Every passing year seems to see the medical community discovering new and exciting uses for botulinum toxin A, showing just how far-reaching its effects are. In recent years, aesthetic doctors and nurses have begun to offer its injection as a nonsurgical jaw reshaping treatment, further demonstrating the versatility of BOTOX® and what it can offer in areas of cosmetic medicine that have typically required painful, invasive surgery in order to achieve satisfactory results, proven in many studies, including one that appeared in Dermatologic Surgery.
How Does Masseter BOTOX® Allow for Nonsurgical Jaw Reshaping?
How Masseter BOTOX® Works
To begin with, it’s necessary to outline the way that BOTOX® works and exactly how it’s able to give patients such a wide variety of treatments. Whether used in wrinkle reduction or jawline reshaping, BOTOX® is able to offer patients extraordinary results due to the presence of the botulinum toxin protein that makes up the primary component of its formulation. Botulinum toxin works by blocking transmissions sent from the nervous system to the muscles. These neuromuscular transmissions tell muscle groups to perform their natural function of clenching and unclenching and, when active, can lead to issues as far apart as facial line creation to jaw muscle build-up.
Botulinum toxin has been the subject of interest throughout the medical community for years but it wasn’t until near the beginning of the current century that it began to hit its stride. After intensive study throughout the 1980s and 1990s, 2002 finally saw the FDA approving botulinum toxin and its use in aesthetic medicine through trade name products like BOTOX®. Now the product is used in an immense number of different treatments, helping patients to resolve both aesthetic conditions (like wrinkles, fine lines, jawline reshaping, facial modification and more) and serious ailments (such as chronic migraines, excessive sweating, muscle spasms, multiple sclerosis and muscle pain).
What Can I Expect from Masseter Botox?
The results of a BOTOX® jaw reshaping treatment are fairly quick to appear after a procedure is completed. Most patients have reported that they begin to notice a general softening of the masseter muscle after about one week. The jaw line then begins to soften visibly after a period of approximately six to eight weeks following the initial session. As with any BOTOX® treatment, patients that choose to undergo regular follow-up injections will usually experience more success, many noticing permanent changes to their appearance after two to three sessions.
One of the reasons that BOTOX® jaw reshaping has caught on in popularity is because it offers a non-surgical, non-invasive and almost completely painless treatment option. Patients can expect their reshaping treatment to only feel as uncomfortable as a pinching or stinging sensation with no major lingering pain following. The procedure is also quick. Many patients choose to undergo BOTOX® treatments as part of a normal day and can return to their schedule immediately after a session is completed.
Different Methods of Jaw Reshaping
Jaw reshaping procedures have existed for a long time, even though the use of BOTOX® as a treatment option is a relatively recent development. One of the most important first steps that patients must undertake is that of identifying why their jaw has a non-ideal shape. Although many of us may not have an underlying condition that has a bearing on our jaw size, it’s worth noting that some enlarged jaws may be cause, in part, by irregular bone structure or genetic structure. In this case, a look at traditional, surgical methods deserves explanation before we begin to look at how BOTOX® works for reshaping.
Surgery has long been the only real option for patients that wish to alter the shape of their jawline but, unfortunately, the danger and prevalence of collateral injuries has made it a prohibitive treatment. Most surgical jaw reshaping was performed by doctors carrying out incisions to the outside or inside of the mouth in order to remove part of an enlarged mandible bone. These surgeries directly altered the bone of the jawline in order to narrow the face, successfully reshaping the jaw but requiring a painful, invasive procedure. Surgical intervention also brings with it the potential for complications like injury to the nerve that gives patients the ability to feel sensations from their teeth and lower lips.
In Korea nonsurgical jaw reshaping has caught on in a big way due to a cultural perception of beauty that sees many individuals being unhappy with the size of their jaw. Koreans often view square-shaped jaws as undesirable and, because of this, cosmetic medicine in the nation has long focused on providing a safe and effective solution to this common complaint. It’s because of this that the first viable studies in using BOTOX® for jawline reshaping began to appear from the Korean medical community. Now, with ample trials and research having been published and analyzed in international medical journals, this treatment method has spread throughout the world, finding popularity among the millions of people that wish to alter their jaw’s shape. By taking advantage of BOTOX®’s ability to provide the vast majority of jawline reshaping treatments, patients are able to avoid undergoing bone-altering surgery and find satisfactory results by allowing the injectable to treat another, important element of jaw shape: the muscles.
How BOTOX Nonsurgical Jaw Reshaping Works
Instead of requiring the invasive surgical options listed above, BOTOX® jaw reshaping works in much the same, relatively comfortable manner as other injection treatments. Patients are able to garner fantastic, noticeable results without having to endure painful, recovery-intensive surgery when seeking jaw reshaping through BOTOX® therapy.
In nonsurgical, BOTOX®-aided jaw reshaping, the patient’s masseter muscle group is targeted by a series of injections. Just as BOTOX® is able to interrupt neuromuscular transmissions to stop wrinkles from occurring, so too does it work to halt the nervous system’s signalling of jaw muscles to repeatedly clench and unclench — the action that causes the jaw to strengthen and, ultimately, become larger in size. The injection of BOTOX® to this muscle group — the masseter — works by introducing a controlled type of atrophy to these muscles, stopping them from strengthening and thereby reducing their size. Once the masseter muscle group stops working as hard as it naturally does, it become smaller and the jaw begins to diminish in size. This leads to a diminished jawline that gives patients the type of reshaping effect they desire.
What Kind of Results Can I Expect from My BOTOX® Jaw Reshaping?
Many patients have been treated through BOTOX® jaw reshaping and have gone on to witness stunning results after a relatively short period of time. The effects of initial injections begun to become noticeable after only a period of roughly one week. This begins by the masseter muscle group softening — something that only doctors, nurses or patients themselves usually notice by touch — before continuing onward to a more visible state. After approximately six to eight weeks following the first injection session the jaw reshaping has often advanced enough that it becomes obviously noticeable, reaching the stage that the patient seeks.
These type of results are most commonly achieved by patients that choose to adhere to a schedule of regular follow-up injections. Since BOTOX® is composed of a naturally occurring protein it is eventually reabsorbed into the body with time and, in order for visible results to be maintained, patients need to commit to follow-up sessions to hold onto the reshaping effect they desire. After two to three sessions, long-lasting changes in the jawline begin to appear and can then be maintained by sticking to a schedule of regular injections.
The treatment itself is one of the reasons why so many people choose BOTOX® for their jaw reshaping needs. As briefly mentioned before, BOTOX® injections are almost entirely painless and don’t require that patients must stop their lives in order to recuperate after their treatment. BOTOX® offers a nonsurgical jaw reshaping therapy option that is non-invasive and can be easily fitted into a normal schedule through speedy, “lunchtime” sessions. The injections themselves are reported to feel like a brief pinch or sting and, after that momentary discomfort, no lingering pain usually persists.
Whether a patient was born with a condition that causes overactive masseter muscle build-up or simply seeks to reduce the size of a normally functioning facial area, BOTOX® is able to help provide the results they want.