I’m a male with deep wrinkles in my forehead, what would be the best treatment?

Most people develop forehead wrinkles because of the action of forehead muscles repeatedly folding the skin. This usually results in vertical frown lines between the eyebrows and horizontal lines that get worse when looking surprised or raising the eyebrows. As the skin progressively ages, this repeated folding slowly changes from being visible only during movement to being there all the time. There are two main approaches – either to weaken the muscles temporarily with Botox or fill the lines with dermal filler.

Any of the hyaluronic fillers would be suitable, however I tend to prefer Restylane because of its long safety record. In this situation fillers may appear to have advantages over Botox particularly with regard to longevity. However, most people who are bothered by these lines are likely to have strong muscles (which is why they’re getting the lines) this means that their muscles will tend to crease the fillers, significantly reducing their effect and length of action.

Because of this the best approach is often to weaken the muscle action with Botox and then consider the addition of a small amount of filler to treat any lines remaining after Botox. This approach might need to be repeated 2-3 times in the first year but then perhaps only 1-2 per year.

The best option for you can only be decided following an examination of your forehead and discussion of the pros & cons.

I hope this helps, best wishes

Dr Peter Forrester
Cosmetic Doctor