has anyone had their jaw muscle reduced surgically (NOT through botox injections). The only FFS surgeon I have heard about who does this is Dr Z. I wondered if the lack of enthusiasm to do the procedure was down to it being risky (e.g. nerve damage)?How the hell do does the surgeon know how much muscle to remove without affecting functionality? I have had botox and hated it for many reasons, though it did reduce the muscle bulk for a while. will not be going down that road again. I have enlargement of the muscles (overactive and not through teeth grinding).

if you had it did you have any complications, and did it give a visible result which you were happy with? did your muscle grow back eventually or was it permanent? i presume this is down to an individuals muscle function and mine, following the botox injections, is now in overdrive, essentially in spasm most of the time. so i worry it might just grow back. i would still try it though so long as it were relatively safe.

lots of surgeons including the one who did my jaw job will try this if pushed or lured by cash but they all warn of the very real possibility of accidentally cutting the big nerve along the jaw and having patients end up with the sagging dribbling mouth of Jaqueline Stallone.

Estrogen may slim your face after a while anyway.

I had it done, but I've still a bit too heavy to fully see the results.  No bad effects now though.

i did fear there might be a major nerve around there that could be damaged I looked online for some more info but it is very difficult to find much. they do radiowave reduction in korea now, which looked great on the surface, but i dug a little deeper and that too has problems associated with it such as nerve damage and damage to the salivary duct.

Jeneva - who did the reduction, out of interest?

Dr Zukowski did mine as part of the general FFS he did for me last Dec.  He did a lot of work in my neck/jaw/chin area and warned that it might even be a year and a half before all the swelling was gone.

he does seem to be the one who does the procedure more commonly, and with the experience hopefully would come a lower risk of nerve injury. i won't rule it out. i wish he would come over to europe for consults, I'd really like to meet with him and am not keen on skype type consults.

Ousterhout does it too!

The main nerve of concern in dissection of the masseter muscle is the facial nerve - that is the one that supplies motor nerves to the muscles of facial expression (the ones that let you smile, frown, etc).  IIRC, in order to access the area, most surgeons will make an incision around the ear and work the flap forward (degloving the area so to speak).  Don't quote me on this btw, it's been years since I read up on it.

In doing so there is a risk of disturbing the parotid salivary gland, and facial nerve is in proximity to the parotid salivary gland.

Bruising of the nerve may cause temporary or even permanent paralysis of that side of the face (Bell's palsy).

Radiation therapy is generally avoided for the reasons someone previously mentioned - the collateral damage from radiation generally outweighs the benefits unless you're looking at managing a malignant tumour.

Quote from: englishroseeight on July 03, 2012, 10:40:32 PM
i did fear there might be a major nerve around there that could be damaged I looked online for some more info but it is very difficult to find much. they do radiowave reduction in korea now, which looked great on the surface, but i dug a little deeper and that too has problems associated with it such as nerve damage and damage to the salivary duct.

Jeneva - who did the reduction, out of interest?

I had masseter reduction by Dr Z. Visibly it looks great (I used to have a very masculine Latino looks as a male). It is genetics, bruxism, and testosterone effect. The estrogen will make the hypertrophied muscle smaller, but if it is genetic then excision would be the only option. I don't think radiowave reduction would be a good option due to a lot of tissue damage it causes. Nerve damage is always a possibility with any facial surgery, but those things happen extremely rare and are usually reversible. Choosing an experienced doctor reduces those risks.