Thank you for your question.
You're having Botox and then about a month later, you can have the Vampire Facial.
And you're asking will the Vampire Facial breakdown the Botox.
Well I think that’s a very good question.
And I can certainly give you some understanding as to how each of these procedures work so
you can understand the impact of the timing of these procedures.
I'm a board certified cosmetic surgeon and fellowship trained oculofacial plastic and
reconstructive surgeon practicing in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years.
In fact our specialty was one of the first to use Botox.
So I've been actually injecting patients Botox since 1993.
And I came – and I'm also a member of the Vampire Facelift Network.
And I've been a media resource for opinion on the Vampire Facelift and Vampire Facial,
particularly when certain celebrities find it – “Are you doing the procedure?”
And then people wanted to get an opinion of what – about the procedure.
So that being said, let’s go over these details of how Botox works and how the Vampire
Facial works.
Now Botox which is, I believe, the most popular non-surgical cosmetic procedure.
The use of this product – Botox is a product, is significant.
And so there is a lot of benefit to this drug.
The other drugs that are similar are called Dysport and Xeomin.
But essentially they all work with the same idea.
And what they do is they block the signals between a nerve and a muscle.
So therefore example when you squint your eyes and you get crow’s feet lines, you're
relaxing a muscle.
So the point of that is that the level in which the Botox is being placed is at the
muscle level.
It’s actually the injection into the muscle.
Yes, you can inject it above the muscle and you can still get benefit.
But that’s the – that’s the zone.
So when you think about it, it affects the muscle not the skin directly.
The benefits to the skin is to relax the wrinkles that form when those muscles are activated.
So that’s true for the wrinkles, the frown lines, and for the many other ways we use
Botox.
So that brings us now to the Vampire Facial.
The Vampire Facial is a variation on the name Vampire Facelift.
The difference is with the Vampire Facial, you're using a – you're using platelet-rich
plasma.
But as opposed to injecting it under the skin, the platelet-rich plasma is derived from your
own blood.
It’s the wound healing and growth factors which can actually be of great value in improving
skin quality and texture.
With the Vampire Facial, what you're using is a micro-needling device.
That micro-needling device is penetrating the skin but not going all the way through
to the muscle.
Therefore the idea is that if you do micro-needling at different layers of the dermis, the backbone
of the skin, you can stimulate a collagen response and that results in skin textural
quality tightening.
It also because it’s entering the epidermis, it stimulates new growth of new skin through
this [injury?] [0:04:07] model.
But it – with the platelet-rich plasma, it appears to augment the benefit of the micro-needling
device.
In other words, you're using a wound healing material that’s now entering the skin through
the pores created by the micro-needling device and stimulating collagen, stimulating blood
supply.
It’s a very effective way to help improve sun-damaged skin, fine lines, and wrinkles,
and improve skin quality and texture overall.
In so many ways, even well-known dermatologists who used to advocate every laser that came
out for years have recently acknowledge the remarkable value of micro-needling.
So, you know, the world comes full circle sometimes.
With that understanding, you can appreciate that the levels are different.
And that the effect of the Botox, if you think about it, it – the onset of the effect is
usually within the first three days and then it peaks at about two weeks.
Which means that by the time you get to a month, the effect of the Botox is already
working.
So there’s not – there’s nothing to worry about it in terms of dilution.
There’s nothing to worry about displacement or some type of negative effect on the longevity
of the Botox.
I think this is a very good combination.
It’s a great synergy, relaxing muscles and using something – doing something for skin
texture.
Many years ago long before, a lot of these developments, I actually did – I was featured
with the – on the Morning News with the idea of combining Botox with, at the time,
the Erbium laser.
So with the idea that you can combine something that reduces the activity of the muscle that
causes deeper lines and then do something to improve the fine lines and cause the skin
to tighten.
And also have the synergy of the lack of action of the muscle to help smooth the skin even
further.
So you're definitely on the right track from my perspective.
So I think it’s completely – bottom line is I think it’s completely good for you
to do that.
I don’t think you'll any negative outcome on the longevity of the Botox.
And hopefully this will work out well for you.
So I hope that was helpful.
I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you for your question.