Thank you for your question.
You submitted a photo of your neck and you state that you’re 36-years-old and you have
an area of what appears to be loose skin and you’re asking if PRP will be helpful to
treat this area.
Well, I can certainly share with you the way I counsel patients who come in with very similar
situations as yours.
A little bit of background, I’m a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon and Fellowship-trained oculofacial
plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
I have been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years.
And helping people with their neck in terms of rejuvenation through a multitude of options
is something that we do in our practice every day.
And especially significant is our use of PRP in our practice.
So, I’ll help you understand what PRP can do and cannot do.
So to begin with, the choice of any type of intervention is based on a proper diagnosis.
And also understanding of course the limits of the tools you want to apply.
So we’ll start first by getting a better understanding of what PRP is.
PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma.
Platelet-rich plasma is essentially a concentration from your own blood of the wound healing and
growth factors appropriate to stimulate collagen, to generate blood supply and have a lot of
different things that can do to help tissue essentially improve.
So when we use PRP in our practice, we use it for acne scars, we use it for wrinkles,
we use it for skin discolorations, under eye dark circles, we use in conjunction with Acellular
matrix for hair loss.
Now a lot of times, people feel or interpret PRP as being able to fill as well as to lift.
And in either situation, it’s really about a perception.
Let’s start with the filling part.
When you are trying to improve an area’s appearance of volume, PRP can stimulate the
fat under the skin to blossom and increase in volume and that can look like a filler
but it’s not going to be the same as an injectable filler.
As far as lifting is concerned, in an area, let’s say over the cheekbone or in an area
where there is a layer of fat that can help be a cushion and may create some volume subtlety,
then it can lift.
Now in your situation, the diagnosis is probably not appropriate to use PRP as a standalone.
PRP can help the neck skin texture, it can help the neck skin quality.
But without a benefit of a physical examination, what it appears is you have a platysmal band
which is a muscle called the platysma and that band represents an attachment to the
skin.
And a lot of times, we can interpret this as a splitting of the muscle.
Sometimes it’s really just about a localized or an area of atrophy which makes the muscle
more prominent.
And you are essentially dealing with a muscle that there are a variety of options which
can be used to address that muscle, everything from minimally invasive such the use of Botox®
to relax the muscle as well as moderately invasive or something like a suture suspension
procedure and more aggressive such as platysmaplasty and neck lifting surgery.
So, I think that is more appropriate based on the diagnosis.
Of course, an evaluation is not limited to the narrow area of the photograph of your
neck but a proper evaluation.
When I see my patients in my practice, I take pictures and I have them lift the different
areas and I show them and review their photos on the screen about what we can possibly do
based on what the issue is and then they decide with what they’re comfortable with.
Sometimes, it’s a stepwise approach.
Sometimes we do a little Botox® first, see how things look.
Then if that isn’t as beneficial, we look at other options.
We look whether or not there’s truly redundant skin or is there volume loss in the face.
And in that case, we can actually do something called structural volumizing to literally
expand the volume in the face, to help lift the neck but that’s a different strategy
and it depends on your facial anatomy which we can’t appreciate with the photo you submitted.
So I think that you will find that you will get a lot of opinions about what’s best
for your neck.
And I think it’s important that you get comfortable with the doctor that can guide
you in a way that hopefully you’ll feel comfort with.
There are a lot of options and there are a lot of technologies that are being promoted.
And there’s certainly no shortage of people that are ready to offer their best solution.
And I think certainly that majority of the time it’s well-meaning but a lot of times,
it might miss the mark unless there’s good communication between you and the doctor.
So meet with qualified, experienced cosmetic surgeons.
I think that would be the ideal specialist, a cosmetic surgeon, someone who is able to
do everything from minimally invasive to more advanced cosmetic surgery to give you an overview
based on experience as to what would be best for a 36-year-old woman who has this issue.
So I hope that was helpful, I wish you the best of luck and thank you for your question.