Which is better: Botox or Dysport?

Botox and Dysport are the two most famous and popular botulinum toxin preparations. Each of them has its own army of fans among patients, as well as each of them has its supporters among cosmetologists.

Knowing this, each person, for the first time deciding to conduct botulinum therapy, is trying to find out what will be better for him - Botox or Dysport, to go to the clinic with an ready-made solution to inject one or another drug. It’s not so easy to understand the properties of these tools and make a specific choice. Moreover, the most accessible source of information for comparison - reviews - is rather controversial. Someone praises one drug, someone another, and in most cases the information received cannot be applied to oneself, since the differences in the effect and side effects of both drugs often depend heavily on the individual characteristics of the body. And the reviews of the doctors themselves are often too streamlined, not allowing to draw a specific conclusion.

It is difficult to understand the properties of the agents and the differences in their action. This is an area mainly for professionals and specialists who are well versed in the features of facial anatomy, physiology of the human body and the laws of biochemistry in general. Therefore, when a future patient tries to find out how one of these drugs differs from another, it is lost amid an abundance of professional information difficult to understand.

Let's try to find out which of the drugs is better - Botox or Dysport, and whether any of them have any definite advantages. Moreover, we will try to answer these questions in the most understandable language, and in parallel we will give some of the most characteristic reviews so that such a review is based not only on theoretical information, but also on the real experience of cosmetologists.

Feedback

I had the experience of both Dysport and Botox. The first time they injected Botox, the face became rubberized, it really did not look like itself. Although yes, everything is on order, no wrinkles. A week ago, made a replacement, put Dysport. The full complex - eyes, forehead, eyebrow. 160 units, 14 with something thousand. On the 4th day I got up, and everything is perfect. Where necessary - smoothly, when necessary, all emotions are visible. Even if I laugh and my eyes are alkaline, there are no crow's feet. This is my drug, thanks to the doctor, I picked it up well.

Victoria, Moscow

 

General view of drugs

Botox and Dysport are two different but similar to each other according to the principle of action of the drug botulinum toxin.

Botox has been produced by the American Allergan Corporation since 1989, being the earliest botulinum toxin drug on the market. It was he who made a kind of cosmetic revolution when it was discovered that introducing it into the facial muscles allows you to completely get rid of dynamic wrinkles. The remaining funds (including Dysport) began to be released after this breakthrough and are therefore considered to be peculiar clones, even if sometimes more effective or safe.

On a note

Due to fame, the very name of the drug “Botox” has become a household name: this word is often understood as any remedy based on botulinum toxin than a specific drug. Moreover, some patients mistakenly even make mistakes like phrases such as “Botox Dysport”.

Dysport is a drug manufactured by the French company IPSEN Pharma, approved for use in medicine and cosmetology since the early 2000s. While in Europe he had already become a serious competitor to Botox, in America - at the largest market at that time - the drug was just beginning to spread, which entailed the formation of the status of “drug No. 2” in Dysport.

However, the competent marketing policy of IPSEN Pharma executives allowed their product to practically equalize Botox’s position in terms of sales. This was primarily due to the fact that Dysport is cheaper than Botox.

It was due to the lower cost that he opened access to botulinum therapy to almost everyone: if only wealthy citizens and to a lesser extent the middle class could afford cosmetic procedures with Botox, then with the advent of Dysport, people with almost any income level could remove wrinkles. Thus, botulinum therapy has become known and popular even in third world countries.

You can, for example, compare the prices for using Botox and Dysport in Russia: the introduction of a unit of the first remedy costs from 250 rubles, the second - from 165 rubles. Even though Botox is about 2.5 times more effective, due to which it is required less, the cost of a doctor’s work still makes it a more expensive drug.

Feedback

The first time I did not know what to choose, the doctor put Botox to me. He says it's safer because it's a proven drug. Well, it turned out well, there were no wrinkles. The second time, too, but still doing Restylane on her cheekbones to tighten her skin. The doctor is still such a fighting woman, about 50 years old, but a professional tough one, she offered everything on the same day, but somewhere I heard that it is impossible to combine such procedures, it is necessary separately. They did everything at once, it turned out perfectly. And then she went abroad, and I had to go to another doctor. And she loves Dysport more. It seems that it stabs well, I did everything, now I'm waiting for the result. So, for comparison - Botox did for 4400 rubles, Dysport - for 3000. Tomorrow it should already be visible, the same result or something better ...

Irina, from correspondence on the forum

And, nevertheless, despite the lower price, Dysport could not force Botox out of the market. The fact is that an even more significant difference between these means lies in some nuances that are not obvious at first glance, but important for both the doctor and the patient. What are these subtleties?

 

The fundamental difference between Botox and Dysport

Both drugs have the same active substance in their composition, but differ in the set of auxiliary components and the strength of the drug as a whole.

The main active component of both drugs is botulinum toxin type A (hemagglutinin complex). This long name hides the usual toxin produced by Clostridia - the causative agent of botulism, maximally cleared of other bacterial proteins and other substances, but associated with auxiliary proteins (their task in the body is to help the toxin penetrate the cell).

