Feeling Bad about Your Neck and Lower Face?
In 2006 the screenwriter Nora Ephron (You’ve Got Mail etc.) wrote a book, I Feel Bad About My Neck. It became an immediate bestseller.
If you want to find out how old someone is, she wrote, just look at their neck.
Ephron was certainly not alone in ‘feeling bad’ about her neck.
People become increasingly ‘neck aware’ as they age, for all too obvious reasons. For most, neck ageing is part of a wider problem involving the lower third of their face, which includes unattractive downward creases from the nose and mouth, softness and bulges over the jawline (the dreaded jowls) and then, of course, the neck itself.
We all know the look – there is no need to describe it again – so let’s look instead at what can be done to improve the situation.
What can be done?
There’s a lingering misconception that aesthetic facial surgery can improve a face, but it can’t do much about the neck.
This is entirely untrue – it just took longer for surgical techniques to be developed that could provide a good result there. A lot of anatomical research was needed to ensure a natural, pleasing result and not simply a poor quality stretch.
This research was undertaken (over many years) by Melbourne plastic surgeon Bryan Mendelson and published internationally in the scientific journal Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, in March 2008. It became the most downloaded article from that journal that year, which gives some idea of the importance it was accorded.
The research led to the development of an advanced surgical technique known as the Premasseter Space Technique. It provides a natural, subtle but very beneficial improvement to four areas of the lower face:
- The lower nasolabial fold (the groove running from outer nostril to outer mouth
- Marionette lines (running downward from the edges of the mouth)
- Jowls (softness and laxity over the jawline),
- The neck itself, which can be improved by about seventy per cent.
The effect of firming up the lower face is wonderfully refreshing to the face overall, providing lower face definition which in turn restores a more vigorous and healthy appearance.
The Premasseter Space Technique attends to the problem now and into the future, as it slows the rate of future ageing. However, as it requires excellent surgical and anatomical skills, it is only performed by some surgeons.
What if my neck isn’t age related?
Some people are born with a neck that doesn’t complement their face; it can be overly full or lack clear delineation from the chin and jaw. This adds heaviness to an otherwise attractive face, and is inherently out of proportion. The solution is a neck lift that doesn’t extend upwards into the lower face, but still uses the same anatomical research and advanced surgical technique to provide a natural result.
There really is no need to ‘feel bad about your neck’ any more. But, as in all aesthetic surgery, the quality of the technique will determine the quality of the result.
Watch our Neck and Lower Lift video on our website.
Or come and visit us at our Melbourne Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Centre to find out more about the technique and see more of our before and after photographs.
