Will Botox to My Chin Make It Look Horizontally Stronger?

Q: Dr. Eppley, I have a moderately recessed chin and my bite is class 1. What I noticed on my lateral cephalogram (and by felling the chin) is that my soft tissue pad is very thin. The bone is more or less normal size, but the thin soft tissue and thick lips make it look recessed even more. 

Is it possible to bulk up the mentalis muscle a bit to give the impression of a stronger chin? Or would it produce counter results – I read a study that found using Botox to relax the mentalis muscle actually made the chin look horizontally stronger. 

Thank you and kind regards

A: There is no surgical or non-surgical method to make any muscle of facial expression bigger in size. I can not imagine the biologic mechanism by which Botox (which causes muscle atrophy) would make the mentalis muscle bigger nor make the chin look stronger by muscle relaxation. But I know one way to find out…do it and see what happens.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana