Fast Onset, Smooth Spread
What Dysport Is
Dysport is the brand name of abobotulinumtoxinA, a botulinum toxin type A that relaxes muscle by blocking acetylcholine release, FDA-approved in 2009 for glabellar frown lines; its two defining traits are speed, with most patients noticing softening in 2 to 3 days, and a wider spread that suits a broad muscle like the frontalis. At Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD results last 3 to 4 months, and the choice between Dysport, Botox, and Daxxify is made at the assessment, not the front desk.
Dysport is the brand name of abobotulinumtoxinA, a botulinum toxin type A neuromodulator made by Galderma and FDA-approved in 2009 for moderate to severe glabellar frown lines. It relaxes the muscle it is injected into by blocking acetylcholine release at the nerve ending, the same mechanism as every botulinum toxin, but two practical differences set it apart. The first is speed: across Galderma’s three pivotal glabellar trials the median time to onset was 2 to 3 days, and a third of patients in one trial saw a response on day 1, so most patients at Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD, the med spa of Howarth Plastic Surgery in Scottsdale, notice softening within 2 to 3 days and see the full effect around day 7. The second is spread: Dysport diffuses slightly more from each injection point, which lets a broad, flat muscle such as the frontalis be softened evenly with fewer needle passes. Its units are its own scale, roughly 2.5 to 3 Dysport units for each Botox unit, so a label glabellar dose is 50 units rather than 20. Results last 3 to 4 months for most patients, with the label allowing up to 5.
Dysport is used on-label for the glabella and off-label, with informed consent, for forehead lines, crow’s feet, bunny lines, the masseter, a lip flip, chin dimpling, and platysma bands, the same map of muscles the practice treats with Botox. The choice between them is made at the assessment, not at the front desk: Dysport for a patient who has an event in a week or a wide forehead with many fine lines; Botox for a small or bulky muscle where diffusion toward a neighbor is unwanted; Daxxify for a patient who wants the longest interval between visits. Dysport treats expression lines only. Volume loss belongs to dermal fillers, etched lines at rest to physician-performed laser skin resurfacing, and loose skin to facial surgery; the injectables overview shows how they fit together.
Why Patients Ask for Dysport
What Patients Who Choose Dysport Notice
Patients who ask Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD for Dysport by name usually have a reason attached to it. Some have a photograph, a wedding, or a presentation within the week and need the result sooner than a two-week onset allows. Some have a tall forehead with a ladder of fine horizontal lines that a few concentrated points never seemed to reach. Some have used another product for years and feel it fades sooner than it once did. These are the findings the team hears most.
- Many fine horizontal forehead lines across a wide or tall brow
- An event within a week, and a result needed before it
- Frown lines that pull the brows together during screen work
- Crow's feet that spread far down the cheek when smiling
- A sense that a previous neuromodulator wears off early
- A preference for softening spread evenly rather than concentrated
Broad dynamic areas and short timelines are the problems Dysport solves best. Where precision matters more than coverage, in a small muscle beside the mouth or a bulky masseter, the assessment may point to Botox instead, and the practice says so.
Surgeon-Directed Care
More Tools in the Toolbox: Why a Plastic Surgeon Directs Dysport
Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD is the medical aesthetics practice of Ashley Howarth, MD, FACS, a board-certified plastic surgeon and instructor in plastic surgery at Mayo Clinic. The judgment a plastic surgeon adds to Dysport is about spread. A product that diffuses a little further from each point is an asset across the frontalis and a liability a centimeter above the orbital rim, and knowing the difference means knowing the anatomy underneath: where the frontalis thins at the temples, where the corrugator dives under the brow, where the levator sits behind the orbital septum. A surgeon who performs brow lifts and blepharoplasty has seen those structures directly and doses and places Dysport accordingly. She also reads the brow. A patient whose frontalis is holding a low brow off the lids cannot have that muscle softened evenly and fully, no matter how elegant the spread, without the lids becoming heavier. At Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD, Dysport is injected by Dr. Howarth or by an advanced aesthetic nurse injector under her direction and protocols, with every dose and point recorded and a two-week check built into the plan.
The second judgment is which molecule and which tool. The practice offers Botox and Daxxify alongside Dysport and chooses between them for onset, spread, and duration rather than by habit. And because Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD is the med spa of a plastic surgery practice, the plan is not limited to neuromodulators. Creases etched at rest are referred to physician-performed laser skin resurfacing, hollowing to filler or fat transfer, and a heavy brow, hooded lids, jowls, or a loose neck to a brow lift, blepharoplasty, facelift, or neck lift, all evaluated by the same physician. More tools in the toolbox, and an honest answer about which one you need.
