How is Botox® Made and Is it Safe?

The story of Botox® and its development is fascinating since it starts with a powerful neurotoxin and ends with a wonder drug that has a wide range of cosmetic and therapeutic applications that continues to grow. Perhaps best known for its wrinkle-reducing properties, 

At Bayview General Medicine, our aesthetics experts perform medically supervised Botox Cosmetic injections for our patients seeking the smooth, relaxed appearance that makes this the most requested cosmetic procedure in the country. Treatments are safe, predictable, and long-lasting. Here’s how this powerful anti-aging agent came to the market. 

An orphan drug

The original Botox formulation received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in December 1989 as a nonsurgical treatment for strabismus, crossed or wandering eyes. 

Botox developers surmised that the powerful paralytic effect of botulinum toxin type A could be diluted and harnessed to produce to address this eye muscle dysfunction, and they were right. 

The purified end product, now known as Botox, effectively controls strabismus and other muscle-related eye problems. Because of its limited range of applications for conditions that only a few people suffered, Botox was originally classed as an orphan drug because it seemed it had minimal commercial potential. 

Treating eye spasms led to the observation that Botox reduced the severity of certain wrinkles caused by muscle contractions. This led to Botox as a cosmetic treatment, and the FDA approved it in 2002. 

How Botox is made

There are eight individual types of botulinum toxin. Botox derives from a type called the Hall strain of the Clostridium botulinum bacterium, commonly called type A. This strain, grown from a culture, undergoes a series of processes to purify the toxin by removing bacterial substances until only the toxin and a few residual proteins remain. 

The type A toxin is then diluted to its working strength. In context, one gram of purified toxin is enough to manufacture all the Botox Cosmetic supplies needed for a calendar year worldwide. 

This incredibly small amount of toxin is enough to block the action of the body chemistry that causes muscles to contract in the immediate area of injection. You receive an amount that’s far, far below the toxicity level of the type A toxin, technically called a neuromodulator at that dilution. 

There are also no bacteria remaining in the preparation, so there’s no biological mechanism for Botox to reproduce and create more toxins. With well over 4 million Botox and other cosmetic botulinum type A product treatments annually in the United States, the procedure’s safety is easy to see, even before considering that Botox is one of the most widely tested medications worldwide. 

In Fort Lauderdale, choose Bayview General Medicine for your Botox Cosmetic treatment. You can reach our office online or by phone to schedule your session. Freshen your look for spring, and book your appointment today.