|
By Giselle Sanchez
From being a summa cum laude of the
University of the Philippines, College of Mass Communication and
being an accomplished actress and comedian, Giselle Sanchez is now a
columnist of Popoli.
 |
 |
|
G-shock
before the
Botox procedure |
Things you wanted to know about Botox and
fillers but were afraid to ask: I noticed that when Boy Abunda asks
a middle-aged celebrity her beauty secret in staying young, she
usually just answers, “Oh Tito Boy, I just get a lot of sleep and
eat a lot of vegetables.” Now I say this is a lot of BS! I’m
bound to know the truth when the same celebrity guest thanks a
doctor in the end of the program. And it’s definitely not her ob-gyne
or cardiologist. What baffles me is what type of procedure she
underwent to achieve the twenty-something features. But these women
will lie to their teeth, never ever revealing their secrets till the
day they die.
I belong to the land of thirty-something women
who are been thinking for years if I should join my friends in the
quest for eternal youthful beauty through the help of nip ‘n tuck
doctors. I have finally faced my denial that I can still compete
with twenty-something women by just face cream alone. I will now
finally press the red button and quit saying “NO DEAL” and have
finally made the deal to undergo the knife. I told myself, I am
going to have a face lift. Of course, my body and soul were
terrified with this decision. I didn’t want to end up looking like
Madame Auring. Add the fact that if I do this every five years, my
eyebrows will be two inches below my hairline and my bellybutton
will be on my chest. OOOOH! What a horrible sight!
And then I met the most beautiful fairy
god-model under the name of Councilor Cristina Gonzales who was so
candid and honest enough to reveal the secret of youth, “There’s
this procedure I had called refirm. It’s really great! In your
case, do the refirm and then have Botox and fillers after,”
Cristina told me without batting an eyelash. This lady had no
pretensions, no hesitations. It’s like she’s not a politician!
What a relief! I do not have to undergo the
dreaded knife. Botox and fillers are non-invasive treatments that do
not require going through the knife. Let me go through these
procedures one by one because making a decision to have cosmetic
treatments should not be taken lightly. For instance, Botox is a
toxin, which is injected into your face and you should probably mull
that thought over before going any further. The medical name for
Botox is botulinum toxin and it’s a poison that’s produced by
the bacteria that causes botulism. As a cosmetic treatment Botox is
used in small quantities and it works by freezing nerve impulses.
This means the muscles that we use to frown or raise our eyebrows
are paralyzed. Wait, I think I scared you with that definition. Let
me make it a little more attractive to those who are thinking of
having this treatment. Although Botox is a toxin, it is also a
protein that occurs naturally in the body. It is able to gently
relax muscles that it comes into contact with. The muscles relax for
several months, and then gradually return to their original
condition. Contary to my image, I do think a lot. This process has
caused a frown line, my specific problem area, which is in located
in my forehead between my eyebrows. These “frown lines” can
often make me look tired, angry or older and all I’m doing is just
thinking! According to my Cristina, the most popular use of Botox is
to reduce frown and forehead lines. It is also often used to reduce
the “crow’s feet” lines of the eyes. After Botox, when we
relax these muscles, any fine lines and wrinkles smooth out. So I
thought, hmmm… Botox or stop thinking and join the DAB, short for
Dumb Actresses Bandwagon… BOTOX it will be! (in fairness, kakaunti
lang po ang members ng DAB, mas marami pong matatalinong artista)
While Botox is used from for the forehead and
crow’s feet, soft tissue fillers, on the other hand, is used to
camouflage Nasal Labial Fold lines and fill Marionette lines.
Fillers can also be used to plump or fill acne scars and other skin
depressions. Restylane and Perlane are part of a group of cosmetic
products known as ‘fillers’. The products are composed of
stabilized hyaluronic acid which occurs naturally in the cells of
the skin. It works by drawing in water and therefore augmenting the
skin, thus reducing the wrinkle treated. In layman’s terms, the
doctor injects this fluid in your laugh line and “fills” the
line-depression on your face making you look twenty years old again.
