I'm considering submentoplasty or neck lift and wondering which one would be better for me. Some surgeon suggests neck lift, some submentoplasty. I'm 48 years old, normal weight, healthy woman. I have some extra fat under my chin and some sagging skin. I add the photo, where I'm swallowing, because then my neck look worse.
A neck lift will not address the excess skin that is present in the submental area of the neck. A submentoplasty is simply just tying the muscles together. A comprehensive lower face/neck lift addresses all of the above including the jowling that is present. According to the photo, there is fat present in the neck, along with early platysmal banding, so a neck lift would be better than a submentoplasty.
There are many names for procdures to improve your neck. The key is to find a surgeon whose necks you love in many many photos of their patients and let them do the procedure that gives those results regardless of what name you call it. Check the necks on my web site for examples.
They both can mean the same thing, so you should talk to your doctor and ask him to tell you specifically what he means when he used each of those terms. A submentoplasty doesn't have a definite meaning specifically assigned to it. Since it is part of the neck, I consider it a neck lift or a type of neck lift (or submentoplasty / necklift / platysmaplasty).
Sometimes, surgeons differentiate a submentoplasty as a procedure which is limited to an incision under the chin. This could be applied to someone that doesn't have a lot of laxity and someone who has minimal improvement to achieve (or turkey gobbler / neck laxity / neck banding / platysma bands / double chin / turkey waddle / fat neck). Under this condition, you could limit most of your procedure to the incision just under the chin. This does make things more difficult for the surgeon, however.
Many times, to make the skin adhere tightly to the new structure created under the chin, you really need to dissect the neck planes and tissue all the back to the hairline and down further. This is always needed but the more significant the laxity the more you need to dissect posteriorly to allow the skin to redrape. When you need to dissect more posteriorly, an incision behind the ear becomes more and more necessary. When you start making incisions behind the ear, it is wise to consider tightening up the neck muscles in this part of the procedure and this is the portion that most people start calling it a neck lift.
Personally, I like employing both approaches to ensure that the neck is a contoured as possible.
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