Corner of Mouth Botox and Apogee Laser Hair Removal: A Doctor's Self-Treatment

On a Thursday before a holiday, I gave myself two lunchtime treatments: corner-of-mouth Botox and Apogee laser hair removal.

The hair removal device we use at our clinic is the Apogee Plus. I can say with confidence that it is one of the top-performing hair removal systems available. It also comes with a price tag of over 100 million KRW — reflecting its position as a premium device.

We generally recommend hair removal sessions every 4 to 5 weeks. After about 5 sessions, most patients find that approximately 70% of the original hair is gone, and they are quite satisfied with the results.

Back when I worked as a salaried physician at another clinic, the device was a Korean-made diode laser. No matter how many sessions patients had — 10, 20 — the hair barely disappeared, yet the pain during treatment was significant. I was constantly fielding complaints, and since I couldn't openly say the machine was the problem, I had no choice but to keep emphasizing repeat sessions. It was a frustrating time.

Fortunately, at our current clinic, 5 sessions deliver clearly noticeable results — so much so that I regularly undergo the treatment myself. After completing 5 monthly sessions, occasional touch-up treatments whenever needed have been enough to maintain satisfying results over the long term.

Today at lunchtime, I had an Apogee laser hair removal session after a long break, followed by a self-administered corner-of-mouth Botox injection.

Corner-of-mouth Botox works by injecting a small amount of Botox into the Depressor Anguli Oris muscle — the muscle responsible for pulling the corners of the mouth downward. By partially reducing the downward pull, the corners of the mouth naturally appear lifted. In addition, this treatment can help prevent the formation of marionette lines that tend to develop with age, which is why I have been receiving it consistently every 2 to 3 months.

The before-and-after photos shown here are sourced from Google, as the difference in my own photos is subtle and difficult to capture clearly on camera. Looking at the corners of the mouth and the marionette lines, you can see that the mouth corners are slightly and naturally lifted, and the marionette lines appear improved.

As always, self-administering Botox is quite painful — but making the effort to keep up with it is the only way to prevent deep lines from forming.

I recommend corner-of-mouth Botox to anyone who wants to slow the development of marionette lines, or who would like their mouth corners to lift naturally and attractively when they smile.