Botox: Stories

I had botox injected into my chin area too. What a nightmare! It traveled to under my chin and into my neck muscles! It felt weird to swallow and I was at one point convinced it would keep migrating to other areas and I would surely die a slow death over stupid Botox! I am now stable on day 8 but am left with some swallowing issues. The ugliest issue of all is my completely distorted smile! I wish I looked as good on Lily's worse day as I look right now. It's awful like I had a stroke and now after reading this thread, I wonder if some Botox from my eye area migrated to my smile as well. Its very lopsided and I don't want to leave the house but I have kids so I have to go out and make small talk with people. I HATE it and can't wait for it to slowly get better. How are you doing with your chin area?

I am happy to say my smile has completely returned to normal! It has been about 13-14 weeks since I had those stupid injections. I think it really started getting better around week 10. It is amazing how changing so few muscles can really distort your looks. I felt self conscious and told several people I was having dental work done. No one would ever have guessed I'd have done something as foolish as having botox placed in this area of my face. Stay heartened... reading these posts is quite scary and frankly has caused me to seriously reconsider doing anything to my face again. Some of these facial procedures can be terrific... unless YOU are the person that has the rare, horrible reaction. Then you are left saying "hold on, I liked how I looked, I just wanted to look rested, or a little younger... I DID NOT want to look different, or in some cases made to look ugly!" I thanked God it was only botox that will eventually wear off and not some surgical procedure that may have been permanent. I know how you are feeling and the frightening prospect of not looking like yourself again... but you will be back to normal in about 3 months (isn't that horrible that it will take that long; I thought the weeks, especially in the beginning, would never pass... but they do). I know the botox is gone because those small aging lines on my chin, that caused me to get the botox in the first place are back. And guess what... I like them a whole lot better than my stupid, embarrassing muppet mouth that even caused a lisp! Please let me know how you progress. I promise, you will look like yourself again. Take care.

Glad to hear you are back to normal. I am counting each day and 3 months can't get here fast enough. Thank you for the reply. I am living through my computer right now and it's comforting to read other's stories of recovery and talk to others as I am too embarrassed to share with my local friends what I have done.

I was embarrassed as well and avoided certain people for several weeks. My daughter and sister and 2 close friends knew IMMEDIATELY that I had done something to my mouth because my smile was gone, my lips were thinned and I could not have a full belly laugh without my top teeth protruding (causing them to look like buck teeth). My husband and son did NOT notice until I pointed it out to them; but I did feel some people I saw somewhat irregularly looked at me quite strangely. Ugggg... what a horror. And there was no way in hell I was going to admit to most people my stupid, vain decision. Seriously, who knew something so minor could distort your looks so much. Imagine... your doctor injects botox and if the "look" comes out bad, it remains FROZEN on your face for 3 months! What a nightmare! But it is NOT permanent, and now that I am on THIS side, I have much more appreciation to letting myself age normally. I feel like this was a "warning" of what could go permanently wrong (like you read on these boards). Can you say you had dental work or Bell's Palsy (something i googled to see if i could use that excuse)? It's not a permanent virus and can be explained away.

Ok that was my first real belly laugh in 10.5 days on reading about the buck teeth and the "men" in the house not noticing. I needed that. No men here have noticed either! I have the opposite issue with my laugh....my bottom lip just hangs down when I laugh and WAY more drooping on one side. I have like the "My Name Is Earl" brother's character slack jaw thing going on. Very attractice. I do have braces right now so I am going to blame it on that I think. I hope to get them off in a few months and hope that helps. I have a reunion in a few months so my hope is it will be gone by then and hope is better by end of May for a trip. Thank god I am not working and can hide at home most the time. The swallowing sensation is awful though so I hope that starts to get better soon too. The plastic surgeon said I am at the worse point right now and it will only get better from here. I have been seeing them every few days just to be safe. UGGG! What a mess.

I am glad to hear you went back to "normal." I just had forehead and glabella area injected and my eyebrows are SO heavy that my eyelids are dropping completely onto the tops of my eyes. I look tired all the time when I've never felt better. The lines on my forehead are a lot smoother as well as glabella, but not totally gone. I would give anything to have them back, plus my $425 and have my eyes be able to open up again. I HATE this paralyzed feeling and I will never ever do this again. I just really hope it wears off sooner than later. Yuck. I'm going to do facelift exercises from now on to look more youthful. I would never recommend botox to anyone.

Don't ever do the face below the eyes! The skin is thinner and the muscles are different...I am so sorry you had a bad experience. Just do your eyes!!! Do mouth/ face with rejuvederm or restalyne only...and you can move your hand...only YOU see the crooked smile ( I always worry about droolng- why I didn't do my face!)

Wish I had not done botox for my marionette lines but I look like heavy smoker though I am not. Still deep lines but can not lick lips, speak without my mouth feeling like I just finished dental surgery. Cannot wait for this numb mouth to be gone. Note that you dribble when you try to gargle, you cannot blow a bit of fluff off anything normally and my flute playing embochure is gone. Ask lots of questions don't be rushed and note few websites list the concerns as they are just advertisements. First and last time for me.

I can definitely see how it would have some major down sides, especially if you play the flute. When I had botox done for the first time I considered trying some around my mouth, but the doctor advised against it for my first time, and said only about 50% of her patients likes what it does on the mouth. She said it can make the mouth feel clumsy, and that sounds about right from what you are explaining.

What doctors in their right mind would do this? seriously? around the MOUTH? what are they thinking? totally crazy.

Lynelle , I do have one question, it seemed that the other side of my lip went up more when the side that was most effected was drooping, do you have any info concerning that, I have not had any clear answers about that.... Thanks for any information you can give me... Lilly

Simply put , the other side was compensating for the lack of movement on the affected side. Those muscles were trying to do all the work. For example that is why the lateral brow pops up when the middle of the forehead is injected. The lateral portion of the frontalis will try to do the work of the entire muscle or overcompensate for the lack of movement in the middle.

Thank you, I am glad you posted also, that was the first time I have heard anyone say that botox comes and goes, I thought that was my imagination... It has been 5 months for me and my smile is almost back to normal, but I still see some side effects with my smile, but hopefully like you said , the muscles will get stronger... Good luck to you , don't get discouraged, but it was a long few months for me... Thanks for your insight!!! Lilly

Thank you that is very kind, it is true we are way to harsh on ourselves... You bring up a good point we tell ourselves we do this stuff for other people , but in all reality we do them for ourselves, we are so critical ... Thank you for your comments , I will try that photo thing, it sounds interesting!!! Thanks