You still like your face. You would just like a little less of it at the corners of your jaw. Or you wake up with a tight, tired jaw and have started to notice the muscle that causes it is getting bigger. Masseter Botox® handles both.
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Medical illustration, not a patient photograph.
The Treatment
The masseter is the muscle you feel bulge when you bite down hard. It is one of the strongest muscles in the body for its size, and like any muscle it grows with use. Years of clenching, night grinding, gum chewing or simply genetics leave many people with a masseter thick enough to widen the lower face and give the jaw a square, heavy outline.
Botox is a neuromodulator. Placed precisely into the masseter, it reduces the signal that tells the muscle to contract at full force. Two things follow. The muscle gradually loses bulk because it is no longer working as hard, which is the slimming effect. And because it cannot clench with the same force, the soreness and tension that come with heavy clenching tend to ease along the way.
Two kinds of people book this treatment. Some want a softer, narrower lower face and a jawline that reads as refined rather than wide. Others mostly want relief from a jaw that is always working, and are pleased to find the slimming comes with it. Most patients are somewhere in between, and the treatment does not make you choose.
What masseter Botox is not
It is not a jawline lift, it does not add definition, and it does not change bone. If your goal is a sharper, more defined jawline rather than a slimmer one, the Nefertiti Lift is the treatment to look at, and the two are compared further down this page.
Masseter Botox Cost in Scottsdale
Jaw slimming at Avinity is $549 for women and $649 for men. That price covers both sides, every unit your masseters need, and a complimentary refinement visit at two weeks.
Most Scottsdale clinics price Botox differently. They quote $10 to $18 per unit, and the final bill depends on how many units your injector uses. For a forehead that variation is modest. For the masseter, which takes roughly three times the units of a forehead, it is the difference between a pleasant surprise and an unpleasant one. A man whose jaw takes 60 units at $18 pays a very different number than one who takes 40 at $10, and neither of them knew which they would be until the vial was drawn.
What one masseter treatment costs, per-unit clinics versus Avinity
Based on rates advertised by Scottsdale-area med spas as of September 2026.
Two things stand out. First, the spread is wide: a man could pay $400 or $1,080 for the same area depending on the clinic's rate and how many units his injector decides to use. Second, the masseter is where a low per-unit rate hides the most. A $10 unit sounds inexpensive until 60 of them go in, and some clinics run promotions below this range that make the headline number look better still while the unit count does the real work.
Avinity is not trying to be the cheapest place in Scottsdale for masseter Botox, and it does not compete on the per-unit number. Its flat price sits inside that range rather than under it. What it removes is the unknown, and it includes the follow-up visit that a per-unit clinic would bill as more units.
Dosing
More than almost any other area on the face. The masseter is a thick, powerful chewing muscle, so slimming it takes roughly three times the Botox a forehead does. Most women need 35 to 40 units across both sides, and most men need 40 to 60. Compare that with 10 to 17.5 units for a woman's forehead and it is clear why the masseter is the area where the way a clinic prices matters most.
Botox units by area, both sides
Botox units only. Dysport runs on its own, larger unit scale and is not plotted here.
Avinity offers Botox, Dysport® and Jeuveau® for the masseter. Unit counts are not interchangeable between brands, so a number that sounds high for Dysport is not a bigger dose, just a different scale.
| Brand | Women, both sides | Men, both sides |
|---|---|---|
| Botox | 35 to 40 units | 40 to 60 units |
| Jeuveau | 35 to 40 units | 40 to 60 units |
| Dysport | 88 to 100 units | 100 to 150 units |
Dysport uses roughly two and a half times the unit count of Botox for the same result. That is why a per-unit Dysport quote cannot be compared with a per-unit Botox quote without doing the conversion first, and why the $10 to $18 per unit figure on this page applies to Botox units only. The full dosing chart by area and brand covers every area, not just this one.
| Units (Botox) | At $10 to $18 per unit | Avinity, one price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women | 35 to 40 | $350 to $720 | $549 |
| Men | 40 to 60 | $400 to $1,080 | $649 |
Based on rates advertised by Scottsdale-area med spas as of September 2026.
At Avinity, jaw slimming is $549 for women and $649 for men, and that price includes every unit the result needs. If your masseter takes 40 units or 60, the price does not change. You know the total before you sit down, not after.
Every masseter treatment also includes a complimentary refinement visit at two weeks. The masseter responds gradually, and the first check-in is where Emily sees whether the two sides are relaxing evenly and whether anything needs a touch. At a per-unit clinic, that visit is more units at the same rate. At Avinity it is part of the price.
That is the whole difference in one sentence: a per-unit clinic sells you units and you find out the price at the end; Avinity sells you the result and you know the price at the start. It is the argument behind area pricing versus per-unit pricing, and the masseter is where it bites hardest. For the other end of the scale, see how many units a forehead takes.
Relief or Slimming
Not every masseter treatment is aimed at the same result, and the dose follows the goal.
