Botulinum toxin has been used for medical application since 1980 and for cosmtic treatments since more then 15 years. It is the drug of choice for treatment of localised hyperhidrosis since more then 10 years and has been recently recognized as a effective product against different types of headache.

In the early 90- and few years later, botulinum toxin, was introduced to the aesthetic medicine in Europe. It became soon a very popular treatment of facial wrinkles and lines, thanks to its superior safety profile, cosmetic results, simple and undemanding for the patient treatment, as well as an affordable price.
Treatment with botulinum toxin has also a known blocking effect on the formation of future wrinkles and can, when used for a longer time (months to a few years), make the wrinkles disappear completely.

Side-effect are mostly related to the procedure itself (injections with a very thin canula), and can consist of bruises, tenderness, redness, pain, short episode of headache etc. Other, botulinum toxin-related side-effects are very rare, not severe and are time-limited, since the drug disappear completely from the body.

Which means that the maximal allowed dose used during a treatment is significantly lower then the minimal dose which can be dangerous for the patient. Many of our every-day drugs (e.g. common headache pils like paracetamol, some heart medicine, insuline) have a very shellow safety index.
Despite the fact that botulinum toxin has been used for many years in the aesthetic medicine on millions of patients, there have been no scientific publications reporting on severe side-effects during treatment of facial wrinkles.
This excellent safety-profile does not mean that the treatment with botulinum toxin can be performed by anybody at any time. Only physicians with certain competence are approved for these procedures.
It is not difficult to make a patient look younger after a treatment with botulinum toxin, but this is certainly a challenge to make him/her look natural at the same time and keep this effect for years.

The American Food and Drug Administration approved botulinum toxin for aesthetic treatments in april 2002 and in Europe it was approved in 2004.