Botox is more than cosmetic tool, helps medical facial spasms

HOUSTON - Botox. It's known as the toxin that releases those fine lines and wrinkles. Several Houstonians look at it very differently though. It's more like a saving grace for them.

Cassi Coe and Steve Livingston can't imagine their lives without their Botox treatments. "15 minutes, in and out and it has helped tremendously," exclaims Cassi. "We hit on the right formula and it's miraculous," states Steve.

That's because neither patient is using Botox for cosmetic reasons.

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Steve says he suffered facial trauma after routine cataract surgery about 15 years ago. "Immediately thereafter, I had a cramp in the right eye. The way I describe it is if you get a leg cramp at night, you jump out of bed and you kind of hobble around and all of a sudden, the cramp goes away and you're fine, go back to sleep. Well, this cramp happened in my eye that never went away and it got to the point where I couldn't sleep. Reading was very difficult too," says Livingston. He explains that it was a miserable condition that went on for ten years.

Everything changed the day he was referred to oculofacial plastic surgeon Dr. Mirwat Sami in Bellaire, Texas. "It was very frustrating (for him), as you can imagine when half your face is just tightening up on itself and you cannot control it. Not only did it cause a distortion of the lower part of his face to where his smile would be affected, but it was a constant pain in his head and he was unable to keep that eye open. After that first treatment, he was a new man because he could finally sleep again," explains Dr. Sami. 

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It's a simple treatment, using a product that was created for eye problems, in the first place.

"The history of Botox is very interesting because it was discovered and used in the eyes by Ophthalmologists. We know that Botox is a paralytic, so anytime you have a muscle that's either working overworked or it's working too much or you want to weaken it to say realign the eyes, that's how we first started using Botox to address strabismus, which is crossing of the eyes or misaligned eyes," explains Dr. Sami.

That's how Botox rose in the industry of cosmetic enhancements, because when wrinkles "accidentally disappeared", it became a cosmetic sensation.

The medical side of Botox has helped Livingston for the past five years, and it has also been life-changing for Coe since she started trying it a few months ago. "I've had a facial twitch for ten years now. I had major surgery to try to fix it. It wasn't something that was fixable with that," states Coe.

However, Botox is helping her symptoms.

Hemifacial spasms are neuromuscular problems that cause muscles to contract on one side of the face. "These are conditions that are devastating because they have no control over the facial muscles. They're either closing too hard or closing too much. People can actually go functionally blind because they're not able to keep their eyes open long enough to see. In those situations, we use Botox. We have a very titrated dose that we inject directly into the muscles that are spastic. Either in the half the face or around the eyes and it helps reduce the spasms," says Dr. Sami.

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Botox is considered a treatment, not a cure, but Coe's thankful for it and says after the effects kicked in, it was life-changing for her.

"The headaches are way less, less the aggravation of the twitching is way less. You have confidence to be able to sit and talk to people again, so it's just it was just a major change," says a smiling Coe.

Health insurance does cover the cost, since it's a medical treatment in these situations, unlike Botox for cosmetic reasons.

For more information on Houston Oculofacial plastic surgeries, click here. 

Learn more about hemifacial spasms here.