I remember the specific moment in time when I realized that getting botox wasn’t necessarily a clandestine procedure exclusively for rich people and celebrities in magazines. I was at an after-hours Christmas party rager at a restaurant where I worked in my 20s. At some point during the chaos, a few people, including the owners, escaped to the bathroom — for botox injections.
Of course, most medical professionals probably wouldn’t recommend botulinum toxin injection parties in closet-size restaurant bathrooms. When I told this story to Arkansas Times editor Austin Gelder, who recently partook in a neuromodulator injection courtesy of a gift card she’d received, she said, “I need my injector to have more of a range of motion. I don’t want them getting it wrong.”
Amber Moody, the advanced practice registered nurse who won Best Nurse Injector in the 2024 Arkansas Times Best of Arkansas readers’ poll, has plenty of space (and a really comfortable chair) at her office at Revolution Med Spa in Cabot. Moody’s been a nurse for about 20 years and has been a nurse practitioner for five. She partnered with medical doctor Jim Reeves to open the clinic in 2022. They offer a wide range of cosmetic procedures, including dermal fillers, chemical peels, microneedling treatments, laser treatments, tattoo removal, hydrafacials, acne treatments and a hair restoration program for men and women who experience shedding and hair loss.
The most common concerns that bring people into the clinic for consultations, Moody said, are skin aging issues: wrinkles, texture and volume loss.
Neuromodulators like Botox, Jeuveau, Xeomin and Dysport are botulinum toxins injected into the skin to relax the muscles that cause pesky facial wrinkles, including smile lines, frown lines, crow’s feet and those lines between your eyebrows that look like the number 11. The botulinum toxin was approved for cosmetic procedures by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2002, and the botox business is booming. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, there were over 8 million neuromodulator injection procedures in 2022, up 73% from 2019.
Moody said the stigma over getting botox has been dissolving over the last decade, in part due to an awareness that it can be used to treat medical conditions, including migraines and jaw pain. More people are talking about it openly with friends and posting about it on social media, she said, and she’s also seeing more male patients.
“Most of my friend group does it,” a colleague I spoke to for this story told me. She said she never thought she would get botox but was really bothered by strong lines that began to develop on her forehead when she was in her 30s. She’s in her early 40s now and said, “I used to have really bad 11s.” Now, when she tries to make them for me, they don’t even appear.
Moody didn’t have to think about it when I asked if she had a favorite patient success story, describing a single mother who came in for a consultation at the behest of her sister after sending her kids off to college and “putting herself on the back burner for a really long time.”
It’s not all vanity, Moody said. “For some it can be a huge transformation in the way they view themselves and change the way that they interact with everyone around them.”
Turning back the clock isn’t cheap. The average price for botox treatment is $528, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Moody said 20 units of neuromodulators at Revolution range from $240-$280. Most of her clients receive neurotox treatments every three to four months, which is about how long the medication lasts, Moody said.
Moody has experience in the chair as well. She’s had ‘tox treatments, fillers and “just about every laser treatment in this building at some point.” But in her field, she said, it can be easy for people to overdo it.
“I like for my face to look as natural as possible because I want people to see real natural results and not feel intimidated,” she said. To that point, Moody doesn’t charge for consultations. “I want patients to come in and feel comfortable that they can talk about things and that they don’t ever feel pushed into doing a treatment that they don’t want.”
Botox is considered safe when administered by a licensed health care provider. Side effects can include pain, swelling and bruising at the injection site. Moody said she has several clients that are brides-to-be, and that people seeking neuromodulator treatments for a big life event like a wedding (or, say, the Arkansas Times 50th anniversary reunion party in September), should get their ‘tox treatment four weeks before the big day. “I love it whenever bridal consultation happens at least six months in advance,” she said, “because then we can make an absolute curated plan for their timeline for what needs to be done and when.”
Part of the upward trend in neuromodulator injections is younger people seeking preventative (known colloquially on social media as “baby botox”) measures to treat wrinkles before they arrive. According to a report from CNN, people ages 40-54 accounted for the largest percentage of neuromodulator injections in 2022 at 57%, but data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons shows that people 19 and younger receiving neuromodulator injections increased 75% between 2019 and 2022 and adults ages 20-29 rose 71%.
Moody said she doesn’t recommend neuromodulator injections to people under the age of 25.
“For younger people who are interested in their skin now, their focus needs to be prevention,” she said. “It needs to be wearing sunscreen daily, and doing the things to nurture their skin to prevent aging.”
Sun exposure does most of the damage, she said, and “the more that you prevent now, the less you have to treat later on.”