SCOTTSDALE · MODERN OFFICE SETTING
Where to Start
Who Dysport Is For, and What Happens First
Dysport at Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD is for adults with expression lines of the upper face who want a fast onset, an even result across a broad area, or an alternative to a product they feel has faded early. It suits first-time patients, patients switching from Botox, and patients preparing for an event with less than two weeks to spare. The assessment comes first. The injector watches you frown, raise your brows, squint, and smile, photographs each expression, measures the width and height of the forehead and the position of the brows, notes eyelid heaviness and asymmetry, and reviews your history for neuromuscular disease, pregnancy, breastfeeding, cow’s milk protein allergy, and prior neuromodulator response, including which product, how many units, and how long it lasted. That history is what decides the product. A patient whose priority is duration is offered Daxxify. A patient with lines etched into sun-damaged Arizona skin at rest hears where resurfacing takes over, and a patient with a heavy brow and hooded lids hears about a brow lift or blepharoplasty rather than a larger dose.
Dr. Ashley Howarth, MD, FACS is a board-certified plastic surgeon and an instructor in plastic surgery at Mayo Clinic. Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD is the medical aesthetics brand of her practice, Howarth Plastic Surgery, at 7373 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite C150, Scottsdale, Arizona 85253.
Placed for Spread, Dosed for the Muscle
How Dysport Is Used in Scottsdale
Glabellar Frown Lines, the On-Label Use
Dysport’s FDA-approved glabellar dose of 50 units produced an 85 to 89.5 percent responder rate in pivotal trials, with a median duration of effect of 109 days.
The FDA-approved use of Dysport is the glabella: 50 units divided among five points in the corrugator and procerus muscles. In the 2009 phase 3 trial published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 85 percent of treated patients were responders at day 30 by blinded evaluation, with a median duration of effect of 109 days, and the Dermatologic Surgery trial from the same year reported an 89.5 percent responder rate. At Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD the dose is adjusted to muscle bulk and sex, since men and heavy brow depressors often need the upper end, and the points are kept above the orbital rim and away from the levator so the extra spread that helps the forehead never reaches the eyelid.
Forehead Lines and Crow's Feet, Where Spread Helps
Dysport’s wider spread softens a broad forehead evenly with off-label doses of about 40 to 60 units, and about 30 units per side treats crow’s feet.
Dysport’s slightly wider diffusion is an advantage in the frontalis, a broad, thin sheet of muscle across the whole forehead. A row of low-dose points, typically 40 to 60 units total off-label, softens a tall forehead evenly with fewer visible gaps or bands of movement than a few concentrated points, and the glabella is always treated in the same visit so the brow does not drop. For crow’s feet, about 30 units per side placed lateral to the orbital rim reach the fan of lines that spreads down the cheek on smiling. Both areas are photographed at maximum expression before treatment and at the two-week check, and both are off-label uses explained and consented to in advance.
Event Timing and Switching Products
Dysport suits patients with an event in the next one to two weeks, since a treatment ten days out arrives in time, and it is also a low-risk option to try when a previous product seems to have faded sooner than expected.
Two situations bring patients to Dysport specifically. The first is a deadline: with onset typically at 2 to 3 days and the full effect around day 7, a treatment ten days before an event arrives in time, and the practice schedules it so a two-week check still falls before the date. The second is a patient who feels a previous product has faded sooner than it once did. Loss of response to a botulinum toxin is uncommon, and most early fading is a dosing or interval problem, but switching to a different formulation for a cycle is a reasonable, low-risk way to test it. Patients who care most about the interval itself are steered to Daxxify. Between visits, mineral sunscreen, HydraFacial, and SkinPen look after the texture that no neuromodulator changes.
When Botox or Daxxify Is the Better Choice
Botox offers the longest track record and four approvals including platysma bands, Daxxify lasts a median of 24 weeks for fewer visits, and Dysport sits between them with the fastest onset and widest spread.
Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD offers all three FDA-approved aesthetic neuromodulators, and the differences are practical. Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA) is the product with the longest record and four aesthetic approvals, including platysma bands since 2024, and its tighter spread makes it the choice for small muscles near the mouth and for the bulky masseter, where drift toward a smile muscle is unwanted. Daxxify (daxibotulinumtoxinA-lanm) is stabilized with a peptide rather than human serum albumin and held its glabellar result for a median of 24 weeks in the SAKURA phase 3 trials, so it suits a patient who wants two visits a year and accepts a newer product with less long-term data. Dysport sits between them: the fastest onset, the widest spread, and the broadest forehead result. The assessment decides.
