A woman’s first experience with Botox left her with a ‘fish gill’ appearance

A woman who had her first Botox injection describes the result as a “fish gill” and says she was nervous about the procedure.

The TikTok user Shelby Hooks (@shelby.kight) recently uploaded a video to the platform in which she reveals the results of her masseter Botox and exclaims, “What is happening with my masseter Botox?!

Having had Botox injected into her masseter to temporarily block nerve signals in the muscle, she showed how her jaw muscle had begun ‘popping out’ in the clip.

“Anyone here familiar with masseter Botox, or who does Botox professionally, please chime in,” she beckoned.

“I need assistance,”

Hooks then proceeded to demonstrate the response of her masseter muscle when she bit down, asking rhetorically, “What the hell is my masseter muscle doing?” 

One of her teeth is falling out as she clenches her jaw, but the corresponding tooth on the other side never seems to follow suit.

Something seems off about her initial masseter Botox procedure. In a way, she panicked.

The American healthcare worker said she had the procedure done to prevent teeth grinding, not for aesthetic reasons.

Her ‘Botox fail’ post has over 92,000 views and dozens of comments from other TikTok users, many of whom have shared their own experiences with the same or similar issues.

One person wrote: “Occasionally, one side of the muscle contracts before the other, producing the effect of a fish gill.”

Another person remarked, “I experienced this, but it subsided after two weeks and vanished.”

Another person said: “I’ve had it done twice. 30 units won’t be enough for you if your muscles were already powerful, to begin with. I think I receive 50 on each side.”

Hooks replied, “The injector said I had crazy strong masseters, lol,” which made perfect sense.

Another source, who said they were a senior instructor in aesthetics, echoed these ideas by saying that for a strong masseter muscle, there should be at least three points where anywhere from sixty units are injected.

Hooks reassured those who were worried about her health that it could be treated. After two weeks, the appearance of the fish gills had decreased by roughly 90%, and she merely administered a touch-up injection to correct the remaining 10%.

In most cases, this is a transitory problem that goes away within a few days of finishing treatment.

This typically occurs when the toxin dose is low or when only two of the three muscle layers were treated.

In the event that the issue has not resolved itself after two weeks, a small Botox touch-up may be performed.

Dentox is an instructional program for medical and aesthetic experts that teaches them how to inject Botox without causing undesirable side effects like fish gills. If you want additional information about Dentox programs, please contact Dr. Howard Katz.

You can also enroll in a live online or on-demand course or attend a seminar in person at one of the numerous sites across the United States. Please visit https://dentox.com/all-courses/botox-training/ for online courses and https://dentox.com/live-courses/ for live patient courses.