Hyperhidrosis can affect any part of the body, including the hands and feet. It can be extremely embarrassing to have and sufferers complain that their sweaty hands make normal social activities like shaking hands very difficult.
It is treatable with Botox, just as it is for the armpits. The big problem with treating the hands and the feet is that the skin is full of nerve endings and treatment is extremely painful unless adequate anaesthesia is given. In the past this has been done with either anaesthetic cream applied to the hands or nerve blocks injected into the wrist. The problem is that the creams take at least an hour to work, and even then don’t work that well, while the nerve blocks are difficult and expensive to give and have the risk of nerve damage.
Fortunately there is a new way to provide pain-free treatments that works and is instantaneous. Cold is very effective at anaesthetising the pain nerve endings, and I use ice packs when injecting the face. Ice isn’t sufficiently cold to use on the hands, but instead I use a more intense cold which momentarily reduces the skin temperature just as the needle is inserted at that particular injection point. The process is repeated at each individual injection point, resulting in a pain-free treatment.