Botox and Filler
The injection takes a few minutes. The conversations around it take much longer, and they're where people I know, me included, have come unstuck.
One conversation happens before anyone picks up a needle: what, exactly, are we treating? The other happens in the two days afterwards, usually alone, usually at night, holding the photocopied sheet up to the bathroom light. This section is about those two conversations, not the few minutes in between.
Two pages, two different moments
Masseter Botox for Jaw Clenching covers the before. People arrive with a sore jaw and morning headaches, and sometimes leave having talked mostly about a slimmer face. It's the same product in the same muscle. The page is about keeping the appointment on the reason you came in with, and about what weakening a chewing muscle actually feels like over the following weeks.
What to Avoid After Filler covers the after. The instruction sheet has a long list of don'ts, and I've boiled them down to the handful of reasons behind them. Once you know the reason, you can answer a question the sheet never thought of, like whether a tight cycling helmet counts or whether you can hold the phone against your cheek.
The difference, said the way I say it at the kitchen table
A neuromodulator is a message to a muscle. It says: pull less hard. The skin above that muscle creases less because it's being folded less. Nothing is added to your face.
Filler is a material. It's a gel that sits under the skin and takes up room where your own support has thinned. Something is added, and for the first day or two it can still be pushed about.
That's why the aftercare is so different. With the first, you're mostly waiting for a message to arrive. With the second, you're protecting something soft that hasn't settled yet.
Small practical things
If the day after a treatment is best spent somewhere calm, where nobody will ask about your face, the Union City Public Library – Books, Digital Resources, Commuinty Events and More! has quiet tables and doesn't mind if you sit there for hours. Before you plan the trip, check The Official Website of City of Union City, NJ - Home for holiday hours and anything that might close a street on your route.
Students keep asking me about timing around term. If you're at Stevens Institute of Technology or anywhere else with a hard exam calendar, don't book filler in the week before something you'll be photographed at. A bruise can take a week to fade, and there's no way of knowing in advance whether you'll get one.
Which to read first
Booking for jaw pain: start with the masseter page, and take its questions to the consultation. Already treated with filler and nervous tonight: go straight to the aftercare page and find the short list at the bottom. If anything on that list is happening, stop reading and phone the practice.
If you haven't chosen a practice yet, one Hoboken option posts its address and hours at https://myethosspa.com/locations/hoboken-nj/, which is worth reading before you book either injection.