21 Sep 2023 | by Leonard Miller, MD, FACS, FRCS
Zoom and FaceTime meetings have definitely made patients more aware of their neck. But at Boston Center for Plastic Surgery, the neck has always been a critical component of our practice. One of the most common complaints that we hear about from patients is excess fat at the chin/neck juncture. This is an issue that affects both men and women, regardless of age. We have treated 16-year-olds for sub-mental fullness as well as 60-year-olds. What makes our neck liposuction different is that we use either a syringe or a fine cannula attached to a mechanical suctioning device to gently, and precisely remove the excess fat. This helps create a more defined jawline and can help your neck appear more lifted, attractive, and youthful. Not only is our procedure completely safe, but it delivers consistent, predictable outcomes. It’s one of the many reasons why our patients are so happy with their results.
Benefits of Our Neck Liposuction Technique
One of the hallmarks of a Board-Certified plastic surgeon such as myself and Dr. Doherty is that we are constantly looking for new and better ways to meet our patients’ needs. This is why we developed our neck liposuction technique as it delivers all of the benefits of liposuction without the significant downtime. Neck liposuction is still the gold standard for removing excess fat. The downside for patients has always been the downtime. But the non-surgical alternatives for addressing sub-mental fullness do not always deliver on their promise.
See more patients »Kybella®, an injectable that was specifically developed to address submental fullness, and CoolSculpting®, a non-surgical procedure to remove excess fat anywhere on the body, have both been marketed as a no-downtime alternative to neck liposuction. However, the results are often underwhelming compared to what you get with liposuction to the neck. Even if the percentage of improvement is not what you hoped, your neck liposuction results will still be far superior to anything you could get with either Kybella® or CoolSculpting®. Furthermore, these non-invasive treatments can result in:
- Scarring
- Unpredictable results
- Irregularities
- Remaining pockets of fat
- Expensive as require multiple treatments
Ideal Candidate for Our Neck Liposuction Technique
The key to an exemplary result with any aesthetic procedure is proper patient selection. Not everyone with a full or sagging neck is a good candidate for neck liposuction. For some patients, the appearance of fullness is actually not due to fat, but to the underlying neck structures such as protruding salivary glands. Others may not have enough subcutaneous fat at the chin/neck juncture to deliver a significant improvement with this technique. Also, if you have a large degree of skin laxity and/or “crepey” looking skin, we might not be able to deliver enough of a tightening effect. For some of these latter patients, we may combine neck liposuction with a radiofrequency (RF) procedure for skin tightening while for others, a surgical neck lift may be the best option.
The ideal candidate for our neck liposuction technique is any man or woman in:
- Good overall health
- Neck fullness that is the result of excess fat
- Enough skin elasticity to reform over your new contour
Benefits of Neck Liposuction
There are many advantages to addressing excess fat with neck liposuction. The procedure is:
- Fast
- Safe
- Produces predictable, consistent results
- No scar
- Less downtime than traditional liposuction
- One and done procedure
As an added benefit, the fat that is removed can be placed via fat grafting into areas that may have lost volume such as the mid-face. Neck liposuction is a fantastic stand-alone procedure, but as discussed, it can also be combined with another non-surgical procedure to address loose skin.
Improve Sagging Neck Skin with RF
As Boston Center for Plastic Surgery, we have decades of experience addressing the neck. We know what works and what does not. We also do everything possible, especially with our younger patients, to achieve the rejuvenating results of a neck lift without surgery. For this reason, we will often combine a neck liposuction procedure with a radiofrequency (RF) procedure such as:
Both are heat-based devices that work by inducing your own body to produce more collagen and elastin. The first plumps the skin while the latter tightens it. The result of this combination of neck liposuction and non-surgical skin tightening is akin to a non-surgical facelift in the appropriate candidate. Our years of experience give us a deep understanding of how the tissues of the neck respond to these minimally invasive procedures which is why we consistently achieve outstanding results for our patients without any negative side effects.
See more patients »To find out more about neck liposuction, or any other surgical or non-surgical procedure with Dr. Leonard Miller at the Boston Center for Plastic Surgery, contact us today or call (617) 735- 8735 to schedule a consultation.