A Benefit Beyond Slimming
Many jaw slimming patients notice something in the first weeks that has nothing to do with the mirror: their jaw stops feeling tired. Morning tightness fades, they catch themselves clenching less at their desk, and partners report less grinding at night. That is the masseter working at lower force.
To be clear about what this is, and is not
Easing clenching is a side benefit of relaxing the masseter, not a separate treatment Avinity offers. Using Botox for jaw clenching, grinding or TMJ discomfort is an off-label use, and Botox is not FDA approved for temporomandibular joint disorder. It does not treat the jaw joint itself.
If your jaw clicks, locks, or hurts in a way you cannot explain, see a dentist or a TMJ specialist first rather than booking jaw slimming for it. If you wear a night guard, keep wearing it: the guard protects your teeth, and a relaxed masseter simply gives it less force to absorb.
Results
Masseter Botox is a slow reveal, and it helps to know the order things happen in.
The first change is one you feel rather than see. Within 3 to 5 days the muscle begins to relax, and by 10 to 14 days, when the product has fully settled, most patients notice their jaw is quieter. That is also when your refinement visit happens, so Emily can check both sides are responding evenly.
The visible change comes later. A muscle only slims once it has spent weeks not working at full strength, so the softening of the jaw angle typically shows over the following two to three months and continues to refine after that. Friends tend to say you look rested, or that you have lost weight, before anyone identifies the jaw.
Results build. The second and third treatments generally produce more slimming than the first, because the muscle has already lost some bulk and has less to rebuild between visits. A gallery of Avinity patient results will be added to this page as consented photographs become available.
Before treatment
After several monthsThe muscle begins to relax. Nothing visible yet.
Fully settled, and the complimentary refinement visit.
The jaw angle begins to soften as the muscle loses bulk.
More slimming than the first, from a muscle with less to rebuild.
Duration
Botox results at Avinity typically last 3 to 4 months. The masseter is a large muscle that has been deconditioned, so patients often find jaw slimming holds toward the longer end of that range: strength takes time to rebuild even after the product itself has worn off.
Patients who stay on a regular schedule usually find each treatment lasts longer than the one before, and many settle into a maintenance rhythm spaced further apart than it was at the start. Emily will suggest a schedule at your refinement visit, once your masseters have shown how they respond. For the wider picture, see how long Botox lasts by area.
Side Effects
Masseter Botox is well tolerated, and most of what patients notice in the first weeks is the muscle adjusting rather than a complication. The common, expected effects are mild bruising or tenderness at the injection sites, which resolve within days, and a feeling of chewing fatigue with tough or chewy foods during the first two to three weeks as the masseter gets used to working at lower force.
Two things deserve an honest answer, because they are the reason people hesitate.
The two masseters are rarely identical to begin with, and they can relax at slightly different rates. This is exactly what the two-week refinement visit is for. Emily checks both sides once the product has settled and evens them out if needed, at no extra cost.
The masseter sits close to the risorius and zygomaticus muscles that pull the corners of your mouth when you smile, the muscles marked 3 in the illustration at the top of this page. If product spreads to them, the smile can look flatter or uneven on one side for several weeks. This is uncommon and temporary, and it is almost entirely a matter of placement and dose, which is why injector experience matters more for the masseter than for most areas. Emily maps each patient's muscle borders at the consultation before treating.
Less common effects include a small bulge at the front of the muscle when biting down, which appears in a minority of patients and resolves as the rest of the muscle catches up, and a temporary feeling that the bite is weaker than usual. Serious complications are rare. Your consultation covers your history, current medications and anything that would make treatment inadvisable.
Masseter Botox for Men
Men make up a meaningful share of masseter patients, and their goals usually differ. Few want a narrower jaw. Most want relief from clenching, or want to soften a jaw that has become disproportionately heavy, without losing the width that reads as masculine.
The plan reflects that. Men's masseters are larger and stronger on average, which is why jaw slimming for men is its own area price ($649) rather than a surcharge on the women's treatment: the price covers the larger muscle in full, at 40 to 60 units or whatever it actually takes. Emily can dose for force reduction with minimal slimming, or for gradual softening of the jaw angle while keeping the outline, depending on which you want. Say so at the consultation and the plan is built around it.
Two Jaw Treatments
Both treatments change how the jaw looks, and patients often ask for one when they mean the other. The difference is simple: one slims, the other defines. Different muscles, different results.
Masseter Botox (Jaw Slimming)
Reduces the bulk of the chewing muscle so the lower face narrows and the jaw angle softens. Choose it when your jaw looks too wide or too square, or when clenching is the problem.
$549 women · $649 men
Nefertiti Lift (Jawline Definition)
Releases the downward pull of the platysma bands in the neck, so the jawline edge reads sharper and more lifted. Choose it when your jawline looks soft or blurred rather than wide.
$299 women · $329 men
Some patients benefit from both: a slimmer masseter and a crisper jawline. Emily will tell you at the facial assessment which one, or which combination, fits what you are describing. Both appear on the full Botox treatment menu.
