Help! What happened? Why does my neck bulge out months after my neck lift? (Photo)

You need to address the deeper structures under your platysma that are bulging out. This is a deep plane neck lift

For unique cases where a variety of modalities could be used to treat the condition, I would suggest an in person or virtual consultation to develop a custom and effective treatment plan. It is difficult to precisely define the best option without collecting the same information. I suggest reaching out to an expert for a consultation with surgical and non-surgical methods to get a comprehensive option. Best, Dr. Emer.

Thank you for your question, and sharing your photographs.

Based on the history and images presented it seems that the problem is volume under the platysma muscles. Tension in the early stages after surgery is predominantly focused on tightening can produce an improvement. This improvement is lasting when the problem is laxity but does not last when the problem is volume.

As far as I can tell the volume excess under the chin is more likely to be a combination of deep seated fatty tissue, the volume of the digastric muscles and lower part of the submandibular glands. They can be reduced as part of a deep plane neck lift intervention to produce a more defined contour for the neck and jawline.

In your neck lift, we’ll assume you had liposuction done. If this is scar tissue, you should wait 6 months for it to settle. If it still persists, many neck lifts do not address subplatysmal contents so it could be a number of things such as scar tissue from kybella, fat, gastric muscle, even salivary gland. People don’t realize that kybella creates scar tissue which makes subsequent surgery more difficult.

Hello! I see what you're referring to. It's hard to say if it's still swelling or residual fat or skin left. A good option would be steroid injection to the area with compression / massaging. If that doesn't work, Morpheus8 RF microneedling would be another choice. This can help to tone the skin in the area with little downtime. I would revisit with your surgeon to figure out what may be best before considering anything like a revision. Hope this is useful to you!