Salivary Gland Botox Under the Jaw, Explained

There are three pairs of major salivary glands. Two of them sit close enough to the skin to change the outline of the face when they are large, and these two are the glands meant when salivary gland Botox is discussed.

Which gland is treated, and at how many points, depends on where the fullness sits on your face. Glands can also swell because of a stone, an infection or another medical condition. A gland that is painful, hard, or swells up at mealtimes needs a medical check before any cosmetic injection is considered.

Saliva flows when nerve fibers release acetylcholine onto the gland cells. Botulinum toxin type A blocks that release, the same step it blocks between a nerve and a muscle. In medicine this effect is used to reduce drooling. The cosmetic aim is a smaller gland: with less signal reaching it, the gland works less and its volume can shrink, which is meant to soften the fullness along and below the jaw.

Evidence for the cosmetic use is thin. The two reviews cited on this page pool botulinum toxin type A across many uses and do not report salivary glands separately, so this page gives no gland-specific rate of effect or of side effects. The clinic's timing guidance covers wrinkle areas, the jaw muscle, the trapezius and the calves, and it has no separate figure for how soon a salivary gland result shows or how long it holds. Ask about both when the area is planned.

Both treatments work on the lower face near the jaw angle, and the price list places them on one line together with the temple. The tissue is what sets them apart. The masseter is a chewing muscle, and relaxing it slims a jaw that is wide because the muscle is thick. A salivary gland is soft glandular tissue, and quieting its nerve supply is aimed at a fullness that does not change when you bite.

A short sequence helps you work out which one is behind the shape you see:

Each area on the list is charged as its own line, so a plan covering the masseter and the salivary glands adds two lines to the quote.

The needle points react as they do with any toxin injection: bruising, swelling, raised bumps and stinging for 2–3 days by the clinic's guidance. Other effects follow from the gland making less saliva. The mouth can feel drier, saliva can turn thicker, and food can feel harder to move around while chewing.

Nearby muscles explain the rest. The submandibular glands lie close to the floor-of-mouth muscles that help with swallowing, and toxin reaching them can make swallowing feel effortful. The parotid gland lies over the masseter, so chewing can tire. These effects last while the toxin is active and fade as it wears off. Across facial treatment trials, adverse events with toxin were more frequent than with placebo, and they were mild to moderate in degree (Jia, 2016).

Aftercare follows the clinic's Botox guidance. Stay upright for three to four hours after the injections, keep face washing light that evening, and leave makeup until the next day. You can fly four hours after treatment. Sip water through the day if your mouth feels dry. Trouble swallowing or breathing, or weakness spreading beyond the jaw, needs urgent care first and a message to the clinic afterward.