Hi bmoniz,
Depending on the person, a full necklift or a mini-necklift may be enough to take care of the neck profile and extra skin.
A necklift by definition requires some work on the platysma muscles (platysmaplasty), which are found in the neck. If the platysma muscles are not sew together (no platysmaplasty was performed), and liposuction only was performed then by definition, it should be called neck liposuction, and should not be called a necklift. Neckliposuction pricing is less expensive, since it takes less time and less effort.
A full necklift in New York may cost from $4-6000 and up. I offer this procedure with a wide range of anesthesia options. If it is performed under local with oral sedation, this can save the patient the Anesthesia and Operating Room fees and be performed in the office, not unlike a mini-facelift.
The most expensive surgeon that I have heard of is in Boston, and his necklift only procedure is $10K (Surgeon's fee only.) It is his signature procedure, so that's why his fees are higher than the average.
For a mini-necklift, this is also called a submentoplasty and is slightly different from liposuction under the chin. A submentoplasty involves only an incision under the chin similar to the liposuction, but is about 1/2" to 3/4" in order to see the muscle bands and sew them together in a corset platysmaplasty. This will give the neck a nice profile and angle.
This procedure is limited more for patients who are younger and have better elasticity of the skin, since not skin is removed. The patient will depend on the skin to shrink as it does with liposuction to take the new shape of the neck. My age cut off for a mini-necklift is in general 45 years old, although I have had one Asian patient who was turning 64 with great skin elasticity and she did fine without the incisions around the ears.
For mini-necklift depending on the surgeon and if they surgeon may want to use more anesthesia, the price may range in the $2500-$4000 range, depending on the complexity of the neck.
There are exceptions for people who want a necklift only without a lower facelift. Many surgeons are not willing to perform a necklift only and will only offer it along with a full lower facelift. There is some reasoning behind this. Most people who have neck sagging also have some excess skin on their lower face.
I have a test to determine whether or not the patient can have a necklift as an isolated procedure. You can try this at home.
If you lay down on your back, does the skin on your lower face fold over the wrinkle in front of your ears. If so then an isolated necklift will create a pleat in front of your ear. The only way to avoid that is to include a lower facelift (which can be a mini facelift) to make sure this excess skin can be trimmed and tailored around your ear without forming that pleat. The next time I have a patient who shows this "folding over" in front of the ear, I will try to remember to take a photo of it.
Good luck.
Best,
Dr. Yang
