Botox Is Not Just For Wrinkles

Botox is a great way to treat those wrinkles on your face, and almost everyone knows about that now after hearing about various celebrities using it to keep themselves looking young. Botox works by inhibiting the muscles from contracting so when injected in the wrinkles in someone's forehead, for example, it doesn't really make the wrinkles disappear but effectively paralyses the muscles that allow the skin to move to create the wrinkles. Since its explosive recent growth people have begun trying to use Botox for other medical applications.

Chronic migraine headaches (occurring more than 14 days per month for more than 4 hours at a time) affect millions of people everyday and it is now known that Botox can be used to treat them. Every 12 weeks the patient gets injections of Botox in the head and neck. When administered by a trained medical professional, 31 Botox injections are made in 7 specific muscle locations around the head and neck. A 2010 study showed that Botox injections helped to decrease the number of days spent with pain due to chronic migraine headaches. However, it doesn't appear to be useful for people that have headaches occur less than 14 days per month. The effect, like other Botox treatments, lasts up to 3 months.

Temporo mandibular joint disorder, or TMJ is a condition which causes pain in the jaw - the joint which connects the mandible to the skull. It is characterized by pain when chewing and a constant aching pain in the face. It can also cause headaches and may even contribute to hearing loss along with affecting eating habits as well as other problems. People often use mouth guards to prevent grinding of the teeth, hot and cold packs to ease the pain, or only eat a diet of soft foods as ways to treat the condition. Recently though, Botox had been tried to stop the muscle spasms that cause the pain and has proven effective.

Vaginismus is a condition that causes women to have involuntary tightening of the vagina during intercourse, which can cause difficulties and sometime make sex impossible. Botox has been shown to relieve the involuntary muscle spasms in the pelvic floor muscles that cause this disorder, thus allowing the women to have sex without worries.

Hyperhidrosis is a skin condition which excessive sweating causing wet clothes and embarrassment for people with the condition. Botox has been shown effective at slowing down or stopping this excessive sweating at the area of injection so that sufferers are free to wear the clothes they want and enjoy physical activities without worries.

Another study focused on a facial pain condition called trigeminal neuralgia or "tic doulourex" which is intense facial pain and was successful enough that many test patients quit their other medications for Botox. Other uses include for pompholyx (a form of hand dermatitis) or Hailey-Hailey disease, when these are provoked by sweating. Botox has also been used for anal fissuring and postherpetic neuralgia (shingles pain).

Botox is no miracle cure for all skin conditions but it certainly appears to have a growing list of conditions it can be used for. For some Botox has become a way to treat wrinkles but for others it has now become a way to treat chronic pain and embarrassing or debilitating conditions.