Botox was the most popular minimally invasive cosmetic procedure performed in 2011 with 2,619,739 procedures completed in the US. It has the effect of temporarily erasing wrinkles of expression located on the forehead or wrinkles of the nose and so called crow’s feet. It works by temporarily paralyzing muscles that contract causing the wrinkles.
 
Botox is made by Allergan. Since 1989, BOTOX has been approved for 20 indications in more than 75 countries and is prescribed to patients who suffer from a range of serious or debilitating disorders, as well as to those with cosmetic needs. In the UK, BOTOX is licensed for six therapeutic indications: hemifacial spasm, blepharospasm, cervical dystonia, focal spasticity in paediatric cerebral palsy, severe axillary hyperhidrosis and upper limb spasticity in adult post-stroke patients. In 2008, more than 5 million patients in the United States received cosmetic Botox® treatments, according to Allergen, the manufacturer. About 313,000 of those patients were men. The average cost of a BOTOX treatment ranges from $350 to $500 for each area injected.
 
In 2010 a study done at the Oregon Health & Science University found that after two years of treatment at recommended intervals, the frequency of Botox treatments can be cut by half. "After two years of treatment at recommended intervals, patients can potentially cut the frequency, and thus the cost, of their Botox® treatments by half," said Roger A. Dailey, M.D., F.A.C.S., professor and Lester Jones Endowed Chair of oculofacial plastic surgery in the OHSU School of Medicine. The results of Dailey's work were presented at a meeting of American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeon on April 24 in Washington, D.C.
 
BOTOX(R) for cosmetic use is now marketed as BOTOX(R) Cosmetic in the U.S. and Canada; as VISTABEL(R) in the UK, France, Spain, Switzerland and many other EU countries; and as VISTABEX(R) in Italy.