There's a number of units that makes you look rested, and a number that makes you look done. The distance between them is smaller than most people expect — often just a handful of units — which is exactly why dosing deserves more thought than a flat per-area price suggests.
At Meridian we start every injectable plan the same way: we watch your face move. Botox doesn't treat lines so much as it relaxes the muscles that create them, so the right dose depends entirely on how strongly those muscles pull.
It starts with your anatomy
Two patients can ask for "the elevens" — the vertical frown lines between the brows — and need very different doses. Someone with a strong, deeply etched glabella may need 24 units; someone younger with a light pull might look perfect at 12. Treating both with the same "standard" dose is how people end up either unmoved or frozen.
This is why we price per unit rather than per area. You pay for what your face actually needs, and you can see the unit count before we ever pick up a syringe.
The goal isn't the absence of movement. It's movement that no longer carves a line.
Typical ranges, honestly
These are starting points, not prescriptions — your provider will adjust based on muscle strength and your goals:
- Frown lines (glabella): 20–25 units
- Forehead lines: 10–20 units
- Crow's feet: 12–24 units total
- Lip flip: 4–6 units
Why we stage results
For first-time patients, we often dose at the lower end of the range and bring you back at two weeks. It's far easier to add a few units than to wait out an overcorrection — and that two-week review is where natural-looking results are actually made.
If you're considering treatment, the most useful thing you can do is book a consultation and bring photos of your face at rest and mid-expression. From there, the number becomes a clinical decision rather than a guess.