No Crows Feet On A Beautiful Face

Crows feet, commonly also called the eye wrinkle, is the term given to the face wrinkles situated at the outer corner of the eyes when a person is smiling.  They start just at the corner of the eye and radiate in three directions, at an angle upwards, outwards and angled downwards, much like that of the feet of a crow. These are formed by the contraction of the muscles around the eyes and tend to disappear when the person stops smiling.  However, with age and frequent excessive smiling, other factors come into play, such as a permanent buckling of the skin because of frequent contractions.  These are then called static wrinkles and have to be treated differently from the dynamic wrinkles which occur earlier.

Treatment of dynamic crows feet or eye wrinkles is by the injection of a few units of botox (sometimes known as botax) into the muscles of the skin at the outer corner of the eye.  These are rather superficial muscles and are quite easily accessed in trained hands.  However one has to be careful in the injection process not to nick the sometimes not-so-obvious superficial facial veins that run in the same area, as these will cause some inconvenient bruising in the injected area that lasts up to 2 weeks.  Also, in untrained hands, the botox may be inadvertantly introduced into the muscles of the eyeball, causing temporarily a problem of double vision.

No Crows Feet When Not Smiling

Crows Feet When Smiling

Aside from these above noted rare side effects, the actual intended effect of removal of crows feet is a marvellous restoration of smooth skin around the eyes and a much more youthful look, essential for conveying that all important first impression when you meet a potential client or partner.

The effect of botox injection comes on within 2-3 days, and lasts up to 4-6 months.  The cost of this particular injection for eye wrinkles is rather low, as the amount of botox or botax needed is much less that that used for, say, the frown lines or forehead lines, there being less, and thinner, muscle to inject.  Suffice it to say that one usually does not need more than 12 units of botox for the treatment of crows feet.