Camouflage vs corrective interventions

Otto Joseph Placik, MD answers: Effective and long-lasting procedure for lifting jowls?

What's the best way to get rid of jowls that are beginning to appear from the corners of my mouth down to my chin?  It's especially noticeable in my profile view. About a year ago, I had Restalyne treatments in the areas just below the corners of my mouth with only limited success. Is there any longer-lasting, more effective treatment specifically for "lifting" jowls? I'm 51 years old and have really good skin otherwise. I'm including two side by side pix after I was snorkeling in Aruba last spring, so I look really bad, but it pretty clearly shows the jowls issue.


Otto Joseph Placik, MD
9 months ago

There are many options and there is no one right answer. It may depend on your "appetite" for correction.

As you have had restylane, you are now familar with what we would call a camouflage procedure. These are interventions that compensate or mask the signs of aging without necessarily correcting the problem.

The jowls are a difficult area that are effected by the size and shape of the mandible (jaw bone), fatty deposits of the skin and buccal fat pad, skin and muscle laxity.

Other fillers are available such as Radiesse, Juvederm, Perlane, Sculptra, etc.

Skin tightening modalites such as Thermage, Titan, Accent, etc tend to use energy (radiofrequency) to contract the skin. This has met with mixed success and while some patients have demonstrated benefits it is difficult to achieve predicable consistent results.

Laser assisted lipolysis such as Smart-lipo, Cool touch, etc use a very fine laser cannula to destroy the fat and supposedly contract the skin but this is not a widely held belief among plastic surgeons.

Fat removal (open surgical excision of the neck or buccal fat extraction) or via liposuction is may provide you with some benefit especially in reducing the localized fullness in the neck/chin area.

Face lifts may provide you with the maximal benefit but tends to involve greater risk.

Adjunctive procedures such as a prejowl implant can also provide some enhancements in this area of your face and would achieve what the restylane accomplished on a more long term basis. Alternatively, you could consider lipoinjection in the prejowl area.

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