LAM FACIAL PLASTICS

Hi Dr. Lam,

I am a male who maybe a candidate for the jaw-line botox reduction. I am not looking to reduce my whole jawline, however, I am only looking to reduce the upper part of the muscle if that is possible. As a guy, I am fine with having a strong jawline, but what I have noticed is that the part of the jaw muscle that continues up the side of my face to the height of the middle of my ear, is wider than the part the muscle at the bottom of the side of my face. So when looking at my face from the front, I do not have the straight jaw-line seen hair on Brad Pitt - http://www.casinoman.net/images/blog/brad-pitt.jpg . Instead, my face appears much more rounded. To see this effect I just edited an image of Tom Cruise in photoshop real quick...The first picture is his real jaw-line, the second I rounded his upper jaw-line a bit to be more like mine. Picture link below

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=fuq8vd&s=6

When the upper jaw-line is rounded, he appears heavier and his chin appears weaker. Now, I have never really thought about getting any plastic surgery, but if something that can effect the face as much as this can be fixed with a simple procedure like botox it would seem well worth it. So, can the botox target the specific upper jaw-line area or will the muscle decrease as a whole and as a result I may lose the roundedness of my upper jawline, but I also may lose the squareness of my lower jaw?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

hi,
great question. i would say what you are wanting to do is not easy. i tend to focus on the bottom of the face because that is where the masseter is largest. plus, in my experience i am worried that going into the midface will have two potential consequences:
1. a lack of benefit since the muscle there is not enlarged. the reason that the bottom part of the face gets larger is that the muscle is 3 x the size there as 3 muscle heads insert into the bone and also since that is where they attach, they make the bone in that area bigger.
2. the facial nerve that controls facial movement resides in the middle of the face and there is always a risk of unwanted diffusion to cause problems with speech and smiling, which is not worth it.
sorry, sometimes i cannot offer everything. maybe you will find the right surgeon who has the right answer for you.
best,
sml