Most of the time it is virtually impossible to completely rid a patient of their crow’s feet lines due to the fact that there are really 2 different components as to why the patient has the crow’s feet lines in the first place. One of these components is the activity of the orbicularis oculi muscle that can contract and create these lines. The second is the elevation of the cheek that occurs when we smile. These 2 in most patients occur simultaneously and we can treat the orbicularis oculi muscle with Botox and get this muscle to relax and have a significant improvement in the crow’s feet lines. We do not, however, want to relax the muscle that enables the person to smile and raise the cheek and thus they will still have some folding of the skin to the side of the eye when they smile and elevate their cheek. So, in most patients, treatment of the crow’s feet area with Botox only softens these lines, but does not completely get rid of them.
