Enlarging the jaw muscles (masseters)

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#1 Post by **Sidney** » Fri Oct 15, 2010 8:57 am

I know that a lot of people on this forum have a long face and are bothered by this.

One possible way to fix this is if you were able to enlarge the muscles on the sides of your lower jaw (masseters). This is something that happens in people who grind their teeth at night and sometimes it happens for unclear reasons, seemingly spontaneously.

If you google "masseter hypertrophy" or "masseteric hypertrophy" you can read about this and see before and after (treatment with botox injections) pictures.

My question is, does anyone know any safe way to induce this. If you chew chewy food, it can do the trick, but you're putting yourself at risk for TMJ problems.

I've read about exercises that people who actually do have TMJ problems do, so presumably they should be safe, but would they be enough to enlarge the muscles?

#2 Post by **VA5** » Fri Oct 15, 2010 5:34 pm

This is an interesting post. Because I am attempting to enlarge those muscles on one side of my face that I feel has "atrophied" a bit after getting braces. At first, I thought it was due to extractions, and then I thought it was due to a molar I lost on that side. I'm sure both of these scenarios didn't help... but what I'm realizing now, is that I have not used that side of my mouth, almost at all, to chew food since I started braces, which is almost 2 years!!! The reason being, at first my molars on that side felt really loose and felt particularly "sore", and then later I got an implant put in on that side too, and then... I have an elastic on only that side too to treat a midline shift. It's a lot harder to eat on the side with the elastic, hence... these last 2 years I have been eating mostly on the other side.

I actually really HOPE this is why the neglected side looks sunken in, and that I can indeed do something about it, by exercising the muscles as you are talking about. I will google and see what I can find, b/c other than exercises, I've been trying to chew gum on the neglected side whenever I can, but I am not a regular gum chewer so I have not been doing that consistently at all.

#3 Post by **Sidney** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 2:26 am

VA5 wrote:This is an interesting post. Because I am attempting to enlarge those muscles on one side of my face that I feel has "atrophied" a bit after getting braces. At first, I thought it was due to extractions, and then I thought it was due to a molar I lost on that side. I'm sure both of these scenarios didn't help... but what I'm realizing now, is that I have not used that side of my mouth, almost at all, to chew food since I started braces, which is almost 2 years!!! The reason being, at first my molars on that side felt really loose and felt particularly "sore", and then later I got an implant put in on that side too, and then... I have an elastic on only that side too to treat a midline shift. It's a lot harder to eat on the side with the elastic, hence... these last 2 years I have been eating mostly on the other side.

I actually really HOPE this is why the neglected side looks sunken in, and that I can indeed do something about it, by exercising the muscles as you are talking about. I will google and see what I can find, b/c other than exercises, I've been trying to chew gum on the neglected side whenever I can, but I am not a regular gum chewer so I have not been doing that consistently at all.

VA5, from my research, that will do it.

The question is whether the weak side is atrophied or the strong side has enlarged, or both.

Enlargement is easier to deal with, it's done by botox injections to make the muscle atrophy.

I have not, as of yet, found a safe way to enlarge the muscles, so I don't know what you could do if your case is a matter of atrophy. I guess you could atrophy the other muscle as well, but that would probably be unaesthetic.

If you find something, please let me know.

#4 Post by **drrick** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 8:01 am

Interesting.

In essence the next result would be posterior intrusion from the stronger biting force. I could see this as quite possibly causing some muscular pain, TMD, etc since that is often a cause for it in the forst place.
FWIW, I have has some success w/ botox in relieving 'hyperactive' muscles before but have never tried to strengthen the jaw musculature.

#5 Post by **Sidney** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 8:35 am

drrick wrote:Interesting.

In essence the next result would be posterior intrusion from the stronger biting force. I could see this as quite possibly causing some muscular pain, TMD, etc since that is often a cause for it in the forst place.
FWIW, I have has some success w/ botox in relieving 'hyperactive' muscles before but have never tried to strengthen the jaw musculature.

Dr, can you think of any possible way this could be done?

#6 Post by **drrick** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 8:51 am

Many years ago when I was in school they were experimenting with an electronic stimulus device that used implanted electrodes into the masseter and every so often it would fire causing the muscles to clench. The goal was to intrude the posterior teeth. I dont think it ever came to be but seems would reach a similar goal to what you are looking for.

Nowadays they tend to do more posterior intrusion with TADS and sx than devices like this.

I do not think you could really 'exercise' the jaw elevators enough to make much difference and if you did you would be far more likely to have the side effects of clenching -- jaw pain, headaches, migraines, etc.

#7 Post by **Sidney** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:38 am

drrick wrote:Many years ago when I was in school they were experimenting with an electronic stimulus device that used implanted electrodes into the masseter and every so often it would fire causing the muscles to clench. The goal was to intrude the posterior teeth. I dont think it ever came to be but seems would reach a similar goal to what you are looking for.

Nowadays they tend to do more posterior intrusion with TADS and sx than devices like this.

I do not think you could really 'exercise' the jaw elevators enough to make much difference and if you did you would be far more likely to have the side effects of clenching -- jaw pain, headaches, migraines, etc.

Thanks for the answer, dr!

#8 Post by **VA5** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:33 pm

You can't just chew food more on one side than another? In my case, where I do believe I have atrophied the muscles on one side by not eating on that side for almost 2 years.. can I not just make sure to chew food more on that side from here on out? Will that not make a difference?

#9 Post by **VA5** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:35 pm

I guess where I'm coming from.. some people have enlarged muscles there from chewing too much gum, for example. Won't doing this on that one side result in a larger side, and maybe balance it all out a little bit?? Is it possible?

#10 Post by **Sidney** » Sun Oct 17, 2010 6:50 am

My guess would be that you could do that.

Mmasseter enlargement (hypertrophy is the medical term) is more common in Asian people, supposedly because they eat a lot of chewy foods.

People who grind their teeth at night (bruxism) get hypertrophy.

It seems safe to assume that you could induce hypertrophy by exercising the muscles through chewing (a pack of gum at a time, or whatever), but the question is is this safe. Does anyone know?

#11 Post by **VA5** » Sun Oct 17, 2010 4:30 pm

Sidney wrote:My guess would be that you could do that.

Mmasseter enlargement (hypertrophy is the medical term) is more common in Asian people, supposedly because they eat a lot of chewy foods.

People who grind their teeth at night (bruxism) get hypertrophy.

It seems safe to assume that you could induce hypertrophy by exercising the muscles through chewing (a pack of gum at a time, or whatever), but the question is is this safe. Does anyone know?

What would your main concerns be though.. tmj? What else is there to be concerned about? I am thinking that if you have tmj already, it could be a problem.. but what about for myself.. I do not and never have had tmj. What's the worse thing that could happen? If I develop tmj can it go away if I just stop or slow down the chewing?

#12 Post by **Sidney** » Mon Oct 18, 2010 2:52 am

VA5 wrote:
Sidney wrote:My guess would be that you could do that.

Mmasseter enlargement (hypertrophy is the medical term) is more common in Asian people, supposedly because they eat a lot of chewy foods.

People who grind their teeth at night (bruxism) get hypertrophy.

It seems safe to assume that you could induce hypertrophy by exercising the muscles through chewing (a pack of gum at a time, or whatever), but the question is is this safe. Does anyone know?
What would your main concerns be though.. tmj? What else is there to be concerned about? I am thinking that if you have tmj already, it could be a problem.. but what about for myself.. I do not and never have had tmj. What's the worse thing that could happen? If I develop tmj can it go away if I just stop or slow down the chewing?

Yes, TMJ is the only problem I can think of, but there could be other risks.

Now, I haven't researched this subject so I can't say, but my guess would be that slowing down the chewing wouldn't help as I'm assuming the TMJ, or one possible version of it, is due to wearing down of the joint.

#13 Post by **Sidney** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 3:32 pm

VA5, and anyone else interested in this subject, take a look at this:

http://www.dysphagiaplus.com/resource-l ... lation.pdf

Look at page 3, under the heading Jaw excercises look at 4.

Something like this could do the trick. This looks like a pretty credible source so hopefully that means this is safe and would not lead to TMJ, but I'm not convinced.

If there's anyone out there read up on TMJ who can lend some insight, it would be appreciated.

If anyone has any other ideas as to how to widen the lower face, even just vague possibilities that need investigation, please share.

#14 Post by **VA5** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 4:49 pm

Thanks Sidney,
I'll read this and give it a try! I was wondering what your ortho has said about this topic? I have a feeling a lot of doctors and orthos will not know how to help you, though. I think online searches is the best way and just doing things without too much aggression. I'll do some research too and let you know what i find.

#15 Post by **VA5** » Sat Oct 23, 2010 9:16 pm

This is one, will look more tomorrow.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/20718 ... l-muscles/