At a Glance
Dysport at a Glance
Areas treated with Dysport at Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD, what each treatment softens, typical Dysport units (its own scale, roughly 2.5 to 3 per Botox unit), onset and duration, and whether the use is on the FDA label; individual doses are set at the assessment.
| Area | What it softens | Typical units | Onset and duration | On-label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glabella (frown lines) | Vertical lines between the brows from the corrugator and procerus | 50 (label dose), to 60 for heavy male brows | 2 to 3 days; full around day 7; 3 to 4 months | Yes, since 2009 |
| Forehead lines | Horizontal lines across a broad frontalis, treated with the glabella | 40 to 60 across many low-dose points | 2 to 3 days; full around day 7; 3 to 4 months | No, off-label with consent |
| Crow's feet | Fan-shaped lines at the outer eyes that spread onto the cheek | About 30 per side | 2 to 3 days; full around day 7; 3 to 4 months | No, off-label with consent |
| Bunny lines and brow | Lines on the nose bridge; a modest lateral brow lift | 5 to 10 per side nose; 5 to 10 per side brow | 2 to 3 days; 3 months | No, off-label with consent |
| Masseter | Clenching and a widened lower face; Botox often preferred here | 60 to 90 per side | Clenching eases in about 2 weeks; slimming over 4 to 8 weeks; 4 to 6 months | No, off-label with consent |
| Lip flip and chin | A tucked upper lip or a dimpled chin; Botox often preferred here | 10 to 15 lip; 10 to 20 chin | 2 to 3 days; 2 to 3 months for the lip | No, off-label with consent |
Choosing the Molecule
When Dysport Is Chosen
Situations in which the assessment at Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD points to Dysport, why, and the alternative when it does not; the Botox and Daxxify pages cover each alternative in full.
| Situation | Why Dysport | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| An event within 7 to 10 days | Median onset of 2 to 3 days and full effect around day 7 | Botox if there are 2 or more weeks; Daxxify if the interval afterward matters most |
| A wide or tall forehead with many fine lines | Wider spread from each point softens a broad frontalis evenly with fewer gaps | Botox at more points for a patient who wants tighter control near the brow |
| A previous product seems to fade early | Switching formulation for a cycle is a low-risk test; dose is rechecked against muscle bulk | Daxxify for a patient whose real goal is a longer interval |
| A first-time patient with strong frown lines | On-label glabellar use, fast feedback, and a conservative first dose | Botox, equally appropriate; the choice follows preference and history |
| Small muscles near the mouth or a bulky masseter | Not usually; extra spread risks drift toward smile muscles | Botox, with tighter spread and predictable dosing in these areas |
| Platysma bands of the neck | Off-label; used only with consent and conservative dosing | Botox, the only neuromodulator FDA-approved for platysma bands since 2024 |
A Visit Built Around Your Forehead
What to Expect at a Dysport Visit at Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD
A Dysport visit at Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD has three parts: an examination of how your brow and eyes move, the injections, and a written plan that includes the date you expect to see the result. First visits take about 30 to 45 minutes; maintenance visits about 15 to 20.
Expressions photographed, forehead measured, product chosen
The injector watches you frown, lift, squint, and smile, photographs each expression, measures the forehead and brow position, records prior products and units, and confirms Dysport is the right molecule for your goals. Points are marked in a pattern that uses its spread across the frontalis and contains it near the eyes.
A row of small injections, about ten minutes
The skin is cleansed and cooled. Dysport is injected with an insulin-gauge needle at each marked point, a brief pinch at each one, usually more points at a lower dose across the forehead than a Botox plan would use. Numbing is unnecessary, the small bumps are gone within half an hour, and you can drive yourself home.
Aftercare, an onset date, and a two-week check
You leave knowing to stay upright 4 hours, avoid rubbing and strenuous exercise or heat for 24 hours, and to expect softening at 2 to 3 days and the full result around day 7. A two-week check is offered for any asymmetry, and the next visit is set about 3 to 4 months out.
Clear Information. Informed Choices.
