It’s used by millions to banish wrinkles and smooth lines, but the cosmetic treatment can have scary side effects.
Horror stories of droopy eyelids and frozen mouths after Botox injections have flooded social media in recent months, with a number of celebrities also revealing botched procedures.
Singer Meghan Trainor, 30, has admitted she “can’t smile anymore” after getting “a lot of Botox” and fillers “right above” her upper lip.
Made in Chelsea star Sophie Habboo also admitted she had an ‘accident’ with the injection after her dentist suggested jabs in her jaw muscle could stop her grinding her teeth.
Speaking of Wednesday Podcast he said: “My smile was frozen. When my mouth was closed it looked normal but everyone else wondered what was going on with my smile – it lasted six months.
Botulinum toxin (commonly known as Botox) costs between £100 and £300 per area and is used to relax facial muscles, smoothing out lines and wrinkles.
It can also be used to treat jaw pain, tightness and migraine.
But with many young women in their twenties using the treatment to “preventatively” smooth wrinkles, experts have warned that the piercings carry serious risks.
Singer Meghan Trainor, 30, has admitted she “can’t smile anymore” after getting “a lot of Botox” and fillers “right above” her upper lip.
Botulinum toxin (often just shortened to Botox) is used to relax facial muscles to smooth lines and wrinkles. It can also be used to treat jaw pain and tightness and even migraine
Side effects include headaches, “frozen” face, nerve damage, bruising and swelling.
Aesthetic nurse Amanda Azzopardi, who offers Botox at her clinics across London, Liverpool and North Wales, urged patients to go to “an injector who knows their anatomy very well” to avoid complications.
“Botox is a prescription-only drug and must be prescribed for each client individually in the correct dose,” he told MailOnline.
It’s easy to over-inject — and doing so can cause asymmetry due to differences in muscle strength on either side of the face.
This leaves patients with crooked smiles and droopy eyelids, he added.
Patients took to social media to reveal the horrifying impact of their poor job.
It is called a social media user @Raiinnna_ shared shocking before-and-after pictures on TikTok, documenting the aftermath of her Botox injections into the masseter muscle, which is inside the jaw and helps us chew.
Botox in this area of the face can help ease teeth grinding and clenching, as well as relieve tension headaches. Square shaped jaws are also offered to create a more symmetrical face shape.
In the video, she warned her 204,000 followers against the procedure, revealing she still can’t smile three weeks later.
This can happen if Botox is injected into the cheek muscle – which controls movement in the cheeks and sits just below the masseter – relaxing it and reducing the width of the smile.
Similar videos show how Botox on the forehead can cause drooping eyelids if administered incorrectly.
Social media user @justjennie77 shared her Botox accident on TikTok to warn others about the potential side effects.
The video shows her revealing her slightly droopy eyelids, which she claims is a dramatic change.
He said: “To anyone thinking about botox, check this out, it might make you think twice. By the way, I had very good eyelids.
Raising her eyebrows with her finger she exclaimed “that’s how I used to be.”
He added: “Where did they go! I have no eyelids.’
A popular TikTok account, @ultimatebykomiwho shares ‘beauty gone wrong’ videos, shared a clip of a woman left with uneven eyes after a botox treatment.
The woman said: “This is a Botox procedure I had a week ago, I got the injection in the wrong place so I ended up with a droopy eye and also a bigger eye.
Made in Chelsea star Sophie Habboo also admitted she had an ‘accident’ with the injection after her dentist suggested it might help her stop grinding her teeth. It left her unable to smile (pictured talking about the incident on Wednesday’s Podcast)
Social media user @justjennie77 (pictured right) shared her Botox Mishap on TikTok to warn others about the potential side effects. The video shows her revealing her slightly droopy eyelids, which she claims is a dramatic change from her previously “very good” eyelids. A beauty gone wrong TikTok account @ultimatebykomi (pictured left) shared a video with her 1.1 million followers of a woman who was left with an aged eye and a dilated eye after botox
“I called my GP because I was so scared, this has never happened to me before. So he prescribed me medication which I have been taking for a week now.
“I just want to raise awareness before you go to a place and get your botox done, try to research the place and who the injector is.”
One way to avoid this is to only get a small amount of Botox at a time, suggests Ms. Azzopardi.
He said: “If you do a small injection it can always be added to two weeks. It takes two weeks to get that full effect.”
Ms Azzopardi explained that having too much Botox on the forehead or jawline can be particularly dangerous and cause lumps and bumps.
“Sometimes the muscles in the lower face have different strength on each side, so if you inject a little more on one side than the other, or if the muscle is stronger or weaker on one side, you’ll have a bumpy smile . ” she said.
Botox on the forehead or around the eyes can affect the muscles that animate this area of the face.
“If you inject the frontal muscle too low, then the toxin will diffuse into the orbital muscle surrounding the eye and can cause the eyelids to droop (droop eyes).”
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) explains that this eyelid droop occurs in only one in 100 cases and can be corrected with eye drops and will improve as the effects of Botox wear off, which can take three to four months.
Anyone can legally have Botox in the UK, including non-medical professionals such as beauticians.
However, because it is a prescription-only medicine, it still needs to be prescribed by a healthcare professional, such as a doctor, dentist, pharmacist or nurse.
Campaigners want to see a licensing regime for businesses and individuals providing these treatments to help keep Britons safe.
An estimated 900,000 Botox injections are performed in the UK each year, most without any complaints from patients.
But Save Face – a government-approved register of accredited professionals – received nearly 3,000 complaints in 2022 alone, with over two-thirds of those complaints involving dermal fillers and nearly a quarter related to Botox.
