Botox Units Per Area: Which Doses the FDA Actually Approved
Reviewed for medical accuracy against our Medical Review Board · Last updated 1 September 2026
Part of Botox Guides: Basics, Dosing and Safety
Every chart of this kind you will find online mixes two completely different things: doses the FDA has actually approved, and doses injectors have settled on by convention. This one separates them, because the difference decides whether a number is a regulatory fact or an opinion.
Only 7 of these 24 areas have a dose the FDA has approved. Four are cosmetic: glabellar lines, forehead lines, crow's feet and platysma bands. Three are medical: chronic migraine, underarm sweating and overactive bladder. Every other row on this page, including masseter, is off-label. That does not make those treatments wrong or unsafe, and off-label use is legal and routine. It does mean no regulator has reviewed a dose for them, so the numbers come from practice rather than from a trial.
The chart
Doses in the approved column are quoted from the BOTOX and BOTOX Cosmetic prescribing information. Where no approved dose exists, this chart does not offer a substitute number. That is deliberate. Every other chart of this kind fills that gap with a "typical" range it cannot source, and a number with no origin is not more useful than an honest blank, it is less.
Showing 24 of 24 areas
| Treatment area | FDA status | Approved dose | Injection sites | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glabellar lines (frown lines, "11s") | FDA approved | 20 Units | 5 sites, 4 U each | 3 to 4 months |
| Forehead lines | FDA approved | 40 Units total 20 U forehead plus 20 U glabellar, together | 5 forehead + 5 glabellar | 3 to 4 months |
| Crow’s feet (lateral canthal lines) | FDA approved | 24 Units | 3 sites per side, 6 points | 3 to 4 months |
| Platysma bands (neck bands) | FDA approved | 26, 31 or 36 Units depends on how many vertical bands are treated | 4 upper sites per side + 5 per band | 3 to 4 months |
| Chronic migraine | FDA approved | 155 Units | 31 sites | about 3 months |
| Underarm sweating (axillary hyperhidrosis) | FDA approved | 50 Units per armpit | multiple intradermal sites | 6 to 12 months |
| Overactive bladder | FDA approved | 100 Units | cystoscopic, into the bladder wall | about 6 months |
| Masseter (jaw slimming, TMJ) | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 3 per side | Not established |
| Brow lift | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 2 per side | Not established |
| Bunny lines | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 1 to 2 per side | Not established |
| Lip flip | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 4 to 6 | Not established |
| Vertical lip lines | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 4 | Not established |
| Gummy smile | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 1 to 2 per side | Not established |
| DAO (downturned mouth corners) | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 1 per side | Not established |
| Chin dimpling (pebble chin) | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 1 to 2 | Not established |
| Marionette lines | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 1 per side | Not established |
| Nefertiti lift | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: along the jawline | Not established |
| Trapezius (shoulder slimming) | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 3 to 5 per side | Not established |
| Under-eye (jelly roll) | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 1 to 2 per side | Not established |
| Nasolabial folds (upper) | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 1 per side | Not established |
| Nose tip / nasal slimming | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 1 to 2 | Not established |
| TMJ and jaw clenching | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 3 per side | Not established |
| Bruxism (teeth grinding) | Off-label | No approved dose | convention: 3 per side | Not established |
| Palm sweating (palmar hyperhidrosis) | Off-label | No approved dose | many intradermal sites | Not established |
The forehead row is the one to read twice
There is no approved standalone forehead dose. The label approves 20 Units across five forehead sites administered together with 20 Units across five glabellar sites, for a recommended total of 40 Units. The glabella is not optional in that instruction.
The reason is mechanical. The frontalis muscle lifts your brows; the glabellar complex pulls them down. Relax the lifter and leave the depressors working and the brow can drop, which is the heavy, hooded look people describe after forehead treatment. Charts that list forehead as "15 units" are describing half of a treatment.
What to ask. If you are quoted a forehead treatment, ask whether the glabella is included and how many units go to each. A quote of 15 or 20 units for "forehead" alone is below the label total and worth querying, not because it is necessarily wrong, but because you should know which of the two muscle groups you are paying to treat.
Masseter has no approved dose at all
Masseter injection for jaw slimming or clenching is one of the most searched treatments in this category and it appears nowhere in the BOTOX label. The commonly reported 20 to 50 Units per side comes entirely from clinical practice.
Again, that is not a warning against it. It is the reason the published ranges are so wide: with no approved dose there is no reference point, so every clinic sets its own. Our masseter guide covers what the evidence does and does not show, and our TMJ page covers the jaw-pain indication separately.
Why the ranges are so wide
Even for approved areas, what you receive varies. The factors that actually move the number:
- Muscle mass. Larger, stronger muscles need more product. This is the main reason men are often dosed higher than women for the same area.
- Whether you have been treated before. Many injectors start a first-time patient below the typical dose deliberately, because adding at a two-week review is easy and removing is impossible.
- How much movement you want left. A softened result uses less than a fully relaxed one, and this is a preference rather than a clinical decision.
- Which product. Units are not interchangeable between brands. A Dysport unit is not a BOTOX unit, and both labels say so. See Dysport units versus BOTOX units.
How to use this page at a consultation
- Find your area and check the FDA status column first. Approved or off-label changes what kind of question to ask.
- For approved areas, compare your quote to the label dose. A large gap either way deserves an explanation, and a good injector will have one.
- For off-label areas, ask what the practitioner's own dosing is based on. Experience is a legitimate answer. "It's the standard dose" is not, because there isn't one.
- Ask for units per area, not a package price. Our units guide and calculator converts units into cost at real published clinic rates.
Frequently asked questions
How many Botox areas have an FDA-approved dose?
How many units for forehead lines?
How many units for masseter Botox?
Is off-label Botox use legal?
Why does my clinic quote fewer units than the label says?
Do these unit numbers apply to Dysport or Xeomin?
Sources
Every figure on this page was read from the documents below rather than from a clinic or a manufacturer's marketing. They open in a new tab so you can check any claim here against its source.
- BOTOX Cosmetic prescribing information, dosage and administration, DailyMed, US National Library of Medicine
- openFDA drug label API, US Food and Drug Administration
- BOTOX / BOTOX Cosmetic safety information, US Food and Drug Administration
- Botulinum toxin, American Society of Plastic Surgeons
Know the count before the quote. The unit count is half the bill, and a low per-unit rate recovered by a high unit count is the commonest way a deal is not one. How to tell.
Deciding which area, not how many units? Botox by facial area covers what each zone actually achieves, which four are FDA approved, and the things Botox cannot fix at all.
