A growing number of women (and men) are getting botox, an injectable drug used cosmetically to remove wrinkles by temporarily paralyzing muscles.
The 15 minute or less procedure is becoming almost as common place as dyeing your hair or getting your legs lasered.
But there’s one catch about the types of women who are opting for the traditional anti-ageing treatment.
In 2015, 20 per cent of botox procedures in America were done on women aged between 19 and 39 years old.
Image: iStock
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons' 2015 Plastic Surgery Statistics Report, the number of people ages 13 to 19 getting botox went up by seven per cent (a rise of almost 20,000 people) in 2014.
Not exactly the demographic typically plagued by wrinkles.
While botox is also used medically to treat certain muscular conditions such as migraines, a large majority of younger woman are getting it for preventative cosmetic reasons.
"They are very stealthily targeting women in their twenties and thirties. I heard things like, 'Botox is a preemptive strike. A lot of people wait until they have a heart attack to go to the cardiologist'," said Dana Berkowitz, Associate professor at Louisiana State University and author of newly published book Botox Nation: Changing the Face of America.
Listen to Dana Berkowitz tell Mia Freedman everything you've ever wanted to know about Boxton on the latest episode of No Filter. (Post continues after audio.)
But if you've also ever considered "preventative botox" to try and avoid getting wrinkles, she's got some bad news for you.
"It's complicated. Botox is preventative if you keep getting it every four to six months for the rest of your life. It's preventative in the sense you won't be able to make that expression so you won't get those 11's [The wrinkles in between the eyebrows that resemble two vertical lines]," Berkowitz said.
"But once you stop, it's not like it prevents ageing. Nothing can prevent that - we're all going to age and get wrinkles."
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She says that while you may avoid getting wrinkles in the areas you target with botox, it doesn't mean you won't get them elsewhere.
"It can't paralyze your entire face because we need to talk, we need to blink our eyes! You end up recruiting from different facial muscles so you will get wrinkles elsewhere and you will lose volume in your face."
Despite many people in the industry promoting the claim, there are currently no studies that have definitively found that preventative botox is able to prevent wrinkles from forming.
According to Geoff Lyons, president of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons, there is no long-term data to support the benefits of early intervention.
"It's a relatively expensive procedure to have done before any major signs of visible ageing," he told CHOICE.
Image: iStock
According to Berkowitz, who had botox done as part of her research for the book, sessions cost about $400 to $500 each time, and need to be continuously touched up - about three to four times a year.
While New York dermatologist Patricia Wexler, M.D. says that administering botox injections at the first signs of visible wrinkles "can certainly stop the clock," starting too early can actually work against you.
"I have women that don’t have any lines coming in and asking for Botox in their forehead and their crow’s-feet because they don’t want to get any. If you don’t see any lines when your face is at rest, then doing Botox is not preventative. It’s presumptive," she told Vogue.
In fact, it can even do the exact opposite.
"A lot of times, you see people who started getting Botox when they were young begin to look older [faster],New York dermatologist Fredric Brandt, M.D, told the magazine.
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