Safety and Limitations of Dysport
Dysport has been FDA-approved for glabellar lines since 2009 and its side effects are the same family as every botulinum toxin product: local, brief, and dose- and placement-dependent. The property that makes it useful on the forehead, its slightly wider spread, is also the property that demands more care near the eyes, because toxin that drifts toward the levator muscle produces a heavy or drooping eyelid that lasts until the product wears off. Dysport carries the boxed warning shared by all botulinum toxins about distant spread of toxin effect, which has not been reported at facial-line doses. It contains a trace of cow’s milk protein and is not used in patients with that allergy. At Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD, points are placed by protocol with the extra spread accounted for, every dose is recorded, and patients with neuromuscular disorders, pregnancy, or prior reactions are not treated.
Possible Side Effects Include
- Small bumps, pinpoint bleeding, or a bruise at an injection site
- Headache in the first day or two
- Eyelid or brow heaviness if product spreads toward the levator
- Temporary asymmetry corrected at the two-week check
- Rarely, nasopharyngitis, dry eye, or an altered smile after lower-face treatment
What Treatment Cannot Guarantee
- Removal of lines already etched into the skin at rest
- A result that lasts beyond about 3 to 4 months
- Any change to volume loss, jowls, or loose skin
- Pinpoint precision in a small muscle, where Botox may be preferred
- A substitute for a brow lift, blepharoplasty, or facelift
What Happens After Dysport
Recovery After Dysport
There is no recovery from Dysport in the usual sense, only a short list of things to avoid on the first day and a result that arrives sooner than most patients expect. The wait is the shortest of the three neuromodulators the practice offers: softening at 2 to 3 days and the full effect around day 7, against 10 to 14 days for Botox. When filler is planned as well, it is usually done at the same visit; when SkinPen or a laser is planned, that treatment is separated by about two weeks so the healing skin is not rubbed while the product settles.
Each point shows a small bleb that flattens in 20 to 30 minutes. Stay upright for 4 hours, do not press or massage the forehead, and skip exercise, hot yoga, and the sauna until tomorrow. Makeup can go on once the bumps settle. Expressions are unchanged tonight.
The forehead feels lighter and the frown is harder to make. In Galderma’s trials the median onset was 2 to 3 days and a third of patients responded on day 1, so this is the window in which most patients first notice a change. A mild headache in the first day or two is the most common side effect.
The full result is in by about day 7. Photographs at maximum expression are compared with the pre-treatment set at two weeks, and any unevenness, a brow that lifts more on one side or a band of movement across the forehead, is adjusted at a brief follow-up.
Movement returns gradually from about month three, and the lines return more slowly than the movement. Most patients rebook at 3 to 4 months, before the full frown is back. Daily mineral sunscreen protects the skin between visits; the Skin in Arizona guide explains why sun, not the product, decides how fast resting lines return.
Before & After
Dysport, Before and After Treatment
Dysport results are best judged in photographs taken at maximum expression before treatment and again at one to two weeks, when the full effect is in. Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD maintains before-and-after galleries for Dysport, Botox, Daxxify, and dermal fillers, and during your visit the team can show you cases that match your concern, whether it is a lined forehead, frown lines, or crow’s feet, and your age.
Patient Case Summaries
Selected Dysport Case Summaries
These deidentified case summaries illustrate how Dr. Howarth and the injectors working under her direction at Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD plan Dysport treatment in Scottsdale. They include a patient treated on a deadline, a wide forehead where spread was the point, a man switched from Botox for a fading response, a young preventive patient, a patient who arrived with uneven brows from treatment elsewhere, and a patient for whom no neuromodulator was the answer. Each summary connects the patient’s concern and assessment with the treatment performed or the recommendation made.
Case 01
Event timing
Frown lines treated eight days before a wedding, with Dysport chosen for onset
Patient presentation
A woman in her forties, the mother of the bride, asked whether anything could soften her frown lines before a wedding eight days away, having never had a neuromodulator.
Skin assessment
She had moderate glabellar lines at maximum frown on Fitzpatrick III skin, a normal brow position, no eyelid heaviness, and no medical contraindication. A two-week onset would have arrived after the photographs.
Procedure performed
Dysport 50 units to the glabella at five points, with the forehead left untreated for a first visit and a check scheduled two days before the event.
Clinical rationale
Dysport’s median onset of 2 to 3 days and full effect around day 7 fit the timeline where Botox’s 10 to 14 days did not; a conservative first treatment limited to the on-label area kept the risk of a surprise low in a patient with no prior response history.
Follow-up
The softening was visible by day 3 and complete at the check; she has since added the forehead and returns every four months.
Case 02
Wide forehead
A tall forehead with a ladder of fine lines treated with low-dose points across the frontalis
Patient presentation
A woman in her fifties reported that a previous product elsewhere had left a smooth band across the middle of her forehead with lines still moving above and below it, and asked whether Dysport would cover more.
