Everyone thinks that BOTOX is only to correct fine lines and wrinkles. Actually there is N number of other advantages, especially for people with teeth grinding habit Botox will be very helpful. These individuals clench the teeth so heavily in the night time that leads to tightness around the tempero- mandibular joint in the morning. In Short we call it as TMJ. Due to this teeth grinding habit usually people go for early arthritic changes in the tempero mandibular joints followed by severe headaches.

All those issues will be easily corrected by a BOTOX injection to a muscle called masseter. It is a two finger breadth muscle before the angle of the jaw bone. So if you tightly clench your teeth and if it bulks up, and if can see a bulge there it means your muscle is already bulked up because of your grinding issues and over usage of the masseter muscle.

How do BOTOX injections to the muscle help you? Basically what it does?

It reduces the volume of the muscle. See one time if you give BOTOX injection, usually we give 40 to 60 units per session for both the sides together. So doing that way , 15% of the muscle volume comes down. If you repeat it after 90 to 120 days 25% of the muscle volume will come down. If you keep doing it continuously for 3 to 4 times it shapes up the jaw line. If you keep doing this often, your bone density comes down. That is one of the drawbacks of these routine masseter injections.

So what I advise is, 3 courses of injections in a year spaced between 3 months followed by yearly dose might help you.

Advantages are:

Headache will come down, morning stiffness will come down. Your jaw deviation will get corrected. [Some people if you see because of the severe spasm, when you open your mouth it tends to deviate to other side].

Definitely is worth the procedure. For females, When they have a bulky face especially square face, when we give BOTOX it becomes oval shape with proper jaw contouring. But you have to keep doing it for 3,4 times to get a desired shape. So females are benefitted for cosmetic reasons.

For the people with bruxism, Botox helps them therapeutically and hence muscle relaxation is achieved relieving headaches.