I've got an interesting post for you today

on how you can actually have Botox

to your crow's feet and not look weird.

It's a common issue I see

with a lot of people who had Botox.

Often I walk down the street or see

people who've had Botox to their crow's feet,

and I can tell straight away that they've had Botox,

and it doesn't look natural, and the problem with this

is it doesn't improve your attractiveness.

So if it doesn't do that, then it's not a good treatment.

If it's noticeable, and it doesn't make you look better.

Sure, it can get rid of wrinkles,

but if it's not done properly,

then you might as well not have it done.

It's better to go just natural

rather than have it done poorly.

Crow's feet are a very common concern when people smile.

They don't like the lines that radiate

from the corner of the eye outwards.

Botox can be used to treat and relax

the orbicularis oculi muscle, which is the muscle

which contracts like a sphincter

and gives you radial lines out from the corner of the eye.

Now, just of note, you can't really

treat under eye wrinkles with Botox.

That tends to be more of an issue of skin laxity.

But certainly you can treat, easily,

the crow's feet with Botox when you smile.

You got to understand also that crow's feet

are a positive expression, so it's okay

to have a few crow's feet.

Young people have crow's feet, and they don't look bad.

It's something that you might want to moderate or reduce,

but certainly it's not something you want to get rid of.

Crow's feet, or smile lines,

are really a positive expression.

When we smile, we get contraction of that muscle.

So unlike, say, for example, the frown,

which is, there's no real positivity to frown.

When you're frowning, you're frowning.

So, what is the issue, firstly,

with having Botox around the eyes?

As I said, I see it all the time poorly done.

And the main reason for being poorly done

is it doesn't balance with the rest of the face,

and especially it doesn't balance with the under eye area.

So the first thing is, is setting

the right expectations for the patient.

I mean, most patients will come in and want

to completely obliterate any sign of crow's feet.

And that's usually a mistake, so it's important

for the doctor to advise that getting rid

of crow's feet altogether is not necessarily a good thing.

It's important to leave some crow's feet,

and to have some normal contraction.

We just don't want it to be as extensive.

We just want to moderate them a bit.

So, it's important to get a moderate dose

of Botox around the crow's feet.

If you put too much in, it literally holds

this bit open like this, and you get a very

sort of wrinkleless look through here, and it looks odd.

When you smile, it doesn't contract naturally.

So when you smile, there are two main muscles

which lead to the formation of crow's feet.

Now, firstly, it's the zygomaticus muscle,

which goes from the corner of your mouth up through here

and pulls upwards, elevates the cheek,

and pulls the corner of the mouth up.

Now we can't Botox this one, because if we did

we'd look like we have a stroke.

So, this muscle, it will contribute

to the smile lines of crow's feet.

But we can't treat it.

The muscle we treat is the orbicularis ocular muscle.

So, if, for example, you over-treat this area here,

the whole animation of that area changes.

The zygomaticus muscle continues to pull up,

but the orbicularis muscle, which has been treated

with Botox, is frozen.

So you get this elevation of the cheek

and freezing of this area here.

So it looks like this area's frozen,

yet this part still moves, and the whole animation

is incorrect, it looks weird.

The next thing's the placement.

The placement of where to put Botox

around the eyes is really important.

And too often, I see incorrect placement

of Botox around the eyes, which again

leads to a very unnatural appearance.

There's probably two main issues I see.

Firstly is putting Botox too close to the eye.

So too close to the orbital rim, or the eye socket.

The problem with this is, you're cutting

the contraction of the wrinkles very short.

So you're making the wrinkles very very short,

and in some cases, if it's close enough,

there's no wrinkle at all.

So basically the wrinkles don't extend out at all.

So I think it's important to actually place the Botox

a little bit further out, so you do contract a little bit

and show a short crow's feet, but you don't want it

to extend all the way down.

So keeping the Botox further away from the orbital rim

or the eye is important, not too close.

Too close means that you're gonna have

virtually no crow's feet, which looks, again, very unusual.

You must have crow's feet, it's actually important

to have a little bit.

But you just don't want the lines to keep going out.

So that's what Botox can do by being placed

a little bit further out.

Another huge issue I see with Botox,

and it's a dead giveaway.

Just to make a point in here, is that if someone

can tell you've had Botox, it's not good Botox.

So Botox should be done in such a way it cannot be detected.

And that is the best treatment.

In fact, that's the best with all cosmetic treatments.

You don't want to be known for having

cosmetic treatments unless you tell people.

I mean, if you tell people that's fine,

but you don't want someone to look at you

and notice that you've had something done.

That's a bad treatment, basically.

The other problem I see is Botox being put right here

in the corner, the bottom corner of the eye.

Either too big a dose in that area

or placement which is too close to the eye.

Now, this muscle, the orbicularis, at this point,

causes elevation of the cheek.

So, when you smile, this bit elevates.

Now, if you over-Botox this point here,

or put it too close up to the eye there,

what happens is this bit is held down when you smile.

So the orbicularis oculi muscle at that point

can no longer elevate the cheek.

Normally it does, see, my cheek goes up, and that's partly

because of the orbicularis oculi muscle here, at this point.

So, over-Botox in this point here often leads to,

what I call, ledgie, that's a term I just made up myself.

But the reason being, it causes

what looks like to be a ledge.

So this flattens down, this lifts up,

and you get like a shelf or ledge there.

So, that looks awful, and again a dead giveaway

that you've had Botox.

Unfortunately one of the areas which patients

often complain about are wrinkles in that spot,

so I think again, setting patient expectations

is very important, and they have to understand

they have to have a little bit

of natural movement and wrinkling there,

otherwise it will look weird.

In summary, Botox for the eyes

is a very difficult area to do.

It has to be done with a lot of care, the right dose,

the right placement, so that you don't look weird,

and so that it doesn't look like you've had Botox,

but it just looks like you're refreshed

and it just helps to stop the overextension

of crow's feet into the cheek.

Alright, I hope you've enjoyed that video,

and look forward to talking again next time.