Non-surgical Alternative to Botox for Reducing Masseter Muscles?

Thank you for your question. Botox or Dysport can be a very effective way to contour the jaw line by reducing the masseter shadow through the outer jaw skin. In addition, it can reduce symptoms of jaw clenching or grinding of teeth at night time. This is an advanced technique that requires a strong understanding of the underlying anatomy. Some side effects can results in some very unintented effects. This can include affecting the smile due to diffusion of the Botox into neighboring smile muscles. Over treatment can also overweaken your jaw muscles making it harder to chew food and causes your jaw muscles to relax too much when you sleep.The injection technique does vary by physical exam and the goals of the treatment. Facial contouring goals may change the injection sites themselves to affect different portions of the masseter as well as the dose. The strength of the masseters can be felt by palpation and also helps me to determine dosing. In general, I start with 15- 25 units of Botox (OR 50-75 units of Dysport) per side for most patients. If they have very strong masseters, then I may increase the dose, but more commonly ask them to return in three weeks for a touch up. Once you get the desired result, I let patients know that future treatments may require less to maintain the look or the jaw clenching symptoms, especially if they get treated as soon as they notice the symptoms return. This can be as soon as three to four months, but in some cases, patients report that it lasts six months or more. I find it depends on the dose we use and how many times we have done the procedure as the duration may lengthen for patients that repeat it regularly.

BOTOX has been shown to effectively reduce the size of your masstere muscles. This procedure is typically requested by Asian patients who wish to have a more angulated appearance of their jaw-line. I am not aware of any other non-invasive procedures to achieve the same results. If you're grinding your teeth, then a night-guard may be helpful. In that regard, consultation with your dentist may be a good idea for you. I hope this is helpful, and best regards.

You may want to try Dysport. It is a new FDA approved botulinum toxin that acts similarly to Botox. This would be considered an off label use. It has shown greater ability to spread locally in comparision ot Botox.