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I am considering Botox can you tell me what does Botox do to your face to make it look plastic. What are the long term problems?
Those who look “plastic” with Botox often do so because that is how they have asked their practitioner to make them. There are trends in Botox “looks” which vary from country to country and in particular our American friends often prefer the paralysed or frozen look.
The look achieved will depend on the amount of Botox used and where it is placed. This is why it is very important to have a good Botox doctor or nurse prescriber. There are thousands of muscle fibres in the face and if the botox is wrongly places then you have approximately 4 months of looking bizarre. “Soft Botox” ie smaller amounts, correctly placed can give a very subtle attractive look as well as alleviating headaches and frown lines. Botox works by stopping small nerves from transmitting messages to the muscles and softening the way those muscles contract.
This is why it is good for headaches, migraine and teeth grinding as well as a host of other head and face disorders apart from cosmetic applications.
Botox is used in many hospital departments eg it can be used to treat prostate problems and overactive bladders, It is used in stroke patients and to correct squints. It has been around for well over 20 years and studied in great detail.
It is a very safe drug in the right hands. Longterm in the face it will cause weakening of overactive muscles and stop wrinkles developing. Always establish the qualifications of your Botox practitioner and in particular, ask if he or she is licensed to prescribe Botox as it is a prescription only medicine and some practitioners (usually not Doctors) are obtaining there Botox from Doctors who never see the Botox patient and who issue the prescription for reward.
This practice is known as “Remote Prescription” and it has been condemned by the Nursing and Midwifery Council and also the General Medical Council of the UK. Dr Geraldine McKeever
After having 2 children my bladder is very weak like to the point where If I sneeze I wet myself same with coughing and throwing up! Its so embarrassing an I feel like I don’t want to go out or even for nights out! I’ve tried pelvic floor exercises a lot for 3 years now but its just not getting better! What do you suggest???
Hi. there are lots of things that you can do. First of all diet and exercise is very important and being within the normal weight range will be helpful. Overwieght ladies have more pressure in their abdomens and this pressure impacts on the bladder and makes the problem worse.
It cold be that you need a little help with how to do your exercises or you might even need some simple pelvic floor aids. These are vaginal devices that you can squeeze against to make exercise more effective. Sex is also pretty good exercise for the pelvic floor (as well as being fun!). There are some very good hospital investigations which are quite simple and these aim to observe how you empty your bladder (in private!!).
If it is felt that you need an operation this can often be done as a day case and might involve holding the neck of the bladder in place using a kind of tape which acts as a sling (a Transvaginal tape or TVT). This can be very effective.
The first step is to see your doctor for a referral to the urogynaecological department of your local hospital for assessment.
It is important that you use pads eg Tena ladys to give you comfort and confidence whilst you await your outpatient appointments. Dr Geraldine McKeever
I’m 45 and was considering a liquid facelift. What happens during a liquid facelift? What chemicals are used? I await your response.
I can really only speak about the liquid facelifts done at my clinic, Stepback Cosmetic Medicine, Medway and, soon to be Harley Street.
We use 4 or 5 small entry points into the face. Usually we have 2 points in the lower face and 2 in the upper face. At these points we inject a little local anaesthetic so that the patient feels very little discomfort. Next we make a tiny hole in the skin where we have put our 4 or 5 points of anaesthetic.
We then insert a small flexible hollow tube called a pixel cannula through the hole and we inject Hyaluronic acid (Restylane products) through the cannula. The cannula can be moved around under the skin to fill up areas of the face whicj need filling out. The effect is dramatic and in my opinion one of the most important advances in facelifting in recent years.
Further information and a picture of a cannula can be found on www.restylane.co.uk. When you enter the site click on “our treatments” and then on “soft restoration with Restylane”. Liquid face lifts are a speciality at Stepback Cosmetic Medicine and pictures of one of our clients who had this treatment and is happy to share her photos can be found on this website.
Hyaluronic acid is found widely in our bodies tissues and is part of our collagen and support tissue. It is used in many other branches of medicine as well as in cosmetic practice.
Liquid face lifts generally take about 1 hour to complete and we are happy to mildly sedate any anxious patient. Dr Geraldine McKeever
How can I stop my hands from aging? Is here anything I can do to rejuvenate them? Your assistance is much appreciated.
The main reason for ageing hands is UV light. This means a protecting the hands from Sunlight winter and summer with a high factor sun block. I recommend SPF 50 applied every few hours winter and summer.
Remember also that when driving we need to use UV protection as UV rays can penetrate the windscreen and side windows of your car.
There are laser treatments for sun spots or fading creams that do the same thing.
Often the flesh on the back of the hands diminishes and the veins can show through and give an ugly appearance. In my cosmetic clinic we offer a rejuvenation treatment where we inject a mixture of local anaesthetic and a filler called Radiesse into the back of the hands.
This is a very comfortable procedure due to the anaesthetic and our patients love it. Dr Geraldine McKeever
I’m a fit and healthy 26 year old but get hot flushes when I’m on my period. It started happening last year is it normal????
Hi. Although unusual to get hot flushes in period time it is not completely unknown. The reason for hot flushes is fluctuation in the oestrogen hormone levels at the beginning of the cycle.
It is worth looking at you family history. Do you have close female relatives who have had early menopause? If so your doctor might choose to perform a hormone blood test. If this is normal and your symptoms are not too bad then don’t worry.
If they are very troublesome they might respond to treatment with a contraceptive pull. Sometimes the pill can be taken for 3 months without a break so that the number of periods reduces to 4 per year and this can really alleviate the problem of flushing. Dr Geraldine McKeever
I have a lot of dark hair on my face and neck. Is there a cheaper way of getting rid of it for good instead of laser? I have already spent £500 on laser and it hasn’t made any difference, please advise me im getting so embarrassed about it… Thanks.
I really do sympathise with you. Excess hair affects ladies (I presume you are a lady and not a guy!) badly psychologically. It would help to know your age and whether you are white, Asian, Black etc. Some races, especially Asian, are troubled more than others. I need to be truthful and tell you that there is NO such thing as as permanent hair loss. Light treatments such as IPL, and Laser are the longer lasting treatments but we change all the time hormonally and hair growth changes with us in puberty, during pregnancy, the menopause and in old age.
It is best to have an individual assessment and advice and also to talk, perhaps to a counsellor, about the problem. It may well be that you have not had true laser treatment or that you need more sessions.
It is usual to need 6-12 sessions in most people to treat the problem and sometimes more. Hair removal by light therapy needs repeat sessions because all our individual hairs are in one of three phases ie growing, resting or falling out and only the growing hairs respond to the light/laser treatment so it may take several monthly treatments to clear an area if hair. It is rare for the NHS to pay for hair removal. Dr Geraldine McKeever