I have skin sagging around corners of my mouth & chin that makes me look old.
What procedure is best to remove this?
I have skin sagging around the corners of my mouth and it makes me look old.
What would be my best procedure to remove the sagging around my chin?
Thank you for your question!
You submitted a single photo which is a little bit blurry but nevertheless is a representative
of your situation and you’ve asked you have sagging skin around the corners of your mouth
and that your chin and what is the best procedure for you to treat this.
Well, understanding that in your situation, this represents an aspects of facial aging
which is basically the descent or weakening of the support structure of both the skin
and the underlying tissue called the SMAS.
SMAS stands for the superficial musculoaponeurtoic system.
When people come to our practice with this concern, they always do something which we
call the mirror lift where they physically, vertically lift everything upward and say
“Look Doc, doesn’t this look good?” and I agree, this does look good.
This is an opportunity for you to learn about what is typical in our practice and how we
decide what type of procedure to do.
So when you are doing your research, you will see terms such as facelift, face and neck
lift, necklift and then you’ll also come across all kinds of proprietary names that
have been given to various quick recovery procedures or procedures that claim to be
remarkable discoveries that are done by a particular company.
So, it can certainly be confusing.
In 20 years of practicing of cosmetic surgery specializing in facial aging effects on the
eyes and face, I can tell you that a lot of fads have come and gone and definitively,
the best thing to do is to do the surgery that gives you the best result that will be
long term and is done properly.
So, the pendulum swung back and forth a lot over the past of 10 to 15 years, and there
was a point where people were very excited about short scar limited incision facelifts
and unfortunately for people who have more volume shifting in their face, they can get
an improvement but they don’t necessarily get everything that they want.
So consultation is very important and the idea is to make sure that you have very good
communication with the surgeon you choose.
A lot of times people are afraid of having a procedure like a facelift or face and neck
lift because maybe they’ve seen pictures in magazines, read horror stories on the web
or they know someone who had a procedure and that person went through a very rocky healing
process.
Just to give you an idea of how we approach this, in our practice, we developed over the
20 years a quick recovery concept but not doing shortcut procedures.
So what I did is I decided to do the procedures that were typically done under general anesthesia
but perform them under local anesthesia with minimal sedation.
And by developing this technique, we were able to basically get the full benefit of
a more proper procedure and still reduce the risk as well as the recovery related to anesthesia
and prolong surgery.
At this point, it probably best for you to start meeting with surgeons and learn about
each individual surgeon’s particular style of how they do their procedure.
When I first moved to the Upper East Side in New York City, I was very shocked to see
how many people looked very pulled and over tightened.
And overtime, I learned that essentially the aesthetic style of both the patient and the
surgeon that this particular look was considered desirable.
I always feel that every patient’s face has a unique character and it is my role as
their surgeon to maintain that character and to restore the key elements of their appearance
that make them look more youthful such as elevating the cheek, improving the jawline,
improving the neck.
So I actually wrote a book a few years ago called “The Fine Art of Looking Younger”
and I think that helps understand that there are different surgeons with different styles.
My particular style is more of a natural look, other people are more of an exaggerated look
and it is a matter of person’s individual taste and comfort level.
I can’t stress enough the importance of communication.
When you meet with doctors, make sure you are given the appropriate amount of time so
you feel comfortable and understand what you are committing to.
So with that being said, I wish you the best of luck, I hope that was helpful and thank
you for your question.