Dr. Bae:
Hey, Greg.

Greg:
I was thinking about you the other day. I was driving through your neighborhood. I was like, “Where is he? Maybe I can find him in this coffee shop and he can buy me some coffee.”

Dr. Bae:
Shoutout to Wrecking Ball!

Neuromodulators

Greg:
Absolutely. It’s good to see you. I wanted to start with this question. Now, it’s commonly now referred to as getting Botox, if you get an injectable to stop the lines and the wrinkles. However, Botox is actually a brand name. There are many different types of injectables that do the same thing as Botox. So how do we pick the right one?

Dr. Bae:
Exactly right. The idea is that Kleenex or Puffs are a type of tissue paper, and Botox has just been used just the way everybody says, “I’ll give you some Kleenex.” It’s that generic term. Or, get me some Coke to drink. The same thing is happening with Botox. It’s just that term that’s become the generic form of what is actually called a neuromodulator. So you have facial tissues-

Greg:
A what?

Dr. Bae:
Neuromodulator, N-E-U-R-O-M-O-D-U-L-A-T-O-R. If we’re taking the SAT and we’re talking about those analogies, we’re going to be thinking of, tissue paper is to Kleenex as neuromodulator is to Botox. Botox is the brand. There are other brands. Aside from Botox, there is Jeuveau, which is a newer one on the market. They go by #newtox on social media. There’s Dysport and Xeomin, X-E-O-M-I-N. These are all versions of neuromodulators. They’re also just basically called botulinum toxins. The toxin that’s made that you’re not supposed to have kids… No children under six months are supposed to eat honey, because it could have botulinum toxin in it, which could cause botulism. But if you do it the right way, you inject it in your face and it’s fine.

Treatment areas

Dr. Bae:
You’re essentially injecting poison in your face. But whatever product you’re using, Botox, Jeuveau, Xeomin, Dysport, the idea is you inject it into the elevens here or into the forehead, the crow’s feet, you can even do in the upper lip to treat a gummy smile or down here to help with, if you have a bitchy resting face, it can help the corners of your mouth go up.

Greg:
I want to keep mine. I’m not changing that. I’m keeping my bitch resting face.

Dr. Bae:
But the way it works is, you inject into those muscles in those areas and it relaxes those muscles. That makes those wrinkles go away that are caused by those overactive muscles. So again, the elevens, the forehead, crow’s feet, upper lip, along the jaw line. People sometimes think, “Oh, well, you can use Botox for these lines here, the parentheses lines.” That doesn’t work, because these parentheses lines aren’t caused by overactive muscles, so Botox won’t work there. That’s caused by loss of collagen and that’s where you would use fillers.

Greg:
Then how do you find the right brand for you? Are they all basically the same and go with whatever’s on sale?

Is one brand better than another?

Dr. Bae:
Well, every company will tell you that they’re the best for one reason or another. Well, first off, just so you know, right off the top, is that I am a speaker, a paid spokesperson, for Xeomin. A company, Merz, makes Xeomin. It’s a company based in Germany. But they have a North American unit here and that’s where the Xeomin comes from. But I feel they’re all pretty much the same. I would treat all of these on my family members. I think they all have essentially the same result. The only one I don’t use is Dysport and not because there’s anything wrong with the product. It’s because they use a different gradation or measurement technique as far as how much you inject somebody with. But Botox, Jeuveau, Xeomin, you basically can treat 20 units to this area in the forehead, 20 units to the eyes, so it’s all pretty much the same.

How do you choose one brand over another?

Dr. Bae:
But the thing that’s interesting is whenever a new company comes out, they don’t necessarily just come out right and say, “We’re better than Botox.” Because you would think if a car dealer comes out with a new car, a new model, a car company comes out with a new model, they’ll say, “Oh, this car is better than that Ford truck,” or, “This Chevy truck is better than that Ford truck.” What I find with the neuromodulators is they just say, “We’re the same as Botox.” They don’t necessarily say they’re better. They just say, “We’re the same,” because they know that’s the benchmark. They say, “Well, we’re as good as it gets. We’re the same as everybody else. So you can utilize us.” The thing that may make a difference is that some of them have loyalty rewards programs that are different. Maybe you get more points and more freebies, depending on which company you go with.

Greg:
Oh, my God, it’s like every thing else. It’s like choosing an airline or whatever. You choose the one where you can get the most advantages, points, maybe a sale, something from them. Okay, so-

Dr. Bae:
Credit cards.

How to see Dr. Bae

Greg:
Yeah. They’re basically all the same. They’re all safe. And, of course, you can always be educated in Dr. Bae’s office about these types of things. Tell them how to find you and how to book an appointment.

Dr. Bae:
You can always find us, if you’re watching this, you’re already probably on our website at realdrbae.com, R-E-A-L-D-R-B-A-E, not B-A-Y. Or you can watch us on social media, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram at realdrbae. You can watch us operate. You can actually watch us do injectables on patients that are okay with us showing them on social media. Because it’s different, when we’re doing operations, the patients are covered up. You never see their face. But when you’re doing injectables, the patients are a little bit more reticent to be shown on social media, because you’re actually injecting their face. It’s hard to hide their face, even though sometimes we’ll try and zoom in really well, or we’ll put an emoji over part of their face. You can watch us do those types of injectables with neuromodulators, i.e., Botox, Xeomin, Jeuveau or Dysport in our office, anytime on any social media.

Dr. Bae:
And you can check pricing on all of these injectables on realdrbae.com/pricing. You can even purchase non-surgical services through our website. So you can actually pay for it online and come in and get the treatment and just walk out as though it was free. You didn’t have to pay for it. You [crosstalk 00:06:10].

Greg:
Perfect. And you can show my photos there. I’m such a big boy. I hardly even grimace when the needle goes in.

Dr. Bae:
Thanks. That’s good to know. Thank you.

The post All about Botox, Xeomin, Dysport and Jeuveau first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Botox vs Xeomin vs Dysport vs Jeuveau

First, their similarities. All of these products come to the doctor in a powder form. They’re turned into or reconstituted into a liquid with the addition of saline. Once in their liquid form, they can be injected with a very small needle into areas of the face where wrinkles exist due to overactive muscles. For example, these products can be injected into the 11’s in between the eyebrows. Or the forehead or lines around the eyes called crow’s feet.

As this article shows, there are many other areas on the face where Botox is just what the doctor ordered! In general, these all work pretty much the same. They all start working 1-3 days after surgery, hit their maximum effect at 1 week and last for three to six months.

Rather than one product claiming to be better than another, the products that have come out after Botox perform “non-inferiority studies.” Basically, instead of saying they’re better than the grandmother of all neuromodulators (Botox), the competitors prove they’re no worse! Can you imagine any other product arguing how similar they are to another product?!

The differences

While they generally work the same, there are differences. BOTOX® Cosmetic has an extra inactive protein that can make it more unstable. Compared to Xeomin, there is no extra unstable protein. This may be why Xeomin doesn’t ship in dry ice.

BOTOX® Cosmetic, Dysport and Jeuveau all require styrofoam packaging and dry ice for shipping. Xeomin on the other hand is kinder on the environment. It ships in a regular box and doesn’t need refrigeration until reconstitution.

Video on the various neuromodulators

To check pricing on these injectables from Dr. Kaplan, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Botox vs Xeomin vs Dysport vs Jeuveau [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.