Botox acts on the contraction ability of muscles where it is injected, normally in the face. Because it acts on muscles it is only effective for unwanted wrinkles or lines caused by muscle contractions. Usually these contractions cause folding in the skin that then causes patterns of lines and wrinkles to develop.

Wrinkle Patterns Caused by Facial Muscles or Squinting

The most prevalent wrinkles on most people under 60 are those lines in the face that are caused by contractions of facial muscles. There are several common patterns of contraction that cause the common wrinkling or line patterns. These contractions give humans the ability for expressions like smiling and happiness, frowning and upset, squinting and worry, etc. Wrinkle cures like botox injections seek to reduce these lines by stopping the muscle actions causing these wrinkles.

Common Locations and Patterns for Wrinkles

In the face the most common wrinkle patterns are around the mouth or buccal lines, crows feet at the corners of the eyes and between the eye brows from squinting, frowning or distress. These patterns are very useful as we express ourselves or squint to avoid the sun but the long term affects of permanent lines in the face make us look aged – yuck! This is where botox cosmetic procedures come in.

How Botox Eliminates Wrinkles

Botox works by weakening the contractions of muscles in the face thus decreasing the wrinkling cause by those contractions. This helps in two ways. First, if your muscles are hypertonic or ‘too tight’, causing lines and wrinkles because you have a bit of a scowl all the time, your tight muscles will be released. Botox injections will decrease the strength of these muscles to a greater or lesser extent and thus eliminating the scowl. Secondly, by limiting the contractions of these muscles you will limit the folding that occurs when the muscles are contracted because they won’t be able to contract as much. This results in a lessening of the pattern that caused your lines or wrinkles in the first place.

You can see that because Botox works only on a very specific part of human physiology it is only effective for certain types of wrinkles, namely those caused by folding of the skin due to muscle contraction. For these types of wrinkles or lines Botox has proven to be highly effective and can be thought of as a wrinkle cure. For other types of wrinkles botox injections won't be effective.