My anterior platysma muscle is separating. My doctor recommends repairing the muscle with no lift. What are the risks?

There are many risks that you should know about before committing to platysmaplasty surgery. They include bleeding, infection, numbness and other nerve damage, scaring etc. At the end, it will be all about the esthetic outcome which you will judge not much earlier than 6 months after the procedure. 

Thank you for your question about #necklift.



Pictures would be useful if you could.



I consider neck procedures in 3 levels: liposuction alone,
liposuction and anterior muscle repair (anterior platysmaplasty) and
liposuction, muscle repair and a neck-muscle lift with posterior ear incisions.

So if jowling is not significant for now, level 1 and 2 might be options for you with a small incision.  Level 3 will improve 50% the jowls.

Best way to improve the jowlings is to lengthen the neck
lift incision and convert it into a neck + facelift.



An in-person assessment would be helpful with a
board-certified plastic surgeon.



All the best,



#DrMarcDuPere, #Toronto #plasticsurgeon

The vertical bands that you’re seeing are loose
platysma band and skin. They become apparent with aging. Since you also have laxity of your jowls, what you need is a well-performed face and neck lift
by a facial plastic surgeon. This will improve your neck tissue laxity as well as
jowls.  Face and neck lift can be performed using local anesthesia and twilight sedation without the need for general anesthesia.

This is a common question and the recommendations are very specific to the individual patient and anatomy. Without photographs or more information specific recommendations only general comments are possible. If you have a fair bit of fatty tissue in the neck simple removing that with liposculpture or liposuction will frequently create a better neck profile.  Suturing the muscle as recommended will improve the banding also. If you have jowls as well they won't be worse from this procedure but perhaps by comparison be more obvious. Just from your description we would probably recommend a neck lift as shown in the reference below. The recommendations you have been given may be reasonable.

can be done purely for your bands as your surgeon suggests.  That method will not impact your jowls at all.  If you are concerned about your jowls, a facelift of some sort will have to be done.  As for cause, purely genetics.

I would be very careful about that approach.  I'm a revision specialist and depending on skin laxity that is a very common reason for me to do perform neck revisions on patients.  In most patients doing that just causes irregularities and scarring.  There are very few patients in the world who would benefit from that approach.  You might be one of them but the chances are low 

 It sounds like your doctor has recommended a neck lift procedure. The goal of a neck lift is to remove the fatty deposits above and below the platysma muscle, in addition to a platysma plasty.  In our practice, a neck lift  does not remove any skin. A platysma plasty involves  placing a few sutures in the muscle to create a more defined jawline. When jowls are present, a lower face and neck lift is required with skin removal.  Creating a natural appearing neck with a neck lift procedure is rather difficult, so make sure your surgeon has plenty of experience with the procedure

Dear Momma26, If you have jowls present and laxity in other areas of the face besides just the neck and patysma issues then you may need to have a full facelift neck lift for a more natural look. A consultation with examination will be needed to best direct a surgical plan. Best regards, Michael V. Elam, M. D.