Mini Facelift or Fillers for Chin and Jowl? (photo)

  I agree that despite your providing adequate photographs, nothing takes the place of a face to face interview and examination.  Particularly, I would like to listen to your goals and your expectations for this treatment.  Either approach is fine, but I think you'd be happier with a mini facelift than with the fillers and "liquid facelift" that others have suggested.  Take a look at what wonderful results an S Lift can offer.  Good luck.

FaceTite can internally tighten the skin in the lower face and neck. After all the skin has been heated and contracted, we shape the neck with liposuction to give definition and remove stubborn pockets of fat. In one quick treatment, we can tighten skin, remove fat, and contour the lower face, jawline, and jowls with only a weekend of downtime.​ Keep in mind that combination approaches will give you a more significant improvement as opposed to a single procedure. I recommend getting a consultation with a board-certified cosmetic dermatologist and facial sculpting expert. Best, Dr. Emer

A great little mini facelift under tumescent local would tighten up the jawline and jowls so easy and affordable for roughly $6000 with about 1 wk downtime. Sincerely,

David Hansen,MD

You have early aging changes in your chin and neckline.  If a patient can get a great result using non-invasive techniques, I recommend them.  In plastic surgery, you can either correct the underling problem or hide them.  In your situation, fillers in front of your jowl, will hide the jowl and create a long, interrupted, and feminine jawline.  I prefer to use Prelane in this area.  Please see the pictures attached below, as this patient had a similar neckline as you.  

The posted pictures show very mild jowling without evidence of significant aging changes in the neck.  In circumstances such as these, I would be more inclined to offer fillers as a method adding volume the pre-jowl area (Radiesse is my preferred filler in this area).  If and when you are ready for a facelift, a chin implant with pre-jowl extension will augment your result.

You certainly are lucky with excellent anatomy but agree that a "little freshening up" will really help your inherently good anatomy shine through.

1. A Mini Lift will help define your jaw line by lifting up your jowls. While they are subtle, given your sharp features this will have a nice result. Your jaw does have some squaring away at the sides on front view and a nice clean / angular jawline will match nicely with your cheek bones.

2. Fat injections done in a conservative way will help your cheeks look fuller and your face more "heart shaped".

3. Fat can also be injected into your chin to help get more definition there as well.

4. Leave your neck alone!

You have many great options with facial anatomy as nice as yours!

Take care,

Dr. J

You are really the kind of person that these options were designed for.  You are a young lady with very early signs of facial aging affecting primarily her lower cheeks and jawline at the jowls.  A lot of the decision as to what to do rests with you.  While a mini-facelift is indicated and can certainly tighten up your jawline tissues, bear in mind that it is a surgical procedure with the risks and expense associated with that.  Those are lower than with full facelift to be sure, as you can usually do a mini facelift under local anesthesia if desired, and the extent of the procedure is not as great, but they are still very real.  The results will be good, but they will probably begin to reverse around 5 years later, and you may want more done.  Everyone has a certain number of lifting procedures "in her" before she starts to look distorted and "done."  Therefore, the earlier you start, the earlier you hit that threshold.  One of the long overlooked issues with facial aging has been volume loss, and not just looseness.  While facelifts address looseness, they do very little if anything to address volume loss.  For that you typically must add back volume strategically with either fillers or fat transfer.  Either would be appropriate for you.  I would encourage you to strongly consider a plan using Radiesse along your jaw line to address the lateral chin and perhaps create more chin projection if you wish, and Sculptra in the mid-cheek to add some volume there as well.  This will also create some lift on the jowl.  Lastly, consider some Radiesse in the upper cheek/malar region to create some lift of your cheekbones and youthful balance to your face.  Perhaps some Perlane in the tear troughs would complete the volume restoration around your orbit.  This plan will give you a very nice, natural improvement and save the surgery for a later time when the changes will be more significant and the results of the surgery more satisfying.  The good thing is that we have these options today whereas we didn't 10 years ago.

It used to be that a facelift was the only option for the appearance of a jowl. But that's no longer the case. What I see in your photos is a face that is very long and very thin. At the age of 40 there is a loss of supportive soft tissue in the deeper areas of the face, and less robust and healthy collagen in the skin. This creates a depleted look, and skin that lacks sufficient tone. Returning volume and tone to the skin and underlying supportive soft tissue will create a softer and toned appearance and can actually create a lift of the jowl without surgery. Sculptra is the best way to nonsurgically create that youthful look. With surgery the jowl may be tightened, but the effect may not necessarily mimic a youthful appearance.

You could choose either option, but I believe you would get superior results and a better overall aesthetic appearance if you chose the mini-lift. It is true that fillers are easier and quicker in many ways, but my concern is that you would have to use so many syringes to address your cheeks and jawline area that you may easily wind up spending almost as much money as you would for a surgery.  The mini-lift would help reposition your cheeks to a higher, natural position and would address the jowls that you mentioned. The overall effect would be a sharper more defined jawline and a more rounded youthful face. A small chin implant would enhance this procedure and give you more projection and balance in the chin area, but this is not an absolute necessity.  This is something best discussed with your surgeon in person.

Fillers would hide or disguise your jowls but would also add more weight or volume to the lower part of your face.  You could lift your cheek with more volume (fillers) but unless you use fat transfer or possibly Sculptra, you will be replacing these fillers again in 6-8 months.

Your question is very common. The first thing I like patients to realize is that very often these treatments are not mutually exclusive but complimentary . Having said that you don't appear to have a lot of excess laxity and you have a good jawline so I think you likely would have a great result with Sculptra and Restylane/Juvederm. This treatment would likely let you put off surgery for now.