Minor Injuries: Seeking Treatment in a Timely Manner

While rosacea isn't a dangerous medical condition, it can cause quite a bit of discomfort. When someone has rosacea, they'll commonly experience flushing, redness, and irritation on their face. In some cases, the redness is triggered by sunlight exposure or physical activity. In other cases, the redness seems to randomly come and go. Rosacea is highly visible, so many people who have it often feel embarrassed about the constant facial redness and irritation.

The redness from rosacea comes from blood flowing through tiny capillaries in your skin. When these capillaries dilate and blood flow increases, it will cause redness in your face. Several treatments exist for rosacea, such as creams that help constrict your facial capillaries in order to limit blood flow. Laser therapy can also be used to reduce the size of the larger blood vessels that supply the capillaries, limiting the amount of blood that's able to flow through them.

Unfortunately, some patients find that these treatment approaches don't work very well, and they still suffer from frequent facial redness. If this applies to you, you may want to consider facial Botox injections to help treat your rosacea. While Botox for treating rosacea is still experimental, it has been very promising. To learn about how facial Botox injections can help treat your rosacea, read on.

Why Does Botox Help Treat Rosacea?

Botox injections are mostly associated with reducing the appearance of wrinkles on the face. Botox can reduce wrinkles because it's able to paralyze facial muscles, keeping them relaxed. It prevents muscles from taking up acetylcholine, which is the neurotransmitter that signals muscles to move.

The same mechanism enables Botox injections to be used for treating rosacea. Facial blood vessels require acetylcholine in order to dilate. When acetylcholine is blocked, they'll remain constricted, and this reduces the amount of blood that can flow through them. Keeping the blood vessels constricted can significantly reduce the facial redness and irritation caused by rosacea.

How Is Facial Botox Used to Treat Rosacea?

When using Botox to treat rosacea, your medical provider will dilute it and then inject it into your skin at multiple locations on your face. Diluting the Botox helps it spread through the skin layer, which makes sure all of the capillaries in your face remain constricted. Since your facial skin is very sensitive, your provider will apply a numbing cream to your face before starting the procedure in order to make it more comfortable for you.

Your body will slowly break down Botox over time, so you'll need to repeat the procedure after a few months. The amount of time between procedures will depend on how fast your body breaks down Botox. When your rosacea symptoms begin to return, you'll need to schedule another appointment for facial Botox injections.

Facial Botox injections for rosacea are very convenient when compared to other treatment methods. A facial cream that constricts blood vessels needs to be applied daily, and laser treatments can require multiple sessions before you see results. With Botox injections, you'll only need to undergo the procedure a few times a year in order to maintain your results.

If you're suffering from rosacea and your current treatment methods aren't giving you the results that you expect, contact a provider in your area who performs facial Botox injections and ask if they're familiar with treating rosacea. Treating rosacea with Botox is still a very new approach, but it may be the solution you're looking for to eliminate facial redness and irritation.