Hi, Typically for patients who get botox for masseter hypertrophy will get repeat injections around 7-10 month mark to maintain the atrophy. If they wait longer, based on my female patients who became pregnant and did not have any botox during the pregnancy or during their breast feeding period, their masseter hypertrophy fully returned. To make the masseter botox last longer and keep the muscle more shrunken, I will advise my patients to avoid chewing hard foods, gum, nuts, etc, to not over exercise the masseter muscle and thus it helps them get the botox less frequently and in turn helps them to save money. If they are getting botox and are simultaneously chewing gum and chewing on well-done steaks, this will regrow the muscle faster after they just spent their hard earned money shrinking the masseters with botox for a few month. Regular gum does not provide muscle "resistance" and there are brands of firmer gum which can provide more resistance. There is a "gimmicky" product called Jawzrsize which is a firm silicone device which you place between your front teeth and bite down. It comes in different strengths. The goal of this device is to create more of a jaw angle definition by hypertrophying the masseter and possibly causing some fat loss around the masseter (like doing crunches makes are abdominal muscles stronger, but also shrinks the fat overlying the abdominal muscles to show a six-pack. When the goal is reached, you don't have to over do it and keep making the masseter bigger. Clearly you were doing the botox to get a more V-shaped face, so just exercise it enough to get it back to normal. Hope this reply was helpful. Good luck. Best, Dr. Yang
