“Botox - Paralyzed Half my Smile - San Francisco, CA”

I have been getting botox for years from a PS but moved to a new area and went to a new doc. This new doc came highly recommended and I have seen her for 2 years without a glitch.

This last time, however she got a little happy with the injections and I wound up losing my smile. Since I had gotten Juvaderm in my frown lines also, I was hoping that it was just the swelling that was causing my face to react, however as time went by and my crows feet disappeared, my smile went with it.

I know from experience that this will take 4-5 months to go away and am dealing with that now. How sad for me to have to turn my face if I want to smile and not sneer at people.

I am embarrassed and so very sad that I chose to do this. I am taking solace in writing this (though it is painful to fully accept that this is my face for the next 4 months) and am hoping that someone will think twice about botox before they have this happen also.

I am looking forward to having my smile back - wrinkles and all.

Updated on 4 Oct 2011:
I just had to add here that when I contacted the Doctor and emailed her these photos, she first claimed that this would resolve in 2 weeks. I reminded her that it has already been 2 weeks.

She then emailed me saying she could inject MORE botox in different areas to try to even out the smile.

NO thanks.

Updated on 6 Oct 2011:
I got yet another email from the doc insisting that she can inject MORE into my face to try and balance out my smile. She wants to inject the muscles to lower one side of my smile (the good side!) and paralyze my high lip on the bad side . . . I sent a scalding email letting her know that I no longer have trust in her and that I don't want MORE paralysis. I am quite disfigured enough, thank you very much.

I also notice now that my cheek hangs down on the paralyzed side if I am bent over or leaning to that side -- very floppy! It's hard to speak properly if there are a lot of "F" sounds to pronounce as my cheek puffs out and fills with air.

Lastly I cannot chew foods effectively. While she was trying to convince me that I needed the masseter muscles to be injected (I had come in only for my crow's feet) I was told that the masseter muscle assisted a little on the hardest foods, but that I wouldn't really notice. HA! Even ground beef is too much for me! One would think that I would lose weight, but instead I just attempt to chew it despite the pain, and then end up swallowing.

Probably TMI here, but I just want others to know of the true side effects and possible outcomes of a bad botox job.

Horrible experience and I'm only 3 weeks out now.