Botox or hyaluronic acid: which one for which task

These are two different products with two different logics. Confusing them is the most common source of disappointed expectations.

In short: botulinum toxin relaxes a muscle, hyaluronic acid adds volume. Everything else follows from that — including which task cannot be solved with which product.

What Botox does

It works on expression lines — the ones that come from movement: horizontal folds on the forehead, lines at the outer corners of the eyes, the vertical line between the brows, fine lines around the mouth. The muscle stops contracting as strongly and the skin above it smooths out.

The effect is not permanent: usually three to six months, after which the procedure has to be repeated. That is a property of the product, not a flaw.

What hyaluronic acid does

It fills volume. With age tissues descend, jowls appear and folds deepen — filler restores lost volume, softly rounds the contour of the face, corrects lip shape and works on the vertical lines above the upper lip that often bother smokers.

What injections will not do

Injections do not replace plastic surgery. If a lot of tissue has descended, no filler will lift it back — it will only add volume, and in excess that looks obvious and unnatural. An honest conversation about this at the consultation prevents disappointment later.

There is a particular advantage when a dentist performs the injections: this is the area they work with every day, and they see the face as a whole — the smile and the lips and folds that frame it.