There’s more than one way to skin a cat and to freeze a forehead, according to MyoScience, Inc., a company that has developed a new procedure to compete with Botox and Dysport. Researchers took 31 subjects and injected the nerves connected to their wrinkled foreheads with coldness. Voila! After two to eight injections, they claim there are “significant results.”

Stylist.com, April 5, 2011, reports that “During the 15-minute treatment, researchers used thin needles to shoot cold into the temporal branch of the frontal nerve located around the eyes and forehead.” The idea is that cold interrupts nerve signaling by freezing the passage, which relaxes the grip of muscles that usually bunch up causing forehead lines. After the cold passes through, the nerve supposedly regains normal body temperature in moments. But, according to MyoScience, the nerve signal remains silenced for three to four months, which compares with how long Botox injections last. Side effects of cold injections (cryoneuromodulation) include headaches and redness at the injection site; pain was described as being on a par with a Botox or filler injection.

So far, two objections to this process have been raised: (1) darker complexions may risk damage to skin pigmentation, and (2) the injector has lack of control over the substance, which could make for an all or none result that would be unattractive and obvious.

If you think you would benefit from smoothing, contact a board-certified plastic surgeon at the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Besides smoothing the forehead, Botox and Dysport are used in the marionette lines, the chin (to correct dimpling), in the upper and lower lips to reduce smoker’s line and in the neck to soften bands or ridges.