Botox: Stories

I did get my face back. I think anywhere in the 4-5 month range though it started looking better after 3 months. My face didn't change so much as it was my expression which changed. It is amazing how changing your appearance by mere millimeters can result in such a drastic difference. My close friends and family knew immediately something was "off" and i felt like people who only knew me superficially just looked at me strangely. I started covering my face when I smiled and I actually had buck teeth and drooled a bit when I laughed. Honestly, I was horrified and SO upset with myself. I am an attractive woman; I've seen pictures of people who's looks have been terribly distorted by fooling around with plastic surgery in general. I'm hoping I can let myself age a bit more gracefully. Why do you think you have permanent damage? How has your face changed? Do you think the botox froze your muscles and then you lost some kind of muscle memory in your expression? Is that even possible and can you speak to a Plastic Surgeon about this? If this happens, maybe there can be a "fix" of sorts.

Thank you for your reply! I am so happy to hear that you have regained your original face shape. I know what you mean when you say you no longer consider it a problem. The "problem" I was convinced I had is actually more attractive than my current "muppet mouth" face :) The botox has worn off but my appearance is still drastically, and I mean DRASTICALLY changed. Did you get your original face back, and if so, how long did it take?

Hi seekingsymmetry... just got your post today... are you STILL suffering from an altered appearance? My botox wore off after 5 months... I totally look like myself again with my own smile back. In fact the "problem" I initially wanted to correct is also back, and after having muppet mouth and being horrified by my altered look, I no longer consider it a problem. I am grateful to look like myself again and will not fool around with that area ever again. I am very much hoping at least some of your botox has worn away? If so, you will likely have most of it gone within another month or so... let me know where you're at. thanks and good luck. I SOOOO feel your distress.

Hi All,
I had botox for massetter reduction/tmj in March of this year. 25 units were used on my left side and 28 on the right. It has altered my appearance so drastically, in a bad way, that I am ashamed and embarrassed to see old friends and have my photo taken. Have any of you discovered a solution to the jowls? I am 30 and never, never had jowls prior to botox. Does anyone know how long it may take for the muscles to "grow back"? Thank you!

Hey true2type,

how are you doing? I've been looking at the pictures I'd posted back in may, and gosh, the improvement is pretty obvious. It sure is SLOW though...so slow that it literally does not look different even over a month but you add up 5 months and it's noticeable. I'd LOVE this to be completely gone by christmas. That would be the best present ever...

A little better, I think. I have another Accent treatment scheduled for Tuesday. It will be a couple of months until I can judge the full effect of three treatments. As to your predicament NYCkitten: I am quite sure your face will return to normal. Skin is so healthy and elastic at your age, it can handle just about anything. When that happens you're right to resolve to appreciate it this time round. There's very little under sun more appealing than a pretty young face. Don't mess with it too much. It's a gift that doesn't come around twice.

I completely understand. I have my picture taken like 3 nights a week and I haven't smiled in a single one since may! Ugh. I never smiled anyway but I swore to myself I'd smile in every picture if this goes away. Are you seeing any changes, better or worse?

I'll think about it NYCkitten, but I do hate pictures! :)

I wish you'd message me pictures of your complication...I know a lit about thus, but its so hard to try to give appropriate advice when I can't see the problem...I'm harmless I promise. Just a really neurotic teen girl.

I was thinking the Sculptra might be a good thing for the hollowness under my cheek bones. As I understand it, it's not really a filler. Rather, it fires up collagen production in a big way so that your face fills out gradually over about three months, and in a very natural-looking way. It's expensive of course.

I've had Botox around my eyes for years now and have always thought it thoroughly wonderful. Started doing the crows feet two or three years ago and I wonder if relaxing the muscles under my eye also relaxed my cheek muscles and sped up the descent of fat in that area.

Has everyone here also had eye Botox? I had my masseters treated one before with beautiful results and 8 months later had it repeated with a pretty high amount of Botox put into my brows (10 for each, and I really never ever raise or furrow my brows. I wasn't able to form a crease in-between my brows before the botox lol) it was this treatment that caused the pseudoherniation.

I would really urge you to hold off from any semi permanent fillers. Say this suddenly resolves by itself after a few sculptra treatments...you'd have Cher cheeks for 2 years. Lol. I really encourage you to try a more conventional filler like Radiesse. It's used commonly for cheek augmentation but it's results are more temporary so if you don't like it, you just wait 6 months.

