away from the area of injection, such as breathing or movement.

When a nerve meets the thing it has to communicate with, the junction between the two is called a "synapse".

In sweating, the synapse where the sympathetic nerves meet the sweat glands can be blocked by Botulinum Toxin. As the sweat glands are in the skin itself, injection of a solution of Botulinum Toxin into the skin blocks the impulses from the sympathetic nervous system and so sweating should stop.

In reality, the clinical situation is not quite the same as the theory. Clinical research studies have shown that the sweating rarely stops completely - however the amount of sweating is reduced by up to three to four times that of normal sweating.

This large reduction usually results in the treated patients going from an unacceptable level to a very small amount of sweating which is easily coped with.

However, the body slowly makes new ends for the nerves making new synapses that work again. These take over the role of the synapses that are blocked and so sweating can return after 4 - 9 months.

Further injections can be given as required to block these new synapses - each subsequent injection reduces sweating for 6 - 12 months, provided a FULL DOSE is given.

At The Whiteley Clinic we usually use Dysport^® - as we find that this spreads through the skin well and gives a very good result.

• Dose - Dysport^® = 500 Units

Occasionally we will use Botox^® instead. This works very similarly, but the full dose is measured differently:

• Dose - Botox^® = 100 units

Some clinics or doctors give lower doses than these - there is no obvious reason to do so, except to make sure the patient comes back quicker for another treatment.

Therefore, each patient should always ask what dose of Botulinum Toxin (Botox^® or Dypsort^®) they are having and, if less than those written above, should ask why.

NB: We don't give Botulinum Toxin to females who might be pregnant or who are breast feeding. You will be asked these questions before any treatment is offered.