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Dr. Bita Farrell, a board-certified doctor with over two decades of experience under her belt (and a solid fan base of more than 268,000 Instagram followers), decided to turn herself into her own personal “lab rat” — all in the spirit of education and science.

Instead of going with the typical approach of treating the whole face evenly, she took a more eye-opening route. She injected Botox into just one half of her face to clearly show the effects of the treatment in real time.

So yes — only one side of her face received Botox while the other side was left completely untreated. And to top it off, she documented the entire process and shared the dramatic results online.

A doctor injected half her face with botox to show the results.Andreas Rentz / Getty
Exactly two weeks before her now-viral post, Dr. Farrell injected Botox into the lower muscles on the right side of her face. This included the DAO, which is the muscle responsible for pulling down the corners of your mouth, and the platysma, which impacts expressions and mouth movement.

“Now for you, two weeks later, I present my results as I try and contract my lower face muscles.” she shared with her followers during the video update.

The difference it made was pretty shocking.

Botox is often thought of as a cosmetic procedure, but it is also used for medical reasons.Don Murray / Getty
When she appeared on camera, it was clear as day. Her left side — the one that hadn’t been touched was way more expressive, with all the natural muscle movement still going strong. In contrast, the right side that had been injected looked noticeably stiffer and didn’t move much at all.

“You can see that the platysma muscle on this [left] side is really contracting and pulling my jawline down, and so is my DAO, pulling the corner of my mouth down.” she explained to help people understand what was happening.

Then, gesturing toward her right side, which had been treated, she added with effort: “I’m really trying to pull this side!”

She didn’t stop there. Dr. Farrell pointed out the more subtle changes too, the ones that might go unnoticed unless you were really paying attention: “See that this cheek rides a bit higher, this nasal labial fold seems softer and so does my shadow at the marionette on this side.”

In the caption of her video, she gave a helpful breakdown to explain the science behind all of it: “Muscles of the face either pull up or pull down.”

“When the muscles that pull the lower face down (platysma and DAO) are injected and relaxed with a Neuromodulator such as Botox, the muscle that pulls the mid face up (zygomaticus or cheek muscle) dominates and pulls the face up!”

“This can help reduce the appearance of marionette lines, jowls, frown (rbf, or sad face), and the nasolabial folds. It also lifts the neck and can sharpen the jawline and make the cheeks appear a bit fuller and more lifted.”

 

 

She also mentioned that the results usually stick around for about three to four months. Plus, they can be achieved using any neuromodulator that’s been approved by the FDA.

And no, she didn’t plan to walk around with an uneven face for the long haul — that was never the intention.

“Now, I better go inject the other side to even things out!” she joked, keeping things lighthearted.

As expected, the reaction online was huge.

One user wrote: “This is so educational and you are AMAZING!”

Another follower chimed in: “Wow… a doctor willing to show a test comparison on themself? That just gained a lot of my respect. Thank you Doc!”

A third viewer added their own thoughts: “Un-injected side looked way better! I was surprised when she said the other side. Thanks for the demo!”

And finally, someone summed it up perfectly: “This is an amazing demonstration of the effects of Botox. It really is amazing! Thanks for doing this. I am actually shocked to see how big of a difference it makes.”

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