Botox for Goldens Bridge, NY

Why a crease forms, and how Botox quiets it

Most lines on the upper face are made by movement. Every frown, squint or raised eyebrow folds the skin along the same path, and after enough years the fold stays even when your face is at rest. Botox goes after the cause rather than the crease. It is a purified botulinum toxin type A that interrupts acetylcholine, the chemical message a nerve uses to tell a muscle to tighten. With that message muted, the muscle relaxes, the skin over it lies smoother, and fresh creases have less chance to set. Nothing about it is permanent: the nerve signal gradually comes back over roughly three to four months, and a repeat treatment keeps the effect going.

Lines worth asking about

• The “elevens” between the eyebrows, the area Botox carries its FDA approval for.
• Crow’s feet fanning out from the corners of the eyes.
• Horizontal creases that run across the forehead when you lift your brows.
• Bunny lines, the small wrinkles on either side of the nose when it scrunches.
• Vertical bands on the neck, made by the platysma muscle.

A deep line caused by lost volume rather than movement, such as a smile fold, usually answers better to dermal fillers. Plenty of patients plan the two together.

Your first two weeks

The injections themselves take about 10 to 15 minutes and feel like a series of quick pinpricks from a very fine needle. There is no recovery period, so you can drive home and get on with the afternoon. Any slight redness, swelling or bruising where the needle went in normally fades within a few days. Somewhere between the third and tenth day the treated muscles start to ease, and by around two weeks the full softening is visible.

The injector team

Botox at Bellava is physician-led. The medical director, Donna D’Alessio, MD, is board certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and sets the standard every injector on her team works to, including nurse injectors Grace Jacildo, BSN, RN and Nicole Cardwell, FNP-BC. Rather than following a fixed pattern, your injector studies how your own muscles move and plans the injection sites, depth and dose around them, then keeps adjusting at later visits so the result stays natural.

The office is at 182 Route 117 Bypass Road in Bedford Hills. Leaving Goldens Bridge, you head south on I-684 and pick up the Saw Mill River Parkway, a little over four miles and about eight minutes without traffic.

Goldens Bridge patients ask

How long has Botox been used cosmetically? The FDA approved it for cosmetic use in 2002, and it has more than two decades of clinical use behind it. As a precaution, it is not given during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.

Can it be combined with skin treatments? Yes. Botox relaxes the muscle but does not change skin texture, so some patients add microneedling to work on both at once.

When can I come in? Bellava opens at 9 am on weekdays, stays open until 7 pm on Mondays and Thursdays, and sees patients on Saturdays from 10 am to 2 pm.

How do I book? Book Now takes you to Bellava’s online booking, where you can choose a Botox appointment or a consultation first. CareCredit and other financing choices are available.