Am I a Better Candidate for Chin Liposuction or Thermage?

I suggest beginning with an in-person consultation to discuss your options. During your initial examination, your #chin will be evaluated along with the neck and jawline. A weak #chin implies a lack of chin support for the skin along the neck line. In younger individuals a chin implant alone is usually all that is needed to improve the appearance of the neck. Subsequently, it will also improve the overall #balance of the face and can create the illusion of a smaller nose. As a stand-alone procedure, chin augmentation can be performed in the office under local #anesthesia. For individuals with signs of #aging in the neck, a chin implant added to one of the recommended procedures above, will provide optimal results. Also, #liposuction under the chin is also another option your doctor can discuss. If you are not a candidate for chin or neck rejuvenation at the time of your #consultation, your board certified plastic surgeon can recommend alternatives to address your concern. 
However, there may be additional options to improve the appearance of your concern to improve the overall balance of your face. Such can be best evaluated in-person. Consulting with a board-certified plastic surgeon who specializes in #face, #neck and #chin procedures is important to ensure you are receiving the best advice, care, and surgical experience possible.

It’s not usual for patients to have concerns about
the aesthetic appearance of their chin, jawline, and neck. These concerns are
usually related to skin laxity, neck fat, muscle abnormalities, and differences
of the underlying bones. The type of procedure performed to correct these
problems is entirely dependent upon the anatomic cause of the condition.

Your pictures suggest localized fat of the neck in
the presence of relatively tight neck skin. Under these circumstances, thermage
would minimally impact this problem. Liposuction of the neck would be the
treatment of choice in this situation. The procedure results in dramatic improvement
in the contour of the neck and jawline and is associated with high satisfaction
rates.

If you’re concerned about your neck contour,
consultation with a board-certified plastic surgeon is appropriate. This
surgeon should be able to formulate an appropriate treatment plan that will
address your concerns. 

I would rule out Thermage as you have noted, the results are not consistent.  Have an evaluation by a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon for other options available to you.

Thermage tightens the skin over a few months.  Liposuction removes fat and encourages adhesions that make the skin look tighter.  If you can afford it, get both.  Have thermage followed immediately or in a delayed fashion by submental liposuction.  The results can be life changing.

If you have excess fatty deposits in the submental area (chin) which does not respond to weight loss then you may be a great candidate for liposuction. Since you are young your skin will contract rather nicely in this area.  Thermage uses high frequency radio waves to tighten skin/collagen, it will not remove excess fat.

A board certified plastic surgeon can examine you and determine if you are a good candidate.

Best wishes,

Dr.Bruno

After careful examination of your photo, I feel that conservative liposuction in the submentum (area under chin) will help to greatly improve your profile.  Submental fat is many times a difficult area to improve even with successful weight loss.  From your profile picture, it appears that you have some submental fat producing a fullness in the neck.  By removing this fat conservatively, you should be able to achieve a much sharper neck angle. A key factor plays a role in the success of the procedure.  Skin elasticity is a major factor responsible for good results with liposuction.  At your age, your skin elasticity should be satisfactory that you will get good skin contraction after fat removal. Thermage is not a good option.  It requires many treatments, at high costs, with little improvement.  Good luck.....Dr. Corrado

Thermage would do nothing for you.  Don't do it.  Despite the fact that you are not a heavy person, conservative liposuction with a small cannula and tumescence should make a nice improvement.  Liposuction would help give more definition to your jawline and help refine the angle underneath your chin (cervico-mental angle).  Remember there are certain limitations, and in your case, the height of your voice box (hyoid bone) will limit the amount of refinement you can achieve at the cervico-mental angle.  Finally, you seem to have some mild weakness to your chin.  Have you considered a chin implant?  I would recommend you find someone who does photo-imaging.  This will help you and the surgeon look at the photos together and decide on a plan that will get you where you want to be.

It appears that you are young, not overweight, have good skin tone and have a small contour problem that bothers you. Thermage and other external skin tightening devices would likely achieve little or disappointing improvements to area under your chin.  The best treatment will depend on a thorough consultation, a diagnosis and a discussion of the benefits and risks associated with treatments. Board Certified Plastic Surgeon's who offer all of the options that may be considered are in the best position to recommend the solution that will fit with your expectations, budget, downtime tolerance, etc.

A double-chin can be the result of a variety of anatomical factors such as the jaw position and shape, muscular anatomy, fat distribution and skin issues. Correcting each component requires different strategies.  From the small amount of information and photos provided, I likely would be recommended having no intervention vs. having SmartLipo of the area under your chin. Although I feel that SmartLipo is best, similar positive changes are possible with other micro-cannula liposuction techniques. More complicated surgery to address minor issues with your jaw and muscle are likely not worth the additional risk. As I mentioned above, no treatment is a real option when the cosmetic flaw is small.

Dr. Mosher

From your photograph, you have very youthful features, and require absolute finesse in any surgical procedure to avoid dimples, irregularities, or ridges that would be devastating to your appearance.

Thermage, in my humble opinion, works so minimally that you will spend whatever you spend and then be dissatisfied. Even if it were "Free", I suspect that you would be underwhelmed with the result, and still feel "double-chinned!" Then you would be looking for a solution that yields more visible results.

Liposuction or Smart-Lipo can indeed yield nice results in this area, but I would still be concerned about possible tissue or scar irregularities that result from these choices. Rather, I would recommend a slightly longer incision (that yields a slightly longer but still nearly-imperceptible scar) beneath the chin to perform direct excision of the excess fatty tissue (under direct vision, with accurate control of any bleeding points, which aids in smoothness of healing and overall best fat removal and best result), including perhaps fatty tissue beneath the platysma muscle as required. This same incision could also be utilized to place a small anatomic chin implant to provide improved jawline contour, better tightening of the skin in this region after fat removal, and improved harmony between the forehead, mid face, and lower face/chin areas.

This procedure, in my opinion, would yield the best overall result possible, and leave you glad you went ahead, whereas I believe other options would "fall short" and leave your wallet lighter and you frustrated. Best wishes!

The key to liposuction is the quality of the skin and not the amount of fat removed.  If the skin of the neck is tight it will recoil and redrape after liposuction. If the skin is lax then you will just get saggy skin.  You would seem to be a good candidate for liposuction of the neck and submental area.