Differences in purification technologies require that these products be considered different preparations, since one cannot be sure that they contain complexing proteins of the same quantity and properties. For this reason, the active substance of Botox is called onbotulotoxin, and Dysport - abobotulotoxin.

The onotulotoxin molecule in Botox is the largest among all molecules of similar drugs. Its mass averages 900 kDa, and the amount of complexing proteins is maximum.

The abobotulotoxin molecule in Dysport is smaller and lighter - its average mass is 700 kDa. It is believed that since this is due to a smaller amount of hemagglutinating proteins, it is in this difference that the differences in the effectiveness of the drugs under consideration lie.

On a note

Studies show that in an already prepared solution, most of the botulinum toxin molecules are in free form, being separated from complexing proteins. And if Botox has about 85% of such free molecules, then in Dysport all the molecules in the injected solution are separated from these auxiliary structural units.

Further, these tools contain various auxiliary components. Both contain human albumin, but Botox also contains sodium chloride, and Dysport contains lactose. Based on these data, it is impossible to determine which drug is better - the difference here lies only in the fact that in very rare cases the patient may have lactose intolerance.

Thus, we can conclude that there are no differences in the composition of Botox and Dysport, which are important for the patient. But it is these compositional nuances that determine the already quite noticeable differences in the dosages of the drugs used.

Doctor's opinion

In general, Dysport and Botox cannot be compared. These are completely different drugs, although the active substance is the same for them. Botox at least does not diffuse into the tissue, it does not leak from the injection site. And Dysport can, and flows away. Another point - when they talk about prices, they forget that the main cost of the procedure is the salary of the doctor. Well, you get savings on a unit of 12-20 rubles. Is this critical for you? But the safety profiles of drugs vary. In Holland, even a court ordered Ipsen Pharma to admit that their drug has no similarity with Botox. And keep in mind: the Chinese have already learned to fake Botox. I'm not talking about their Lantox, which is not that normal drugs, but even the cheapest Russian products cannot be replaced. It was Botox that was identified as fake, which rises poorly and gives a bunch of side effects. So my advice is: go to good cosmetologists and do not pursue a saving of 200 rubles.

Oksana Dmitrievna, cosmetologist

 

Dosage of drugs

Both studies and the practice of cosmetologists show that the same amounts of Botox and Dysport provide an effect of different strength in patients. Botox is on average 2.5-3 times more effective than Dysport, and therefore, to get the same Disport effect, you need to prick about the same amount more.

The reason here is, oddly enough, the differences between the response to botulinum toxin in humans and mice.

The fact is that in the manufacture of the drug for 1 unit (1 UNIT) of its quantity, a lethal dose for mice is taken. Such a “mouse” lethal dose is the same for Dysport and Botox.

However, already in the human body, the same amounts of these drugs manifest themselves in different ways. Estimating the various effects in the experiments - from the duration of muscle immobilization to the diffusion region - the scientists calculated that the ratio of Botox and Dysport efficiency is approximately equal to 1: 2.5-1: 2.8, respectively, and according to some parameters - 1: 3. Therefore, to obtain a similar effect, 3 times more Dysport is required than Botox.

For example, in the photo below - the patient's face before and after Botox injections:

And here is the result of using Disport:

On a note

Interestingly, by the strength of the action, Dysport is generally knocked out of a number of botulinum toxin preparations. Other well-known drugs - Xeomin, Mioblock, Lantox, Relatox - are almost identical in strength to Botox and, therefore, are superior to Dysport.

This does not mean, however, that one drug is worse and the other is better. Yes, Botox is “stronger”, but the dosage of Dysport can be selected more accurately, with a lower pitch and less chance of unwanted side effects. Including because of this, Dysport is preferred by many cosmetologists.

 

The effect of which remedy lasts longer?

It is widely believed that Botox lasts longer than Dysport.

So, in the majority of reviews, patients in cosmetic salons report that when using Botox, the duration of the effect is on average 7-9 months. Similar reports from patients who received Dysport injections indicate an average duration of effect of about 6-7 months.

The exact cause of these differences cannot be called. If the effect of the drugs itself is the same in strength, it means that their effect on the target muscles is identical and there seems to be no prerequisites for faster recovery of wrinkles with Dysport injection. Moreover, the mechanism of muscle inactivation when using both means is the same.

Moreover, there is reason to believe that information on such differences is greatly exaggerated. Both with the use of Dysport and with Botox injections, the duration of the effect can be both more than average and less than it. What it will be in each case depends only on the individual characteristics of the patient's body. In this case, the psychological factor must be taken into account: if the patient was given the more expensive Botox, it will be harder for him to admit (including himself) that the duration of the drug was shorter than he expected. Consequently, the number of such messages and reviews is generally less than messages about a shorter duration of Disport.

But something else is more important: special clinical studies did not reveal a difference in the duration of these drugs. These studies were carried out for a long time to determine the differences in the duration of the effect in different patients, and if these differences were found, to find out what caused them. As a result, after accurate measurements, the researchers concluded that the duration of action of both muscle relaxants is approximately the same.