Skin assessment
She had a tall, wide forehead with fine horizontal lines from the brows to the hairline, a slightly low brow, and glabellar lines that pulled the brows together; the earlier treatment had used a few concentrated points that missed the upper and lateral frontalis.
Procedure performed
Dysport 50 units to the glabella and 50 units distributed across twelve low-dose points over the whole frontalis, keeping the lowest row well above the brow, with photographs at two weeks.
Clinical rationale
The wider spread of Dysport from each point suits a broad, thin muscle, and a grid of small doses softens a tall forehead evenly rather than in a band; treating the glabella in the same session protected the brow from dropping.
Follow-up
At two weeks the forehead moved evenly with no bands, and the brow position was unchanged; she returns every four months on the same map.
Case 03
Switched for response
A man who felt Botox faded early, tested on Dysport for one cycle
Patient presentation
A man in his forties who had received Botox to the glabella and forehead for six years reported that the effect now lasted about eight weeks and asked whether he had become immune.
Skin assessment
He had heavy corrugators and a thick frontalis, and his records showed the dose had not changed as his interval lengthened; true neutralizing-antibody resistance is rare, and the more likely explanation was under-dosing of a bulky muscle. He was willing to try a different formulation.
Procedure performed
Dysport 60 units to the glabella, the upper end of the label range for men, and 50 units across the forehead, with a two-week check and a record of the date his movement returned.
Clinical rationale
Switching formulation for a cycle is a low-risk way to test a fading response, and dosing to muscle bulk addressed the likelier cause at the same time; if the interval did not improve, Daxxify was the next step.
Follow-up
His movement returned at about fourteen weeks; he has stayed on Dysport at the same dose and rebooks at three and a half months.
Case 04
Preventive patient
A woman in her late twenties treated lightly for frown lines beginning to hold at rest
Patient presentation
A woman in her late twenties, new to Scottsdale and to injectables, asked whether it was too early for Dysport, since a faint vertical line was beginning to show between her brows even when she was not frowning.
Skin assessment
She had strong corrugators that pulled the brows together during screen work and an early etched line at rest on fair, sun-exposed skin, with a normal brow, no eyelid heaviness, and no forehead lines at rest.
Procedure performed
Dysport 40 units to the glabella only, below the label dose, with no forehead treatment, a two-week check, and a plan to repeat at about four months rather than three.
Clinical rationale
In a young patient the goal is to reduce the fold that etches the line, not to still the face, so a conservative glabellar dose with longer intervals is appropriate; the forehead is left alone until it needs treatment.
Follow-up
The resting line had faded by her second visit; she pairs each visit with mineral sunscreen counseling for the Arizona sun and returns twice to three times a year.
Case 05
Complication elsewhere
Uneven brows and a heavy lid after a forehead treatment at another clinic, corrected and re-planned
Patient presentation
A woman in her thirties arrived twelve days after a forehead treatment elsewhere with her left brow arched high, the right brow flat, and the right upper lid feeling heavy, and asked whether it could be balanced.
Skin assessment
The assessment showed an untreated band of lateral frontalis on the left, producing a peaked brow, and over-treatment low on the right side with mild ptosis consistent with spread toward the levator. She had been given an unrecorded dose of an unrecorded product.
Recommendation
A small dose of Dysport to the untreated left lateral frontalis to level the peaked brow, apraclonidine drops for the right lid while the product wore off, and a future plan with recorded doses and the lowest row of points kept above the brow.
Clinical rationale
A peaked brow is corrected by treating the muscle that is still lifting; a heavy lid is managed, not reversed, and prevented next time by placement; a physician-led practice can do both and document the technique.
Follow-up
The brows were level within a week and the lid recovered by week five; she has had two full treatments since with no recurrence.
Case 06
Not this treatment
Etched forehead lines at rest on sun-damaged skin, and why more units was the wrong answer
Patient presentation
A woman in her sixties, a Scottsdale resident for thirty years, asked for a larger Dysport dose because her forehead lines were still visible after her last treatment elsewhere.
Skin assessment
Her frontalis was already fully relaxed from the prior treatment; the lines that remained were deep creases etched into thin, sun-damaged Fitzpatrick II skin at rest, with a low brow that could not tolerate any additional frontalis dose without the lids becoming heavier.
Recommendation
No additional neuromodulator. Physician-performed laser skin resurfacing of the forehead during laser season, continued glabellar Dysport at the existing dose, and a discussion of a brow lift with Dr. Howarth for the low brow.