Medical illustrations, not patient photographs. Arrows show the direction of the effect, not injection sites.
Patient Experiences
Why It Matters Here
It takes more product than any other cosmetic site on the face, it sits beside the muscles that shape your smile, and the two sides have to be balanced against each other. Where you get it done matters more here than for a forehead.
Founder & Clinical Director
Emily Dawson, DHA, MBA, MSN, RN
Emily is Avinity's founder, Clinical Director and nurse injector. She has spent more than fifteen years building and overseeing clinical systems in post-acute care, most recently as Corporate Director of Quality Assurance at Sun Health, and holds a Doctorate in Healthcare Administration from MCPHS University, where she received the Distinguished Student Award, along with an MBA and an MSN. She brings that same clinical rigour to the masseter: a documented assessment, a plan built for your muscle, and a refinement visit where she checks her own work.
Medical Director
Dr. Arun Lakshmipathy, MD
Dr. Lakshmipathy is a board-certified internist with more than 25 years of clinical experience who has served as medical director across multiple Phoenix senior communities and designed Avinity's IV therapy and health optimization protocols. He provides the medical oversight for aesthetic treatment at Avinity, so your masseter plan sits inside a physician-guided practice rather than a retail injectable menu.
Meet the Avinity team, or read how to choose a Botox provider in Scottsdale.
Your Appointment
Plan on 15 to 30 minutes.
Assessment
Emily feels both masseters while you clench, mapping their size, borders and any difference between sides. You talk through your goal, slimming, relief or both, and she builds the dose plan from that.
Treatment
A few minutes. A handful of small injections into each masseter; most patients describe a brief pinch. No numbing is needed and you can go straight back to your day.
Refinement at two weeks
You feel the muscle begin to relax within 3 to 5 days. At 10 to 14 days you come back so Emily can check both sides have responded evenly, at no extra cost.
For the rest of the treatment day, avoid rubbing or massaging the jaw, skip strenuous exercise, and stay upright for a few hours.
Questions
It should not, and with careful placement it does not. The muscles that shape your smile sit near the masseter, and if product reaches them the smile can look flatter on one side for a few weeks. It is uncommon and temporary, and it is why the masseter is an area where injector experience matters. Emily maps the muscle borders before treating.
Typically 35 to 40 units of Botox for women and 40 to 60 for men, split between both sides. Dysport uses a different scale, about 88 to 100 units for women and 100 to 150 for men. At Avinity the price is per area, so the unit count does not change what you pay.
The masseter is a much larger muscle and takes roughly three times the units of a forehead. At a per-unit clinic that means a higher total; at Avinity it means a higher flat price ($549 for women, $649 for men) that already includes every unit and the complimentary two-week refinement visit.
Most patients notice the jaw angle begin to soften over the first two to three months, and the second and third treatments build on the first. If a clearly slimmer lower face is the goal, plan on a series rather than a single visit.
A few small injections into each side. Most patients describe a brief pinch. No numbing is needed and you can return to your day immediately.
Yes. You may notice tough or chewy foods take a little more effort for the first two to three weeks as the muscle adjusts. Normal chewing and speaking are not affected.
Yes. Many patients combine areas in one appointment, and each area is priced separately at its own flat rate. The full treatment menu lists every area and its price.
No. Results last several months and the muscle slowly regains strength after the product wears off, although patients on a regular schedule often find each treatment holds longer than the last.
It can ease clenching and the jaw tension that goes with it, and some patients report fewer tension-type headaches as a result. That is a side benefit of relaxing the masseter, not a TMJ treatment. Botox is not FDA approved for TMJ disorder and does not treat the joint. If you have jaw clicking, locking or unexplained pain, see a dentist or TMJ specialist first.
No. Avinity is a direct-pay clinic and does not bill insurance for this treatment.
Both work well and both are available at Avinity. They differ in unit scale and slightly in how they spread and how quickly they take effect. Emily will recommend one based on your muscle and your history with either product, and the price per area is the same either way.
Masseter Botox slims: it relaxes the chewing muscle so the lower face narrows. The Nefertiti Lift defines: it releases the downward pull along the jaw so the jawline edge reads sharper. Different muscles, different results. Jaw slimming is $549 for women and $649 for men; the Nefertiti Lift is $299 and $329.
Masseter Botox Near You
Avinity Health is on N. Scottsdale Road in North Scottsdale, near Gainey Ranch, McCormick Ranch, Kierland and Paradise Valley. Tell us whether you want a slimmer jaw, a quieter one, or both. Emily maps your masseters, builds the plan, and gives you one price for the whole result, refinement visit included.
11000 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 100
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Saturday, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Sunday, closed
Botox®, Dysport® and Jeuveau® are registered trademarks of their respective manufacturers. Treatment of the masseter is an off-label use of botulinum toxin. This page is general information, not medical advice, and individual results vary. Suitability is determined at a clinical consultation.
