Plastic Surgery Questions – Is Botox safe?

Earlier this year, there was a report of 16 deaths and 180 other patients who suffered problems following Botox injections.

The Public Citizen petitioned the FDA to investigate.

We now have close to 20 years of experience with Botox injections both for medical reasons as well as medical conditions such as excessive sweating, blepharospasm and the like.

The 2005 Cote’ et al investigated 1.031 reports of adverse events (AEs) which were submitted to the FDA. Of those only 36 were considered “serious” and these included headache, muscle weakness, facial paralysis, dysphagia (difficulty swallowing) and the like symptoms. Therapeutic data seems to indicate that AEs occur less frequently with repeated injections.

After analyzing the FDA data it became clear that the AEs were using Botox for therapeutic indications which require much higher doses than those found in cosmetic applications. Many of the patients who died from therapeutic injections had underlying cardiac disease.

With over 30 years of use in humans, Botox is safe especially when administered for cosmetic purposes.

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Dr. Brueck reports on matters of plastic surgery from his office in Fort Myers, Florida. Visit his web site, Beauty-by-Brueck.com, for more information.