Move over Botox; seems like Frotox is pulling on headlines as the better alternative to Botox – a treatment that works just the same as its predecessor, but with minus the toxins seeping into the veins. Read on, to find out more.
Botox have been regarded as the gold standard when it comes to anti-aging for couple of years now. People simply love the stuff, even if it’s derived from a toxin that can be harmful in the long run, if you take it too much at a one time. And I guess, it’s the reason why researches formulated a gentler, kinder version of Botox, aptly name as Frotox.
The Frotox, known as iovera, a toxin-free anti-wrinkle treatment that can best describe as ‘giving cold shots to the temple’. To put is rather formally, “Focused Cold Therapy” uses a highly pressurized liquid nitrous oxide in an extremely thin needle for precise location to be injected on the intended area. The liquid will then change itself into gaseous form, drawing heat from its surrounding to form a cold-zone area within the skin.
Hence, the liquid-turn-gas nitrous oxide will freezes the nerve that control the muscles that causes you to have wrinkles, as far as four months, similar like a Botox shot would. To add a bonus point, the facial muscles can still moves (only the wrinkles be gone, hence minimizing the chances of frozen face), as well as patients feel a pressure on the injected site rather than pain.
Though the doctor, Dr. Vincent Wond makes a gentle warning not to make it as comparison to Botox, the similarities is there – the times the results last, how it works and the procedures done by the dermatologist and even the general costs (though Botox is slightly higher).
Still, Iovera certainly provides an option for people seeking anti-wrinkle treatment in the most effective way, and they’re not be able to use botulinum toxins, for health and medical reasons.
Because Frotox is still new, certain doctors are not convince that it will replace Botox, or at least provide another option that are similar as Botox as the treatment is less predictable and it’s hard to detect which nerve that will deliver specific results.
And currently, as the treatment is only available in UK and parts of Europe, Frotox have been going a clinical trial in the States, which you can learn more about here, and we sure need to keep our fingers crossed so FDA will give their thumbs up for this procedure.