Jaw Angle Reduction
In patients with wide jaw, there is usually a prominent jaw bone at the angle where the vertical and the horizontal portion of the jaw meet. In addition, these patients usually have very prominent chewing muscle (masseter muscle) making the jaw angle even wider in appearance. This is a common finding in Asian patients, especially of Korean descent. The traditional method has been “surgical” removing the excess bone at the jaw angle, which can create a prolonged post-surgical swelling and possible changes to the sensation at the surgical site. Botox offers a “non-surgical” reduction of the widened jaw by relaxing the muscle and reducing its overall size and bulk. You can easily determine if your chewing muscle is enlarged by biting down hard and feeling the outer jaw area.
If the chewing muscle appears to be very hard and enlarged when you clench your teeth, you may be a good candidate for the Botox non-surgical jaw reduction. There is no downtime associated with the procedure and within a week to two weeks, you should see greater than 50% reduction in the size of the enlarged chewing muscle and accordingly significant reduction in the widened appearance of the jaw. In certain patients where the bony prominence is much greater than the enlargement of the muscle, the overall improvement may not be as apparent. At the time of consultation, Dr. Kang will advise you as to the degree of improvement you can expect from the procedure.
Calf Reduction with Botox
Enlarged calf muscles can be due to inherent genetical pre-disposition to be large or easier tendencies to hypertrophy with exercises, playing sports such as track & field and fencing or wearing high heels. Botox for calf reduction has been an extremely popular procedures through out Asia since Asians suffer more from shorter and more muscular calves.
At the time of consultation, Dr. Kang will carefully examine the muscle bulk of your calves. For Most patients coming in for reduction, the bulk of the calves round out medially due to tendency for Medial Gastrocnemius muscle to hypertrophy the greatest. As result, Dr. Kang tends to use use more Botox to the medial aspect compared to the lateral aspect of the calf. But end goal should be not only simple thinning of the muscle but overall reshaping to make the leg slimmer and optically longer.
Botox will relax the muscles over course of one to two weeks, sometimes a little longer. The first session will last 6 months with the repeated sessions lasting a bit longer into 6 to 8 months range. Continued use of Botox of at least three to four sessions over course of two years have shown degree of permanent reduction for many patients. The amount of Botox that will be used will depend upon the bulk of the calf muscles but Dr. Kang will discuss further following your initial consultation and evaluation of the calf muscles.