Clinical rationale
A neuromodulator cannot smooth a crease etched into the dermis, and adding dose to a relaxed muscle only lowers the brow; the honest answer was the tool that treats skin and the surgery that treats brow position.
Follow-up
Resurfacing was performed in December; at four months the creases were markedly softer and she is considering the brow lift for the following year.
From First Visit to a Plan You Can Keep
Booking, Planning, and Follow-Up at Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD
Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD is a medical practice with a spa’s convenience. Established patients book online. New patients can book online or request a consultation, and the team responds usually the same day.
Online booking or a consultation request
Book a Dysport assessment directly online, or request a consultation and mention any date you are treating for, which product you have had before, and how long it lasted. Either path starts with the same examination of how your face moves.
A point map that uses the spread
Maintenance every 3 to 4 months, year-round
Dysport is not seasonal, so most Scottsdale patients settle into three or four visits a year, with the interval recorded each time so the plan can be tuned. A-List members have the next visit scheduled before they leave the last one.
Your Questions, Answered
Dysport Frequently Asked Questions
All three are botulinum toxin type A products that relax muscle the same way. Dysport starts fastest, typically in 2 to 3 days, spreads slightly more, and uses roughly 2.5 to 3 units per Botox unit. Botox has four aesthetic FDA approvals, tighter spread, and the longest record. Daxxify is peptide-stabilized and lasted a median of 24 weeks in its trials. Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD offers all three and chooses at the assessment.
Most patients notice softening within 2 to 3 days, and the full effect is in around day 7. In Galderma’s three pivotal glabellar trials the median time to onset was 2 to 3 days, and in one trial a third of patients responded on day 1. That makes Dysport the choice at Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD when there is an event within ten days, since a two-week check can still fall before the date.
About 3 to 4 months for most patients, with the label allowing up to 5 months and a 2024 review reporting duration up to 6 months in some trial designs. The 2009 phase 3 trial measured a median duration of 109 days. Large or very active muscles such as the masseter and a heavy male brow may fade sooner; the forehead often holds longer. Regular treatment before movement fully returns keeps the result continuous.
Dysport is FDA-approved for glabellar frown lines. Off-label, with informed consent, it is used for forehead lines, crow’s feet, bunny lines, the masseter, a lip flip, chin dimpling, and platysma bands. Its wider spread makes it especially useful for a broad forehead. Volume loss, loose skin, and lines etched at rest are outside its reach and belong to fillers, surgery, or resurfacing.
Yes. Dysport softens the force behind a frown or a brow lift; it does not remove the movement unless it is dosed to. At Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD the dose per point is set for softening, the lowest row of forehead points is kept above the brow so the lids do not get heavy, and the two-week check catches any unevenness. Patients describe looking rested rather than different.
Dysport at Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD is injected by Dr. Ashley Howarth, MD, FACS, a board-certified plastic surgeon and instructor in plastic surgery at Mayo Clinic, or by an advanced aesthetic nurse injector working under her direction and protocols. Every dose and point is recorded, a two-week check is part of the plan, and any complication is managed on site by a physician.
No. Small bumps at each injection point settle within 20 to 30 minutes, and most patients return to work from the visit. For the first 4 hours stay upright, and for 24 hours avoid rubbing the area, strenuous exercise, and heat such as hot yoga or a sauna. A small bruise is possible and covers with makeup. By the next morning there is nothing to see.
For some. Dysport suits a patient who needs a result within a week, a wide or tall forehead with many fine lines, or a patient testing whether a different formulation lasts longer for them. Botox suits small muscles near the mouth and the bulky masseter, where its tighter spread keeps product where it belongs, and it is the only one approved for platysma bands. The assessment, not the brand, decides.
There is no exact conversion, but roughly 2.5 to 3 Dysport units correspond to one Botox unit in practice. The label glabellar dose is 50 Dysport units against 20 Botox units. A higher unit count is not a stronger treatment; it is a different scale. Aesthetica by Ashley Howarth MD records units by product so a patient who switches has a comparable dose, and doses to muscle bulk rather than by ratio alone.
Sun does not change the muscle effect, which depends on nerve recovery over 3 to 4 months. What about 300 days of Arizona sun a year does is etch lines into the skin faster between visits, so resting lines return before the movement does in patients who skip sunscreen. Daily mineral SPF 30 or higher and a hat protect the result, and the Skin in Arizona guide explains why. Dysport itself is used year-round.
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