Get a Botox shot for wrinkles — at the dentist?
It was bound to happen sooner or later. Boston dentists giving Botox injections. After all, gynecologists offer them. So does a hair salon in Weymouth. A nurse who took a two-day certification course drives up, reportedly gives injections while clients wait for their hair-color to set, and drives away. So why not a dentist?
“I’ve been doing it for about a year, and we’ve had enormous interest,” says Helaine Smith, a cosmetic dentist who practices in Boston and has so far given injections to 50 patients. She took a two-day training course in Brookline and voila! She was ready to erase frown lines and crow’s feet.
“Like most cosmetic dentists, I have a spa-like practice, so it was a natural next step,” says Smith, who fixes cracked broken teeth with porcelain veneers. She next plans to become certified in Restylane and other dermal fillers to plump out lips and facial sags. “People want service and convenience,” she adds. And they’re happy to get their face fixed along with their smile.
Still, there are plenty of botched Botox jobs, so you may want to stick with getting injections from a dermatologist who spends three to four years after medical school learning about the skin — not two days. Plastic surgeons are also safer bets, though you still need to ask around to see who’s good because even those who specialize can have less than stellar results.
Smith says she’s had good customer satisfaction, just a few complaints from patients saying that the injections wore off too quickly. At $400 to $500 a treatment, they’d like the treatments to last the full three to four months. She tells me she’s provided repeat injections for dissatisfied patients for no charge.
What’s good and bad about dermal fillers and Botox is that results are temporary, so if you’re not happy with the results, they’ll go away. If you are happy, though, expect to keep paying for maintenance.
Would you consider getting Botox from a dentist?
Source: by Deborah Kotz on March 16, 2011 for Boston.com at http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blog/dailydose/2011/03/get_a_botox_sho.html