Doctor's opinion

You need to be very careful with different substitutes and combinations. In the clinic there was a case when a patient put the threads two days after Dysport, while he still did not get up. So she swelled her entire forehead, seized the bridge of her nose and eyelids. And this horror stood for a month and a half. And when she left, Dysport did not take. Then I tried again - the same reaction. Then I wanted to stab Refinex, but they convinced her, switched to Botox. In general, here you need to listen to a doctor.

Evgenia Nikolaevna, Moscow

It is interesting that the drugs in question show the same result during the study of their effect in the treatment of various pathologies - hyperhidrosis, spasms, urinary incontinence. When using funds in correctly calculated dosages, there is practically no difference in their effectiveness.

There are also reviews that someone Dysport does not give a result at all. However, the same situations happen with Botox, and it is impossible to verify the ratio of reliable reviews about both drugs. The data of clinical studies show that there are no significant differences in the frequency of unsuccessful procedures between these agents.

On a note

According to statistics, approximately 5% of patients are generally not sensitive to botulinum toxin preparations. Neither Botox nor Dysport acts on their wrinkles.

 

Cost differences

It is generally accepted that if Botox is more expensive, then it is definitely better than Dysport. It's a delusion. The difference in price here is due only to the difference in the strength of the action of equal amounts of the drug: 1 unit of Botox is more effective than 1 unit of Dysport, and Botox is also more expensive.

For example, the price of a Botox ampoule per 100 units is approximately 12100-12500 rubles.The cost of packing Disport for 300 PIECES is 12700-13000 rubles. As you can see, the difference here is about three times, corresponding to the difference in the strength of the action. For the same price that a Botox unit is bought for, you can buy 3 Disport units.

Differences in the cost of introducing 1 unit are less significant. Botox injections in Moscow cost 250-350 rubles per unit, Dysport injections in the same place cost 160-200 rubles per unit. However, most of this cost is the cost of the specialist’s work. And since nobody injects one unit per procedure, the cost of the general work of the cosmetologist is determined by him personally. As a result, the approximate prices for botulinum therapy in Moscow using these drugs are:

• Forehead area - 3500-4000 rubles using Botox and 3000-3400 rubles using Disport;
• Brow wrinkle - 2500-2800 rubles with Botox and 2200-2400 rubles with Dysport;
• Goose feet - 2200-2500 rubles with Botox and 2000-2300 rubles with Dysport.

These prices can vary significantly in different cities and regions, but their ratio is approximately the same everywhere. Pricking Dysport is generally cheaper, but this does not mean that it is better or worse.

 

Which is safer: Botox or Dysport?

There are practically no differences in the amount, strength and frequency of side effects from the use of Dysport and Botox. Both drugs with approximately the same frequency can cause undesirable manifestations on the face or generalized symptoms, and the probability of their development, strength and duration depend only on the individual sensitivity of the patient.

Also, speaking about the safety of botulinum toxin preparations, they usually mention the degree of diffusion of them into the tissue surrounding the injection site. The higher the likelihood that the product will “spread” under the skin, the sooner undesirable side effects will occur.

Theoretically, it can be assumed that the degree of diffusion for Dysport should be higher, since the botulinum toxin molecules in it are smaller and easier to move inside the tissues than the molecules in Botox. However, again, special studies with strict control of the effect did not reveal differences in the strength of action on adjacent tissues in these two agents.

 

Selection rules

What conclusions can be drawn as a result? Dysport is cheaper, but the cost of the final effect with its use is the same as with Botox. Judging by the available information, it can be assumed that the effect on the face after Dysport will last somewhat less than after Botox, but this duration depends on the sensitivity of a particular patient. In the same way, depending on the individual characteristics of the body, undesirable side effects also occur when using these agents.

All this means that choosing the best of these drugs yourself is pointless. The specific result from the use of a particular drug in a particular person can be checked only after injection. However, in some cases, a cosmetologist can, from her own experience, with some degree of probability determine in advance which drug will be preferable for a given patient.

Almost always, you need to inject the tool that was used previously and gave the desired result. Changing it in an attempt to make it even better is not only undesirable, but also dangerous - the reaction of the body can be unpredictable. Therefore, if botulinum therapy has already been experienced, the beautician must be informed of which product was previously administered.

If the previous use of one of the drugs showed severe side effects, you should also inform your doctor about this. He will decide what remedy to use in return and whether or not to conduct botulinum therapy again.

So, it is impossible to say unequivocally that it is better - Botox or Dysport.In some situations, one of these drugs will be preferable, in others - the other. In some cases, one drug has no obvious advantages over another, and in others none of them can be used. It will not work out with the help of the Internet alone, forums or reviews, and only a specialist with special training and experience should decide on the use of Botox or Disport. Therefore, the patient’s task is not to choose a drug, but a cosmetologist, who will decide which drug is better to inject to get the maximum effect.

 

Useful video about choosing between Botox and Dysport: expert opinion

 

Elimination of frontal wrinkles Dysport. Patient Review