Will repeated treatment of bruxism with Botox cause more masseter reduction? (Photo)

Hi,Thank you for your question and sharing your photo.The masseters are a very bulky muscle for patients with bruxism and can take several weeks to months to atrophy and cause facial slimming. If your primary reason for botox in the masseters is for teeth clenching, you should notice improvement within 2-3 weeks after the treatment. If your provider still notices significant masseter activity on examination, additional botox can be injected to further relax the muscle. Hope this helps!

Thank you for your question Mini555! Yes your masseter muscle will continue to reduce in size (atrophy) as you receive repeated treatments.
Although the effects of Botox can initially kick in around day 3-5, it takes a full 2 weeks for Botox to reach full effect. At this time you will notice the muscle weaken and you won’t be able to contract it as strongly. However, the slimming effects can take up to 30 days to see, as the muscles requires time to atrophy. The effects of Botox to the masseter muscle last an average of 6 months. Once the effects wear off, the muscle will begin to function more frequently and regain its strength, slowly increasing in size again. How quickly it regains strength and size varies patient to patient and also depends on the dose of Botox injected. I recommend treatments every 6 months initially.

I’ve created a video that reviews treating the masseter muscles with Botox. I hope you find this helpful in your research!

Thank you for your question.  The masseter is one of the main muscles that allow you to move the jawbone (mandible) to chew.  You can feel this muscle at the back of the jaw when you clench your teeth. In bruxism, this muscle is overactive and grows.  This is similar to how the muscles grow in body builders that constantly train.  In some patients they can get so large that they create a visual distortion of the jawline.  I inject Botox into the masseter to paralyze it.  There are other muscles that help you chew so that is usually unaffected.  If the masseter is paralyzed for a prolonged time it will shrink (atrophy) and eventually become less prominent.  This requires regular treatments to prevent the muscle from building up again.  This is like how /the muscles shrink in the legs of people that have suffered from spinal paralysis.