Perspiration is your body’s built-in cooling system, triggering when you’re overheated or in warm environments. But for people with hyperhidrosis, sweating becomes an excessive and embarrassing problem.
Hyperhidrosis causes sweating even when your body isn’t overheated, and without medical treatment, it can take a toll on your confidence — the good news: Today, some treatments can help.
At Sanctuary Cosmetic Center, Soheila Rostami, MD, FAAO, FAACS, and Joseph K. Davidson, MD, FACS, offer state-of-the-art Botox® injection therapy for hyperhidrosis for patients in McLean and Dulles, Virginia, relieving embarrassing symptoms and helping every patient feel more confident and more comfortable. If you’re suffering from hyperhidrosis, here’s how Botox therapy could help you.
More than 15 million Americans suffer from hyperhidrosis, including both primary hyperhidrosis and secondary hyperhidrosis. Primary hyperhidrosis occurs bilaterally, affecting the same locations on each side of your body. Typically, those locations include:
Many people with primary hyperhidrosis develop symptoms in their teen or young adult years, and it often runs in families.
Secondary hyperhidrosis is caused by an underlying medical condition, like a stroke or cardiovascular disease, or as a side effect of medication. Some women develop hyperhidrosis when they enter menopause.
While clinical-strength prescription antiperspirants can effectively manage some types of hyperhidrosis, they don’t work for everyone. That’s when Botox can help.
Botox is a neuromuscular agent, which means it acts on nerves that control muscle reactions. Botox blocks nerve signals controlling your sweat glands in people with hyperhidrosis. As a result, those glands don’t receive the nerve signals they need to secrete sweat.
Because Botox injections are designed to target specific sweat glands, your treatment will focus on reducing sweating in key areas, like your underarm area or around your face and head. These injections won’t affect the rest of your sweat glands, which means your body will still be able to cool itself down as needed.
Botox injections are performed right in the office on an outpatient basis. During your treatment, you’ll relax while our team injects the Botox solution into the target areas.
The needles used to inject Botox are very thin — much thinner than needles used for vaccines. As a result, most people experience very little discomfort from the injections. We can apply a topical anesthetic if you’re very sensitive or anxious.
Once your injections are complete, it takes several weeks before you’ll experience the full effects. Most people need touch-up treatments every 4-6 months to maintain those effects, but you can have more frequent touch-up treatments if needed.
Botox is associated with an 80%-90% reduction in excessive sweating, and, not surprisingly, it’s associated with a high level of patient satisfaction. If you have hyperhidrosis and want to learn more about Botox treatments, book an appointment online or over the phone with the team at Sanctuary Cosmetic Center today.
