Adrian Richards, Leading Plastic Surgeon at Aurora Clinics explains the recovery period and possible side effects after a Hyperhidrosis treatment. For more information on Excessive Sweating Treatment or should you wish to book a FREE Consultation with our specialist plastic surgeon, please call us on 01844 214362.

Hyperhidrosis – Recovery Period and Possible Side Effects

Hello. My name is Adrian Richards, and I’m the Surgical Director of Aurora Clinics. My background is as a plastic surgeon, and today I’m going to be talking about the recovery and possible side effects following Botox treatment for hyperhidrosis.

Botox treatment essentially works, as I’ve discussed in previous videos, by blocking the abnormal impulses to the sweat glands effectively switching them on when they shouldn’t be. The important thing to note is that hyperhidrosis is abnormal. We’re not talking about the normal response to sweating here. We’re talking about abnormal impulses, making the sweat glands turn on when they shouldn’t turn on.

The reason for eccrine sweating is the temperature regulation in the body. The eccrine sweat glands tend to switch on in hot situations, and then by evaporation they cool the body down. That’s the reason why we have eccrine sweating as opposed to apocrine sweating which is the oily, more sebaceous, smelly sweat, which isn’t controlled by the sweat glands. The eccrine watery sweat glands are essentially used for thermoregulation of the body as a temperature control.

With Botox, what we’re doing is reducing abnormal sweating. This is sweating that can occur in stressful situations or just occur through no particular reason. It can occur through heat stimulation, but often people are not particularly hot when the sweating starts. The Botox stops the abnormal secretion. You won’t overheat because essentially sweating is being turned on at the wrong time anyway. People ask, “If you don’t sweat, what’s going to happen to all the toxins and the water that’s secreted?” It’s important to know that the kidneys basically regulate all that. On hot days, your kidneys secrete less and you sweat more. If the sweating is turned off, the kidneys secrete the excess sweating.

Can people get excess sweating in other areas is another question I’m often asked, and the answer is yes. In approximately 10% of cases, people do get what we call compensatory hyperhidrosis, which often occurs in the small of the back. You may notice slightly more sweating in that area and sometimes in the brow, but again this only normally happens in approximately one in ten patients.

Complications are very rare. Infection is possible after any injection. Bruising is possible. Bleeding is possible. But they’re all very rare. There aren’t known to be any long-term complications with Botox therapy because it’s used in such minute doses. The only thing you may notice is a slight increase in sweating in other parts of the body which occurs in approximately one in ten people.

I hope that’s been useful. If you have any questions about this or any other treatments offered at Aurora Clinics, please don’t hesitate to contact us either via e-mail, via the website, or by ringing us directly on 01844 214362. Thank you.