The newest injectable on the market is Jeuveau. Approved by the FDA earlier this year, Jeuveau (or its scientific name prabotulinumtoxinA-xvfs) temporarily immobilizes muscles to reduce lines and wrinkles similar to Botox and Dysport. With Botox, Dysport & now Jeuveau, which injectable is best?
As a board-certified plastic surgeon, I’ve been using Jeuveau in my practice since it was FDA approved and have found it to be both similar and different from Botox and Dysport. Adding Jeuveau to my injectable arsenal helps me to create a more natural look for my patients.
How Jeuveau works: by temporarily immobilizing the muscles, this injectable prevents creasing of the skin in the same spot, a process that breaks down collagen triggering deeper lines and wrinkles. (Think of a piece of paper: if you fold the paper in the same spot over and over again, the fold gets more pronounced. The same holds true of the skin when the skin creases in the same spot continuously. Jeuveau—as well as Botox and Dysport—stops the “folding” from occurring.) Once the movement and the creasing stops, the skin is able to rebuild collagen in that spot, smoothing wrinkles and the skin long term.
Jeuveau: Works Longer, Saves Money?
Jeuveau was FDA approved for the furrows between the brows (also referred to as “11 lines” or the more technical “glabellar lines”), and I have found this to be a very effective injectable for this area. Jeuveau gets results—and seems to hold for longer than Botox and Dysport, which means patients have to come back for fewer treatments.
Instead of four treatments per year, you need three, on average. This means the same great results for less cost per year. The fewer times a patient needs to come back for follow-up injections, the less money they have to spend. This cost (and time) savings can be significant over time.
This doesn’t mean, however, that there’s no use for Botox and Dysport anymore. This is not the case at all. Some patients want to stay with their tried and true Botox and/or Dysport treatments. In other cases, I inject Jeuveau in the forehead area, between the brows and also to lift the brow. Then I use Dysport for the crow’s feet around the eyes. Dysport tends to diffuse (spread), an effect we want around the eyes for better results but we don’t want on the forehead, where it could result in drooping brows. And I always use Botox for wrinkles in the neck as it simply gets the best results there.
Adding Jeuveau to my injectable arsenal has allowed me to truly customize injectables for my patients’ needs. The end result: even more natural results.
Side effects may include headache, eyelid drooping, upper respiratory infection and increased white blood cell count, but I have yet to see these side effects in any of my patients.
The launch of Jeuveau has given patients more options for a natural youthful look at a significant cost and time savings.