Comedian and Summer House alum Hannah Berner says a bad reaction to botox injections she gets to treat jaw pain left her temporarily unable to fully smile, an incident she has nicknamed the "masseter massacre."
Berner told the New York Times, in an interview published Aug. 16, that she came to appreciate how much the mishap made people laugh, even though she was rattled at the time. "I'm so happy that it was making people laugh because I was disturbed," she said. "I was upset. I had jobs on the line."
Berner, 35, receives botox in her masseter muscles, which connect the cheeks to the jaw, to treat temporomandibular joint disorder, commonly known as TMJ. This was her third round of the treatment. She explained on her Giggly Squad podcast in June that she clenches her teeth badly and sometimes wakes up with headaches, which the Mayo Clinic lists as a common symptom linked to the disorder.
The "Masseter Massacre"
Berner said the reaction made smiling "felt like weightlifting." Looking back, she said she had an uneasy feeling before the injections even happened.
"I remember something in my soul was like, 'Get out of here,'" she recalled on the June 26 episode of her podcast. "But 34 years old, the people pleaser in me, she's so strong."
Berner also said she went in without researching the procedure and had no idea facial side effects were possible. "I did not know there were risks to this procedure. I've never heard of a risk. I didn't know this could happen," she said. "I remember thinking, 'What could go wrong?'"
Finding the Silver Lining
Once her altered expression started circulating as a meme among her fans, Berner said she began to see an upside to not being able to smile as widely as she normally does.
"I do smile a lot, and not that it's bad," she told the New York Times, "but I think there's situations where I learned you actually don't have to smile and you could just sit in a moment."
Berner said the mishap threw off her summer plans but also reignited her drive to work. "The fact that the whole community came together to be like 'This is the funniest thing' made me remember why I do comedy," she said, "which is to be vulnerable about what you're going through and make other people feel less bad about the stuff they're going through."
Berner's TV and Podcast Career
Berner is best known as a former cast member of Bravo's Summer House, the reality series following a group of friends who share a summer rental in the Hamptons. She now co-hosts the podcast Giggly Squad, where she regularly discusses her personal life alongside her stand-up work.
TMJ disorders affect the joint connecting the jawbone to the skull and can cause pain, headaches and jaw clenching, according to the Mayo Clinic. Botox injected into the masseter muscles is a treatment some patients use to relax jaw tension linked to the condition, though it is more widely known as a cosmetic treatment for wrinkles.