Wait were you thinking of using filler for the apples of your cheeks to try to pull up the jowls or filler to replace the facial mass lost due to masseter atrophy?

This is interesting because I've noticed a horizontal indentation on the apple of my cheek in the last few years, something that roughly coincides with using botox for crows feet (a few shots at the side and underneath the outer eye). Getting the masseters done caused a real hollowcheeked look in addition to the jowls. I'm thinking more and more that women should avoid using botox below eye level, period.

Hi everyone. How are you all? Any improvement yet? I took photos four months ago but it's so hard to tell if what I see is improvement or wishful thinking. Through my research I've determined that even if this complication does not resolve by itself, it can be reversed through the same methods used in a "Mid-face Lift." The jowls are made of fat that was once stored in the apples of your cheeks, but have descended due to those cheek muscles getting weaker. A mid-face lift addresses this by tying a few threads through the descended fat pad and pulling it back up into position. Very similar to a "permanent" bra (lol). The only problem is that since the fat pad has vertically descended, an incision would need to be made under the eye and under the jaw in order to pull it back up vertically. The midface lift makes incisions in the temple hairline and under the jaw, but this pulls the fat pad diagonally over the cheekbone, where it never was. We're looking to restore our fat pads to their position of origin, not to an alternate location. I know every doctor is telling us botox is never permanent buy more, but honestly, if jowls are caused by muscle loss, why wouldn't older women be able to completely restore their faces through facial exercises? Maybe they are, and the medical community just doesn't entertain this idea? But if they're not able to, despite training their muscles to be stronger, then I'd have to think that once the muscle "lets go" of the fat pad, it's not able to naturally "re-grip" it. In our cases our muscles were forced to let go, and I'm only hoping that they can wake up one day and grab that fat again...

Hi true2type! I have also experienced joweling from botox to correct my overdeveloped masseter muscles and found that it emphasized buccal fat pads.

I was wondering the results of your accent treatment to correct joweling and if you would recommend it. Thank you!

Ah well, I did have the first Accent treatment last week and it has helped! I think this is because, in my case, the problem is more removing volume in a face that's already experiencing some fat descent and skin laxity. While your guy definitely hit the wrong muscle, my guy just failed to warn me that removing volume could backfire at my age. My cheeks are fairly symmetrical, smile or no.

I really wouldn't go with the skin tightening treatments...this is a muscular problem, not a skin laxity problem. Can you please post or message me some pictures of you? I need to fix this and you're the only other person on earth that I know is currently suffering from it. I wish you were 3 months ahead of me, though...but nevermatter. Some pictures (preferably six: three not smiling [front, 3/4 left and 3/4 right] and three smiling [same positions]) does this affect your smile by the way? This is undetectable on me until I smile.

You obviously have a fantastic brain NYC. You will make a first-rate doctor. As for the jowls: the droop is on both sides and my cheeks look sunken. I've booked three Accent skin tightening sessions in the hope that I will be able to to improve my jawline somewhat while I wait for the botox--and the hang-dog look it's caused--to wear off. I'm terrified that some of this will be permanent. I can't remember how many units were used but I will call him Monday and let you know. I actually had the injections three weeks apart, which is a week sooner than is recommended, because he was going on holiday. The first injection made a subtle, pleasing change. If only I'd stuck with that! Would also love to keep in touch.

I'm so glad you found my info useful...obviously this is really affecting me but at least I'm not "the only girl in the world" with this extremely strange complication. Botox is so dangerous not because of it's chemical makeup but because of how it's experimentally used. We have no idea why the masseters shrink so profoundly and what the long-term effects of this are. No idea. We just know it doesn't kill people. I can't even deal with a doctor who says it's all in my head. That's the epitome of cowardliness and ignorance. Why are they not fascinated by what could be NEW knowledge in cosmetic enhancements? Why wouldn't they want to "discover" this? All of the NYC doctors I've gone to learn to treat me with a certain amount of fear because I can actually understand and reply with all the big words they use to confuse parents into saying, "well gosh, you're the doctor!" I'm not falling for that. This is why I want to be a doctor. To save people from doctors. If you don't mind, true2type, I'd like to stay in contact with you so we can update eachother on our conditions...is that alright?

Gosh NYCkitten, I'm so grateful you've taken the time to go into such detail. It's given me some peace of mind about this and armed me with info I will take to my doctor (who's initial response, incidentally, was that this was all in my head--just infuriating). THANK YOU.