Chin lipo or neck lift, what’s the difference? Many times I have patients who are interested in trying to improve the appearance of the submental or chin area, as it’s referred to. Many times, patients want to know the difference between doing a liposuction or neck lift, and is there a difference? And the short answer is yes, there is actually a big difference.
What is Chin Liposuction?
Liposuction is typically, I’d say the first entry procedure for patients trying to improve this area. Again, they either refer to the chin or technically what we call the submental area. And with liposuction, you’re basically going to be removing some of the fat or adipose below the skin, but in front of the muscle. And the reason why you’re trying to improve the contour that you particularly see on a side profile is that this procedure is really ideal for people who are probably, I’d say, you know, 40 years and younger.
As you start to get older or you start to develop significant laxity in the muscle in the neck called the platysma, that’s where you have to go up another level and think about doing what’s called a neck lift.
What is a Neck Lift and How Does It Differ?
With a neck lift, as with liposuction, you do make an incision underneath the chin in order to do the procedure. However, the incision is just a little bit bigger than with the liposuction opening.
With a neck lift, you’re going to do liposuction at the same time, but then you’re going to identify that platysma muscle below the skin. You’re going to tighten it up with sutures, and then you’ll redrape the skin with a garment.
At the end of the day, both procedures are looking to improve the submental area. Just one is a bit more involved compared to the other. Liposuction normally takes about, you know, 30 to 40 minutes, whereas a neck lift is going to take you longer, probably about an hour and a half. And it makes sense because, again, it’s a little bit more involved when you’re doing the other procedure.
Make sure you read towards the end of the article, because that’s where I’ll kind of shed some light on which procedure is best for you. And a lot of it depends upon your age.
Recovery Time: Lipo vs. Neck Lift
So, this brings me to recovery between liposuction and neck lift. And just like the procedures are different, the recovery is certainly a little bit different. With liposuction, I normally wrap you up with a garment that I like for you to keep on for about 24 hours. And then the next day, you normally take that wrap down. The incision has one to two sutures present. And normally, most patients can get back to their normal routine and certainly getting back to exercising within 2 days.
With a neck lift, I’m normally going to have you wear a compression garment that velcros on the top of the head and behind the neck. And the reason for that is because the surgery is a little bit more involved. I like to have the skin kind of compressed against the new muscle line while you’re recovering. I do like you to wear that anywhere from 5 to 7 days. And then at your follow-up visit, I will take that dressing off. I remove the longer suture that’s present in the chin. And then I have you wear that garment when you sleep at night for another week. In regards to getting back to the gym and getting back to your normal routine, most patients can get back to doing that within 10 to 14 days. However, I will make adjustments to that depending upon how you’re healing.
How Age & Skin Elasticity Affect Your Options
Regarding age and choosing between liposuction and a neck lift, for the most part, liposuction is ideal for that individual who has really good elastic skin, there’s not a lot of wrinkling present, and their only real issues are just fullness here.
Many times I have patients who, you know, in their minds they think, “Well, I just need liposuction,” but in actuality, you need to get evaluated by whomever is thinking about doing the procedure for you.
Back to the age part, people who are younger have more elastic skin; it just is what it is. And what ends up happening is I’d have patients who have, you know, let’s say lost weight, but they cannot seem to get this corrected. It’s in those younger patients who just have that persistent fullness that the liposuction works great. Now, the other cohort are, again, I like to put a line of, let’s say, 40 years of age. It’s as you start to get older, all right, you’re going to still have that persistent fullness there, but then you start to get laxity not only in the skin, but in the muscle. Because what ends up happening is the skin follows the muscle for the most part. And when you have to start addressing the muscle laxity, that’s where the neck lift comes into play. Because at the same time of doing the liposuction, you then elevate the skin, separate it, detach it from the muscle, and address that muscle laxity with either a process called imbrication or plication.
The biggest factor that’s going to determine whether or not you’re a candidate for just liposuction or having to go to the next level of doing a neck lift is really going to be the skin laxity, or skin elasticity to be more correct. And obviously, a lot of that is dependent upon the age of the skin. And that’s why I kind of like to use 40 years of age as a cutoff to say that you really should think about a neck lift after you get to that point.
Now, just don’t hold me hard and fast to that rule because there are, you know, variations of the norm, as with any day in life. But for the most part, the skin and your age is going to determine candidacy for both procedures.
The Overlooked Game-Changer: Chin Augmentation
So, I’m going to throw a little curveball out there. And one procedure that I think patients often do not think about, but really does a nice job of augmenting either liposuction or a neck lift, is chin augmentation.
And if you think about it, patients are coming to me for chin lipo, but oftentimes they don’t think about their chin. And what I mean is how strong your chin is. And the way we determine that is largely looking at your profile.
There are rules and guidelines to do that. As a simple rule of thumb, if you drop a line from your upper lip and lower lip straight down and you look at your profile, if your chin is not touching that line, then many times patients can be a good candidate for a chin augmentation.
And the reason why I mention this is, bringing that chin out ever so slightly really enhances the result you can get with either procedure. So, it’s something to think about when you’re thinking about addressing the neck area here with liposuction or a neck lift.
