Would a neck lift sharpen my jaw line and minimize the appearance of jowls? (photos)

At 43 years old you have several options available to you but I believe the surgical route would be the best. You are 100% correct that fillers will only add bulk to your face. A skin treatment laser like a CO2 or erbium laser wont treat the heaviness in the lower face. Other treatments like radiofrequency or ulthera will make a future lift more difficult. I think you are a perfect candidate for a lift. In my hands it would be a preservation dee plane minilift. It can give optimal results for the lower face and neck with minimal downtime. I would see a qualified Facial plastic Surgeon for a surgical consultation. Hope that helps.Best,Matthew Tamplen MD

Thank you for your question and sharing your photographs. The photographs show a degree of laxity in the lower part of the cheeks, above the level of the jawline, as well as the volume under the chin that you are referring to. A deep plane neck lift intervention would control the contours under the jawline and improve the contour along the jawline.
The fullness that you see lateral to the corners of the mouth and below them may improve to some degree, but it is normally corrected by facelift surgery. It is possible to get a sense of the characteristics of the improvement achievable by neck lift surgery using 3D imaging and computer simulation, and this will help guide your decision.

This is a very common question that I discuss everyday! The aging process occurs really occurs in multiple areas of the face simultaneously. The midface or cheeks descend and the jowls develop while noticeable skin laxity and fullness occur in the neck. The best treatment for this is to reposition the tissues vertically where they once were and that is done with a deep plane facelift and necklift. To get to your question, a necklift alone would be able to address the laxity in the neck and some fullness, but it would not be able to address the jowls and the fullness in the lower 1/3 of your face that creates that "bottom heavy" appearance. As far as when to do this, that is totally up to you depending on how much these areas are bothering you. You are a candidate for these procedures right now, but this is a very personal decision and I would never want a patient to rush this decision. You are spot on about the filler and I recommend against filler and most energy based non-surgical treatments once a patient is considering a face/necklift in the future. You actually would be able to get a laser procedure such as a fractional CO2 laser and that would not complicate future surgery since it does not penetrate deeper layers of the face. You could even do that at the same time as a face/necklift and this would not extend your recovery. This combination is very common in my practice. A laser treats pigmentation and fine lines and wrinkles, but it does not lift so it would not address the jowls, neck laxity, or heaviness in the lower portion of your face. The treatments that I would avoid that can complicate future lifts are non-surgical skin tightening treatments that target deeper layers like ultherapy. I hope this helps and I wish you luck in your decision!