Dentist Botox® Course: A Guide to Finding the Right Training

Author

Dr. Stephen Cosentino

Botox® treatment is the foundation of any cosmetic dentistry practice. Many “regular” dental practices offer Botox as well, along with dermal fillers and other minimally invasive cosmetic treatments.

Whatever type of practice you have, it’s important that you choose a high-quality, fully accredited Botox training course for dental professionals. Learn what to expect from these courses and how to choose the best one for your practice.

What to Expect From a Dentist Botox Course

Training dentists to perform Botox treatments isn’t wildly different from training any other medical professional in facial injectables. Here’s what dentists should look for (and expect) from their Botox training course.

Neurotoxin Prerequisite Training

Botox is safe when administered by well-trained professionals, but it’s also a potent neurotoxin. Your chosen training course should make neurotoxin prerequisite training — including information about Botox formulations, mode of action, and safe handling — available for free online. You should be able to review these materials at your leisure before completing the main course.

Botulinum Toxin Medications & Formulations

The course should cover the different formulations of Botox (including Botox Cosmetic and Botox Therapeutic) and best practices for diluting and preparing doses.

Botox Indications & Contraindications

The course should cover the main cosmetic indications and treatment areas for Botox, including but not limited to:

Crow’s feet
Glabellar lines
Chin dimpling
Platysmal bands
Nasolabial folds
Forehead lines
TMJ and other jaw complaints, which make up a disproportionate share of many dentists’ Botox treatments

Just as important, the course should cover contraindications, or reasons to exclude patients from treatment. These can include certain skin conditions, age, and known allergies to any of the ingredients in Botox.

Botox Treatment Planning & Execution

The core of the didactic portion of Botox training for dentists is treatment planning and execution. Topics to be covered include but aren’t limited to:

Pre-treatment consultation
Finding suitable Botox injection sites
Botox mapping (plotting injection sites)
Site preparation
Injectable techniques
Post-treatment dressing

Live Patient Training

There’s no substitute for hands-on training. The best Botox training courses are hands-on courses, period. Yours should give you the opportunity to practice Botox administration on live volunteers with real cosmetic complaint.

Post-Treatment Management & Follow-up

No Botox training course is complete without covering the post-treatment period. Topics discussed here should include:

Potential side effects of Botox injections
Best practices for post-treatment recovery
Timing for follow-up appointments

How to Find the Right Dentist Botox Course

The most important things to look for when evaluating Botox courses are accreditation, reputation, comprehensiveness, and live patient training.

High-quality Botox training courses are sponsored by accredited medical education providers and meet continuing dental education requirements. They provide actionable, evidence-based training in current best practices for botulinum toxin injectables.

The best Botox training courses for dentists are well-known for providing excellent training. Accredited medical education providers tend to have stronger reputations than non-accredited providers, whose programs may omit crucial information or give poor guidance for injectors.

Great Botox training courses are comprehensive as well. The best combine Botox instruction with dermal filler training for dentists. After all, Botox and dermal filler treatments are complementary cosmetic services and popular ones at that. It only makes sense that quality education providers package Botox and filler courses together.

Finally, great Botox training courses offer live patient training at in-person workshops. Online training is valuable, but nothing can replace the experience of treating live volunteers with Botox (or fillers).