| I will try anything to stop clenching my jaw. For years, my go-to was Masseter Botox, a paralytic injection into the masseter muscle to temporarily block it from contracting and cause it to atrophy. But more recently, I’ve tried to look inward and identify the root cause of my clench.
Along my long and grinding road, I tried a buccal massage. After a gentle cleanse, facialist Riley Welch (who does house visits; so deluxe!) popped on a pair of blue gloves like she was about to perform an appendectomy and got to work, massaging the inside and outside of my mouth simultaneously. It felt like assisted stretching for your cheeks and jaw—mostly nice, but sometimes a bit more painful than you’d expect.
Yes, my jaw felt relaxed after, but there was another benefit, too. The treatment doubled as a lymphatic drainage massage, so my undereyes also looked less puffy and my cheekbones seemed better defined. I immediately booked a second session for next month. |