Botox, Restylane and Perlane are
prescription-only medicines, so it can only be administered by a
medical practitioner. However, due to demand for the procedure,
you’ll now find facial centers and parlors with no accredited
doctor, dentists, general surgeons, and dermatologists, all offering
to fix your lines. For me the decision was simple—I wanted a
doctor with extensive cosmetic experience to perform the treatment.
I wouldn’t go to a hairdresser without a recommendation, so it
seemed sensible to at least apply the same rules especially for my
face because my face was one of my primary means of livelihood. I
remember Richard Gomez falling in the basketball court and the part
that he immediately covered was his face—made sense. My research
was a combination of digging around in magazines and websites, and
asking everyone I knew until the same name came up a few times. And
the winner for most recommended is Dr. Edwin I. del Rosario, FPCS,
FPAPRAS, member of the elite Plastic Surgery Specialists at the De
Los Santos MegaClinic in Megamall. But even then I wasn’t
100-percent convinced I’d go through with the procedure until my
consultation.
On the day of my consultation, I was kinda
expecting him to “make me bola” and tell me, “Giselle,
you’re way too young for this procedure. All you probably need are
daily alpha hydroxyacid, and tretinoin cream and youre good to
go.” Instead, he got his pentel pen and started plotting the dots
where I needed Botox and Perlane shots. When I faced the mirror, I
almost screamed in bewilderment. My face was filled with pentel pen
dots, that if my four-year-old daugher would join in and play
connect-the-dots, she would have drawn the city map of Manila! Then
he explained the history of the procedure, what it would feel like,
how long it would take, and how quickly I would see the results.
Apparently some practitioners reel off lists of do’s and don’ts
before and after a Botox. Unless youre auditioning for a part in a
horror movie, I suggest you read below.
What to do before your Botox® injections:
1. No alcohol one week prior to treatment.
2. No anti-inflammatory medication or aspirin
two weeks before treatment.
What to do after your Botox® injections:
1. Do not lie down for four to eight hours after
the treatment. This is to reduce the chance that the Botox will
spread to other areas, which we don’t want to relax. This is
unlikely, but if it happens, it would be only a temporary problem
that would resolve in a few weeks.“ In less than one percent of
cases there can be a slight drooping of an eyelid, which is often
not noticeable, but even when it is, it will usually resolve in a
week or two.
2. Do not massage the treated muscles, this can
cause the Botox® to spread to the muscles around the eyes.
3. Exercise the muscles every 15 minutes for one
hour after the treatment, the Botox® attaches better to active
muscles.
4. Don’t go shoe shopping. Apparently all the
bending down and looking at your feet isn’t great for your freshly
injected forehead! Plus you don’t want the botox to spread to your
eyes. A friend of mine was not briefed well by her doctor and she
went shoe-shopping afterwards (The scary ending—a lazy left eye
that would not coordinate movements with her right eye). She looked
like the bride of Chuckie in that scary horror movie. Doctors advise
you to look up all the time so watching a movie in the orchestra or
deluxe area is well-recommended!
Side Effects
1. One in 10 patients will develop a small
bruise or hematoma, which will take several weeks to resolve.
2. Rare drooping of eyebrow or eyelid can occur;
this can last three to six months but is always reversible.
3. Extremely rare double vision has been
reported, this can last three to six months but is always
reversible.
Since I didn’t take alcohol or aspirin for a
week and I didn’t have a show or an engagement to attend to after
(the only side effect of Perlane/Restylane fillers are bruisings and
bloatness for 24 hours to three days depending on your healing; the
bruising can be covered by make-up), I decided to have my shots at
that moment. Since I had pentel pen all over my face already, you
might as well hit the dot! Let me show you some pictures so you can
join me in this painless aesthetic journey.
|
