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Whenever I hear the phrase 'Botox' I automatically feel myself shudder just a little. It seems the world has gone crazy for the miracle cure to wrinkles. I should add at this point that many simply seem to forget that it has a couple big side effects, one including the newly acquired inability to show emotion giving that strained and nervous Botox stare. The other is that it has a habit of simply making your face appear artificial, or to put it bluntly, made of plastic. Either way, it seems I am alone in this image conscious world, and that my concerns regarding the injection of a toxin related to botulism (that delightful paralysing and sometimes fatal disease) are irrelevant. Vanity aside, a recent study has shown that Botox might actually have a worthwhile medical use in the treatment of filamentary keratitis, an eye condition that can cause a sufferers vision to become compromised.
Although an incredibly rare eye condition, filamentary keratitis, is a disease that can affect humans by causing cells to become entangled and joined upon the eye's surface, causing sufferers to see what looks like strands of hair in their line of vision, something which cannot simply be wiped away by rubbing. It is a particularly uncomfortable condition however, with the prime reaction of blinking to remove the debris or artifact actually making matters worse by causing inflammation and scratching, meaning a patient is quite simply stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Following a research project which saw patients receive injections into an eyelid muscle, 88% confirmed a improvement to their sight.
- Some patients required many more injections than others to see relief. This would obviously raise a serious cost issue
- All patients had some treatment history through other methods
- Reduction in blinking frequency due to injections, lowers irritation levels and promotes an improved theraputic effect