Botox vs. Fillers: What's the Difference?

When it comes to choosing the right cosmetic treatment for your needs, it is important to know the difference in available options. While Botox and dermal fillers are both injectable cosmetic procedures that do not require surgery, they do have key differences that must be noted when choosing the right procedure for you.

Do Botox or dermal fillers laser treatments?

Botox and dermal fillers are not laser treatments; they are both injectable procedures.

What is Botox?

Botox, while actually the brand name of a specific botulinum toxin, is an injectable cosmetic treatment used for lessening fine lines and wrinkles that have been caused by muscle movement. Examples of these areas that would be treated with Botox are forehead lines and crow’s feet around the eyes.

Botox, as well as Dysport and Xeomin (other botulinum toxin treatments), work by injecting purified bacteria that freezes the muscles at the site where it is injected to lessen the sight of lines in the skin caused from facial expressions. The treatment uses a regulated amount of the purified form of the botulinum toxin found in bacteria.

What are dermal fillers?

Dermal fillers are injectables used to fill areas of skin that have thinned out and have a loss of collagen due to aging. Areas such as the lips, lower face wrinkles or drooping and shallow areas in the face may benefit from dermal fillers.

Dermal fillers have a variety of options available, and the length of results varies depending on which fillers are used. These treatments use different substances – depending on the result you are looking to get and where you need the fillers injected to fill in areas that need more volume, the substance in the dermal fillers that you would want will differ.