Botox is synonymous with wrinkle-free foreheads and erasure of lines left by laughing. Widely used, Botox® was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) almost a decade ago and has proven immensely popular for its effectiveness as well as the speed with which a treatment can be delivered. Done on a lunch hour or on the way home from work, therapy can typically be administered in less time than it takes to have your teeth cleaned.
Because it reduces fine lines and wrinkles, Botox® is a great go-to-product for people of all ages due to its affordability and capability of shrinking the wrinkles between the eyebrows and smoothing the crow’s feet that frame the eyes over time.
But now one of the best things about Botox is that it has competition. The heartbeat of consumerism is choice and the drug Dysport™ now offers an alternative solution for this type of facial improvement.
Although Dysport™ is relatively new to the industry (having received its FHA approval in 2009); a recent study literally put both drugs in a side by side test.
San Francisco researchers from the Maas Clinic and the University of California enrolled ninety participants and actually injected Botox on one side of the face and Dysport on the other.
To obtain the most unbiased opinions possible, the injections were not only done randomly, but both the researchers and the participants offered their evaluations of which treatment improved the appearance of crow’s feet. Dysport won. Even thirty days post-injection, almost two-thirds of the participants still favored the Dysport side.
It will be interesting to see the other situations in which Dysport can be a viable solution and under what conditions one drug may have an advantage over the other. Alternatives are absolutely essential when it comes to patient care and facial cosmetic surgery. And, FDA approval is pending for a 3rd botulinum toxin competitor called Xeomin. More to come soon!